Kids & Dogs

Johnny Jones,  27 February 2002

"The U.S. is going to the dogs." How many times have you heard it said? But if we trained our dogs the way the experts say, going to the dogs might not be so bad.

When we were training our sixmonth old Boston Terrier, who looked like a black and white Yoda, I was struck by the similarity between training children and pets. Barbara Woodhouse, author of No Bad Dogs, said a dog has the intelligence of a fiveyear old child. In How to Be Your Pet's Best Friend, Michael W. Fox says "An animal, like a child, needs consistency in its relationship with its master/parent, and lack of it will only lead to confusion, conflict, and neurotic behavior or worse."

Mr. Fox goes on to add, "As far as rewards are concerned, B. F. Skinner, the American psychologist, has done much research in controlling and predicting animal and human behavior; his studies have indicated that consistently praising or rewarding an animal for performing a task well is not always the best method. What is more effective is occasional reward. A dog or child will work harder if praise or reward is fairly frequent but given at unexpected intervals."

"For both human and animal, fear and anxiety are the most likely causes of impaired performance." Read on from Mr. Fox's wise book, and see whether you can see the application to parents and children.

"A welltrained animal is a better creature to live with, because it is well-mannered and adaptable. It's also far healthier mentally than a pet that simply vegetates and is merely fed and petted. Training is education. An animal enjoys using the obedience skills it has learned. And you will enjoy sharing these experiences with your pet.

"Thus, the basis for trainability is the social bond...This must be followed by a period of what I call `enrichment,' when the puppy should be exposed to as many novel situations and experiences as possible.... Gentle handling, gradual exposure to new experiences."

"Animals who play together, stay together. The same is true for humans, especially children....Animals and people who enjoy playing together soon become attached to each other.

"Parents who take care of their child's needs but who do not play with them may not only limit their child's development, they may also never establish a close bond of affection with them. Love is expressed not only through caring but also through play and with it comes good humor, respect, and mutual appreciation.

"I remember as a child really enjoying a rough and tumble wrestle with my dad, especially when he allowed me to ...be the number one tough guy....A little more play in the world will make it a better place, and we can all start by getting down on our knees and playing. It is a key to our humannness, and to our animalness as well. Let the spark of play ignite a sense of fellow feeling in all people and their animal kin."

"When a cat or dog is owned by a lonely person, is kept indoors most of the time and has contact with very few people or other animals, it may well become conditioned to being treated...like a spoiled child. Indulging an animal's every whim and raising it without consistent discipline can create an overhumanized and overdependent pet. And it is the overdependent pet that is most prone to develop neurotic patterns or behavior.

"Basically, a neurotic reaction is man or animal is a sometimes harmful behavior designed to get another's attention.

"Cats and dogs, like children, are adept at manipulating others so that they can get their own way. A dog may sulk or even have a temper tantrum or seizure when reprimanded by its owner. When a pet (or child) overreacts in such ways, it causes guilt in the parent/owner; appeasement follows and the pet or child wins...A colleague told me that when she mildly reprimanded one of her very dependent dogs, who was playing too roughly with a pup, it became so upset that it actually had an epileptic fit."

Isn't that remarkable? Before getting a dog I remember a person famous for training dogs saying, "If you don't have an hour a day to spend with the dog, don't get one."

I guess that's not bad advice about children, too. It's not just animals that need training. Proverbs tells us, "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it."

Training. Not a bad idea.