Connect The Dogs

The Bronze Standard is something I’ve been noodling on for a few years now, and will likely continue to noodle on for countless more. It’s not a protocol or a framework or something I’m trying to sell; it’s just how I’ve come to describe the way I strive to show up in The Dog World as a guardian and a professional. And being a lifelong anxious perfectionist, I’ve accepted that the striving might be eternal ✨

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It’s not a secret that there’s no One Way to become a dog behavior professional. Most of us end up here by cobbling together some combination of formal programming or certification, experiential hands-on learning, self-guided continuing education, and (if we’re fortunate enough) apprenticeship under a skilled mentor.

And all of that is great!

But there are key “soft skills” that are just as (or even more!) important than the behavior modification and training strategies that are often the focus of these traditional paths, and finding a way to acquire and hone them can be especially unclear in an unregulated field.

For me, the place that did more for my professional development than any other single source of learning was the MSPCA. When I started working at the shelter, I was coming from the world of private dog training where I’d worked exclusively with pet dogs in loving homes and guardians who had access to resources.

Then I spent three years working full time in the shelter—doing direct animal care, evaluating and managing behavior, cleaning kennels, counseling adopters, taking in surrenders, administering meds and vaccinations, drawing blood, and carrying out humane euthanasia procedures—and I realized how much of the bigger picture I had been missing.

The shelter system is a microcosm of so many of the challenges American society faces as a whole. The impacts of living under late stage white supremacist capitalism show up in animal sheltering nationwide— from breed restrictions in housing, to lack of access to veterinary care, to racist and classist ideas about what appropriate pet care looks like, and on and on and on. With direct exposure to the real impacts of the political climate we and our clients exist in, we’re in a better position to support people and their dogs.

I’m not saying that all of the skill sets I list in this post require shelter work to develop, or that I’m inherently better than other professionals because of my shelter background. What I am positing is that these skills make us all better behavior professionals, and there’s no better place to develop them than the shelter setting.

In animal welfare, there exists the concept of the Five Freedoms. They are:

-Freedom from hunger and thirst
-Freedom from discomfort
-Freedom from pain, injury, and disease
-Freedom to express normal behavior
-Freedom from fear and distress

The argument for the use of e-collars in dog training often centers around the goal of more “freedom”. The assertion is that these tools provide freedom to express normal behavior (exploring off leash) to dogs that would be spending their life on a leash or otherwise managed or confined by their environment.

I take significant issue with this assertion. The “freedom” that tools like e-collars provide is a tricky one. Sure, the dog may be physically “free” to move their bodies however and wherever they want to. But for the e-collar to be effective as designed, they are doing so under threat of fear, pain, or discomfort. If the e-collar is not effective, they are “free” to put themselves and those around them at risk.

Freedom in one area at the expense of another is not a purer form of freedom, it’s a trade-off. My dog is free to explore and move as she wishes within range of her 50 foot leash, and she’s free from the threat of a shock on her neck if she tries to go further. She’s free to blow off my recall cue while following a good sniff, and she’s free from the danger of following that sniff directly into oncoming traffic.

These are the trade-offs I’m willing to make in the name of ✨ freedom ✨

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