Fear rules our lives. It dictates jumping out in front of traffic, running away from bears and crazy people. Fear has been stigmatized as a training method to make your dog want to behave for fear of what you might do if they don't. For a long time positive only people have made a strong and true case that positive training teaches your dog better, which it does. But what we have neglected to pass along to friends or anyone who not along for the revolution and the following battle was that, while we no longer use fear directly, fear still plays its' role in training.
Fear is why we want our dogs to behave in public. But we better not be judged. Your dog better be not wearing a chain or a shock collar or a pinch collar. This fear that we have, being judged.We are driven by fear to have a well behaved animal; that our dog won't kill the neighbors kid. Fear is why we have moved to positive only training. But unfortunately it's why we can't discipline our kids, don't trust our neighbors even though our houses have gotten closer. We fear for ourselves because we can no longer give others fear without being labeled. I fully believe good dog to owner relationships are based on trust, that one will not hurt the other, or hurt will not come to them. But if done right our dogs trust us not to let them feel fear. No creature, us or them, wants to fear.
I learned this the greatest when I started hunting with my terriers. They trusted me, that if they went down that tunnel, like countless times before, they would succeed and scare the game into bolting. I built up their confidence, but I shut down their lash-outs and they trust me. They trust my commands are for their best interest, that I care for their well being. Dogs evolved along us to work with us, they are naturally inclined to trust our directions. But they have an ingrained fear already that if they do not listen they will not survive. This is a good thing, they do not need to be trained fear. This means that they are more inclined to listen and not run into traffic. They want to keep us happy.
Dog do need to fear us. In a way that if they do lash out something might be taken from them, whether it might be your attention, your approval or their ability to roam freely. I read in a brochure for training that someone kenneled dogs not because they were in time out but because they had been 'over-stimulated' and need time alone. I don't care how you approach that but when your dogs acts out and you kennel them (if your dog is kennel trained that's it's their happy quiet place) then that dog knows that when it acts out (biting too much, being too rambunctious) they have had you remove them and put them not with you. Which is a punishment.
When I saw that I almost lost it. We have become so afraid of being judged we no longer want to see a punishment as an actual punishment.
Our dogs trust us naturally but they also naturally fear disobeying us. We should always nurture the trust, we should always be proud of them when they do well. We should not forget that they evolved to fear disobeying us. It was important to their survival then and it's important to their survival now. They know this. We need to remember this.
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