Reply To: The Humanity of Wolves (ipso facto, of dogs, perhaps moreso)

[Arthur Lopatin]

U are very welcome. IMO, technical knowledge and mastery of training skills, especially a la FSDT, are required to be a good dog trainer. But to be excellent, deep, knowledge-based, realistic empathy are needed to be an excellent one. No accident that Ethology’s at the bottom of the pyramid. IMO, the deeper your knowledge and understanding, the more it’s in your bones, the better you are as a trainer. I think this is something that makes FSDT pretty special. It’s one of the reasons I post a lot of ethology-related stuff. “<b style=”background-color: var(–bb-content-background-color); font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; color: var(–bb-body-text-color);”>In order to really enjoy a dog, one doesn’t merely try to train him to be semi-human. The point of it is to open oneself to the possibility of becoming partly a dog.” — Edward Hoagland