Insanity
Albert Einstein is noted for the quote, “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
When I was in the chiropractor’s office, I over heard a woman say this to a man. It struck me that we’re all a bit insane then, look at the things people do.
Drinking to excess: Drink, get drunk, fall down or go dizzy to sleep, wake up feeling horrible and often all with having made complete fools of ourselves.
Gambling: Put the money in, push the button and although the pictures are different each time, the results are the same. The casino gets all the money in the end, they have to pay for all that dinging noise and all those pretty lights!
Dog training: The old methods of dog training where the same thing is practiced over and over again to get it right. Jerk the dog’s neck because he’s pulling and he continues to pull. Yell “Shut UP!!!!” from the comfy chair and the dog continues to bark. Kick, hit, pound on and hurt the dogs for jumping, counter surfing, chasing small animals, and essentially not minding our every command…and the dog continues to do it.
I learned a long, long time ago that a drink is a nice thing for me, two drinks and I start to tell my life story, three drinks and I will show you how silly, you can read that stupid if you like, I can be. It’s better for me to drink in moderation and keep my dignity. The last time I had more than one beer is still a pretty well told story in my family. My son and a friend of mine had gone to a Mexican cafe. I ordered tacos and a beer. They brought me another beer and I drank that, too. These weren’t little beers and I am not very big. When we went out the door to walk back to where we were having a meeting, I was tilting to the right, sliding my right foot out in kind of a plia, giggling saying something like, “I’m really, really dizzy. Is the sidewalk all slopey here?” much to the entertainment of the growing crowd on the sidewalk.
Gambling, I’ve done my share of that. My family lives in Reno so going out to dinner and playing nickels after is pretty usual. I’ve had some luck, well beginners luck, I haven’t won anything in years. But this is how it goes. Put the money in, push a button, watch all the pretty pictures, listen to the noise, bells and dinging ringing, and nothing. Nothing. Push the button again. Same thing. Or maybe a little payback, just enough to get you to push the button again. It works way, way too well to keep people coming back again and again to drop their paycheck or for those who have some control, a portion of their paycheck. The casinos are making a killing. Aside from knowing how silly it is to keep putting more money in to watch it happen again and again, it’s the perfect definition of clicker training. And why clicker training works so well. Put money in and push button (click to mark that behavior), give something that makes us want to push again, pretty pictures or a little money back (treat). Dogs are just as susceptible to that conditioning as we are. The only difference is, we fade the clicker and the treat and we’ll still get the behavior from the dog simply because we ask, no more gambling necessary until the next trick. And treats are cheap for the good we get from them. People’s brains have a hard time not falling in love with the reinforcement of gambling and that takes more and more money. It’s okay for the dogs, not so much for the people who want a place to live and some groceries on the table.
Dog training: I don’t use the old method of jerk and pull with the dog, I quit much earlier than some trainers did, I just couldn’t keep hurting them, it was breaking my heart and it wasn’t working. Just like everyone else who learned training from the “old pros”, yes, I did it to dogs, too, in structured obedience classes. I am not proud of it and I remember thinking at the time that there had to be a better way. Every time I jerked a dog’s neck, I felt awful. It had to hurt and it didn’t work so what the heck were we doing that for? Insanity. My own home training with reinforcing the behavior I wanted, just like I did with my kids who were wonderful children, was a much, much better way and the dogs were trained quickly.
We have some new books at SitStay.com. See New at SitStay in the left menu or go to books to see them all. The Thinking Dog is one of my new personal favorites.
I choose to stop the insanity. I’ll keep my drinking moderate, be silly if I want to but not because I’ve imbibed and have no control, and I’ll wake up happy and clear headed every morning. I’ll keep my hard earned money, most of it anyway, remember I do have to go out with the family. Well, I don’t have to throw my money away, nobody is twisting my arm! And I’ll train the dogs with sane consideration for another living being.
I love dogs. It feels good to be sane. – Darcie
