A little while ago I wrote a post about how most dogs I see being walked are on harnesses or normal collars and are happily walking with the freedom to explore on the lead, sniffing and generally looking like they’re having a nice stroll out with their owners.

That’s still what I’m seeing, but today there was a standout exception.

I’d seen one person walking their 2 dogs matching the above description.  Just ahead of them was another person walking their dog on lead, I was still quite a long way away so had no idea what equipment the dog was being walked on.  But the dog looked uneasy.  They were walking perfectly beside their owner but kept giving nervous little glances up towards the owner, as if they were expecting something bad to happen. 

Sure enough, as I got closer, I could see they were being walked on a slip lead, and as I drew level with them the owner jerked the dog on the slip lead; no idea for what reason, the dog looked like it was walking perfectly beside the owner.  Maybe there is an arbitrary rule that the dog can’t step an inch in front of the owner, who knows?  But the dog was very obviously uneasy and anticipating something unpleasant happening, and that concern was justified.

The jerk on the lead wasn’t violent or even that harsh, but it was enough that the dog clearly found not only the experience of having a lead tighten around their neck, but the anticipation of it happening, aversive.  Enough that a breed who is normally the epitome of a “happy dog” looked worried when out for a walk with their owner.

It’s important to understand the difference between opinions, beliefs and facts.

I have the OPINION that using aversive training tools on dogs that deliberately cause discomfort (however mild), up to and including pain and injury is not OK. 

I BELIEVE dogs should be treated with respect and not subjected to unnecessary discomfort or stress. 

It’s a FACT that aversive training tools cause, at a minimum, discomfort (however mild), because that’s how operant conditioning works when using positive punishment or negative reinforcement.

Now people can have different opinions and beliefs to me, they may have the opinion that it’s OK to cause discomfort in training because the end justifies the means.  They may believe dogs need to be tightly controlled in everything they do.

But FACTS - that’s different, you can’t argue with those.  Arguments happen in this case when someone doesn’t UNDERSTAND how learning occurs but because someone doesn’t understand something doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.  I don’t understand how the planets, moons and sun move around each other (despite watching many astronomy programs), but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.  Someone can believe the world is flat all they like but they’d still be wrong.

I’ve seen so many trainers claim that slip leads, and other similar training tools aren’t aversive to the dog.  But if that were the case they wouldn’t work!  Like me saying I use food to train my dogs, but they don’t like food.  Sounds silly when I say it doesn’t’ it?

So please be careful about what you read and see, especially on social media.  Slip leads are aversive to dogs, they must be to work.  And as today’s example shows, it’s not just at the moment the lead tightens around the neck that is the problem, it’s the anticipation of it happening too.