(Image courtesy of Change.org)

Here we go again. 

This month marks 15 years since the infamous Dog Whisperer first hit our TV screens. Since then, the “one-man wrecking ball” that is Cesar Millan has been responsible for popularizing the long-disproven alpha/dominance myth and causing millions of people to poke, choke, kick, roll, pin, and otherwise hurt their dogs in the name of training.

And while we’re still recovering from the damage done by Millan’s “whispering”, we can take heart in the progress made in the field of animal behavior and training over the last decade.

More people have access to reputable, modern, and science-based dog training information and resources. More people are working with certified trainers, behavior consultants, and veterinary behaviorists. And more evidence is available showing which training methods are most effective and safe and how to achieve lasting behavior change without scaring or hurting our dogs.

But just as we begin to feel hopeful about the direction of dog training, here comes Nat Geo Wild asking us to hold their beer while they bring us their new reality offering, Dog: Impossible.  

This show, much like the Dog Whisperer, once again elevates and promotes dog “training” that is neither scientific nor humane. 

Dogs are repeatedly put in situations of extreme stress, restrained, sometimes choked, and prevented from escaping. Dogs are forced into submission (read: learned helplessness) and in one particularly gruesome scene, an actual dog fight is facilitated between two muzzled dogs in an effort to teach one of the dogs how “not to fight”. 

The trainer in question warns the viewers that “this is gonna look gnarly” and twice cautions us not to try this at home.

“Don’t try this at home” is as much a legal disclaimer as it is a ploy to create a false mystique and build a cult of personality. 

Herein lies the problem with the mythical dog whisperer: a person (most always a man), who can read what your dog is thinking, instinctively know what they need, and create instantaneous behavior change by means of nebulous concepts such as “energy” or “respect”. In other words, magic!

The reality is dog training can and absolutely should be tried at home. Dog trainers aren’t some magical unicorns with special powers. Real dog trainers teach people how to apply the principles of behavior science to humanely and effectively work with their dogs.

Real behavior modification is anything but gnarly. Changing dogs’ behavior by changing their underlying emotional associations through the application of desensitization and counter-conditioning protocols is very boring when done right and won’t make for entertaining reality TV.

What’s more, reputable behavior professionals absolutely never ever need to trigger a dog’s aggression in order to address it.

Real behavior modification won’t get you a dramatic “before and after” in a span of a one-hour show. What it will get you, however, is a dog who feels better and safer in the world and whose behavior was changed, not just suppressed by means of aversive control. 

The bone I’m picking here isn’t even with the trainers at the center of Dog: Impossible. They’re simply doing what one does when operating within the Wild Wild West that is our unregulated dog training industry.

I am here looking at you, Nat Geo Wild, and your continued pattern of promoting dangerous and harmful misinformation that puts dogs and their people at risk. Your commitment to amplifying the voices of individuals whose methods cause physical and emotional harm to living sentient beings is beyond comprehension. 

It’s not an exaggeration to say that actual lives are at stake here. Dogs who have been trained with punitive methods are at a higher risk of rehoming and behavioral euthanasia. People whose dogs have been damaged by such training will carry the emotional scars of having been made into unwitting participants in their dogs’ abuse.

Dogs and their people deserve better and better we must demand.

If you’re reading this and are looking for an actionable step to take today, consider the following:

Sign this Change.org petition to stop Dog: Impossible and share it with your friends.

Email National Geographic.

Tweet Nat Geo Wild or leave a Facebook message or comment under the show’s trailers.

Help spread modern, evidence-based dog training resources and information with people you know!