Dog Psychology - Influence - The Foreign Object

As soon as the issue of dominance is raised with those who you would swear someone just entered the dog training ring and pulled a foreign object out of their waist band.  The screams coming from the legion of loyal behaviorists becomes deafening with protests of psycho babble being yelled from the stands.  It seems that this group is relationally tone deaf when it comes to making comparisons to how a child’s decision making is influenced within the context of the authoritative model parenting.  Accepting that a dog’s decision making process is in fact influenced relationally sends the tenants of this ideology into a death spin from which there is no escape.  There is no retreating from the entrenched positions this group has taken regarding the issue of dominance.  The vain attempts to discredit the dominance issue by using learning theory as a support pillar goes beyond the boundaries of common sense.  It is the reason why depending on which behaviorist you ask you will get a different answer each time regarding the issue of dominance, physical force and leadership.  Behaviorists are all over the map because they do not accept dogs as relational beings with needs that are separate and apart from this ideology.  The interpretative script this ideology follows gives physical response a unconditional green light while failing to consider that perhaps the external does not provide a clear relational image.  This behaviorist corner stone continues to be a stumbling block from those who are indoctrinated to these views.  The ability for this group to see anything beyond this framework becomes nearly impossible and is the reason why dogs continue to take the hit.  While this may seem like insanity to those who are wise to what is really happening it makes complete sense to those who are sold out to this belief system.