6 ms·

I saw a trainer in my neighborhood kick a puppy in the face to get it to pay attention. This alpha crap has got to end. The only resources you need: Don't Sho

I saw a trainer in my neighborhood kick a puppy in the face to get it to pay attention. This alpha crap has got to end. The only resources you need: Don't Shoot The Dog: https://archive.org/details/PSYDontShootTheDogKarenPryor https://archive.org/details/PSYDontShootTheDogKarenPryor The Other End of the Leash: why we do what we do around dogs https://archive.org/details/otherendofleashw0000mcco https://archive.org/details/otherendofleashw0000mcco

huytersd 3y ago
That’s hyperbolic nonsense. There is plenty of “alpha crap” that is extremely effective because that’s how dogs function (no, that paper written by that woman about how wolves don’t have an “alpha” was throughly debunked). You can’t bring up the worst possible instance of some technique and try to sully all attempts in that realm.
- keep_reading 3y ago
  Dogs are not wolves. This is especially evident in behavior like barking which juveniles do, but not adult wolves.
- Cpoll 3y ago
  > wolves don’t have an “alpha” was throughly debunked News to me, and Google isn't helping. Got any keywords I can search?
  - namlem 3y ago
    See the comment above yours
- InSteady 3y ago
  Even the researcher who popularized the idea of the alpha wolf in the 60's, Dr. L. David Mech, changed his tune in the 90s when he actually studied them in the wild: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1343&context=usgsnpwrc https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1... >Conclusions - The above observations show that, at least in summer, social interactions among wolf-pack members are not very different in intensity or quality from those among members of any other group of related individuals. He states on his personal website, >The concept of the alpha wolf is well ingrained in the popular wolf literature, at least partly because of my book “The Wolf: Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species,” written in 1968, published in 1970, republished in paperback in 1981, and currently still in print, despite my numerous pleas to the publisher to stop publishing it. Although most of the book’s info is still accurate, much is outdated. We have learned more about wolves in the last 40 years than in all of previous history.

huytersd 3y ago

That’s hyperbolic nonsense. There is plenty of “alpha crap” that is extremely effective because that’s how dogs function (no, that paper written by that woman about how wolves don’t have an “alpha” was throughly debunked). You can’t bring up the worst possible instance of some technique and try to sully all attempts in that realm.

keep_reading 3y ago
Dogs are not wolves. This is especially evident in behavior like barking which juveniles do, but not adult wolves.
Cpoll 3y ago
> wolves don’t have an “alpha” was throughly debunked News to me, and Google isn't helping. Got any keywords I can search?
- namlem 3y ago
  See the comment above yours
InSteady 3y ago
Even the researcher who popularized the idea of the alpha wolf in the 60's, Dr. L. David Mech, changed his tune in the 90s when he actually studied them in the wild: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1343&context=usgsnpwrc https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1... >Conclusions - The above observations show that, at least in summer, social interactions among wolf-pack members are not very different in intensity or quality from those among members of any other group of related individuals. He states on his personal website, >The concept of the alpha wolf is well ingrained in the popular wolf literature, at least partly because of my book “The Wolf: Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species,” written in 1968, published in 1970, republished in paperback in 1981, and currently still in print, despite my numerous pleas to the publisher to stop publishing it. Although most of the book’s info is still accurate, much is outdated. We have learned more about wolves in the last 40 years than in all of previous history.