I blame Barbara Woodhouse, remember her? "Walkies!"?
I think she was the first one to really gain attention with the line "no bad dogs".
I understand the motivation, she was famous in the era I came from where rolled up newspapers and "rubbing their nose in it" were common training techniques. Probably not the best for the dog.
Anyway, what appears to have happened in the average dog owner's mind, is that No Bad Dogs implies Dogs can do No Wrong.
Dogs can do No Wrong, means that if the dog does something that appears wrong, than it MUST be the humans' fault.
TADA! Dogs suddenly are a vengeful deities who must be placated, appeased and sacrificed to so that nothing bad happens to their human subjects.
Dog bite you? It's your fault, you must have provoked it!
Dog kills your livestock? You should have put up a better fence!
Dog harasses your animals and you shoot it? You HORRIBLE PERSON! It was just PLAYING! HOW DARE you kill my DOG just to save your worthless animals?
Dog barks all day? He's just trying to protect his owners!
Dog kills your kid? Well, just see the comments after any news article of the sort and you'll see all the nauseating excuses.
have i said lately how much i love your blog?
ReplyDeleteThanks.
ReplyDeleteWe had a crazy old neighbor when I was a kid. When we had low flying military aircraft come over the neighborhood, that old man would come out into his yard and shake his cane at the planes and yell his disapproval at the top of his lungs.
I feel a bit like that old guy when I'm writing these pieces.
:)
If the dog barks all day and no one's home, what is it preventing? Peace and quiet?
ReplyDeleteDon't know what it's preventing, maybe me feeling that the owners are decent human beings.
DeleteYou might enjoy my Robobarker piece. I really, really, really hate that dog and it's been dead for over thirty years.
I think this is one of the big problem today with dog owners-they seem to be afraid to discipline their animals. This is part of teaching a dog what behaviors are not acceptable. Discipline isn't the same as abuse.
ReplyDelete