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Just did a session with a dog trainer. She explained that there's a pyramid and you start dog training with a foundation base of commands to come, sit and lie down.
So we can think of dog training as bottom up. But the training itelf is very much top down. Our instructor is very firm-- dogs have four feet on the ground, they are below humans, are not our equals, have to learn who is in charge. This is pure top down master domination. My first thought is that this is the way things should be-- my house, my rules.
Or maybe not. How does it work in nature? This same trainer suggests that dogs originally trained humans. The humans started hunting the same prey the dogs sought, so the dogs waited around the campfire and the humans started throwing the dogs bones. Were the humans trained to do the work? Who was really in charge?
Do we really want a pet that is totally dominated and beaten down? The trainer, Bernadette, said she likes feisty pups much better. They have more personality and vivacity.
Practically speaking, there is, generally, a top down relationship between a dog owner and a dog-- to some extent. But it doesn't have to be overdone. You can give the dog room to have a feisty, lively personality.
That got me thinking. Do top down "masters" use some basic rules, basic command training to keep people down? Do they teach people to, metaphorically, come, sit and lay down? If so, what would that look like?
We can start with school. Come to school. Sit down. In kindergarten, I have had to lay down, to take a nap. No sitting up then. The rules and commands continue from there, in the name of learning, discipline, self control. Some critics of the current school system say it is designed to create pliant, obediant soldiers and factory workers. Remember, schools were not always mass production operations with 30-40 children per classroom.
Then there are drug policies. Let's face it, the people who are arrested and incarcerated for drug abuse are mostly minorities. Whites, like Michael Phelpps who was caught on video with a bong, get away with using marijuana. Blacks and latinos go to jail and have their lives ruined, their families torn apart.
Bernadette says that there's an 80-20 rule in dog training (gads, it' everywhere) that 80 of problems with dogs are due to people. It seems to me that the same applies to laws-- that the culture and the society, the community and family are 80% responsible for problems with people.
I've posted this because I'd like your thoughts. Is dog training bottom up? Is it top down? Is it analogous to how our culture trains us? What are your thoughts. If I have said so before, I'm working on a book on bottom up. It makes sense to do some bottom up research, like having you put in your thoughts on this.
Thanks
