Michael Baugh CDBC
In Sedona, Arizona, we keep the lights low at night. It’s a community decision, an ordinance: dim our light so we can better see the heavens. It is one of the beautiful ways people live here, a gift to ourselves and our non-human neighbors.
Fewer than ten thousand people live in Sedona. More than three million visit every year. We answer to the call of coyotes, to the dry, rusty sand and the afternoon monsoons, to the prickly pears and the soothing calm of towering sandstone. We come to find ourselves, only to find that we are part of something much bigger. The natural world, that which we cannot bend to our egos, welcomes us, teaches us flexibility of will, sharpness of mind, and softness of spirit. We learn to dim our own light so that we can better see.
Nature taught us positive reinforcement dog training. Living things seek safety, nourishment, opportunities to grow, and to reproduce. Their environment, all the living things and natural forces around them, guides their choices and reinforces their best decisions. We didn’t invent that. We harnessed it. Positive reinforcement dog training involves adjusting our dog’s environment so that they learn which behavior earns the things they seek. We use food in training. It’s a natural driver.
National forest surrounds Sedona on all sides. Our homes nestle in nature. We see the beauty and sometimes the horror: a broken deer’s leg from a coyote kill, plants gone dormant from drought. Flooding. Fire. Nature, as they say, is cruel. We don’t have to be.
Even our decisions have natural consequences. We succeed. We falter. Animals win and eat and reproduce. Animals fail and suffer and die. Wrong behavior choices can be punishing. The definition of punishment is a consequence that reduces the likelihood of a behavior in the future (assuming the animal survives). Nature provides consequences. Some consequences reinforce behavior. Others suppress it. Some are benign. Some are fatal. Reinforcement teaches the animal novel solutions, which behavior to choose again and to perfect.
If there were a “Sedona School” of dog training, a way of thinking about how humans interact with and teach dogs, its foundation would be positive reinforcement training. We learned how to build and sustain desired behaviors from nature. Celebrate that. Because we’ve also learned that punishment belongs to nature. In our hands it is inelegant at best and, more often, it is dangerous. Punishment in dog training damages dogs and ruins our relationship with them. Positive reinforcement dog training builds bonds and teaches solutions.
Humanity’s misguided sense of exceptionalism drove us to bend nature to our will. Too many times we’ve simply broken it. People still talk about breaking a dog with a choke or a shock. Our ego shines while nature fades in our shadow.
The Sedona School would align with nature. We learn about and from our dogs as we teach them. We see nature’s elegance, its guiding forces, how it drives success in all its creatures. Nature isn’t something that’s out there. It’s in here. Nature is in our bodies and our growing minds, and in our blossoming spirits. Come to Sedona, look out your window, visit the national forest, and the vibrant desert. But don’t forget to turn to your side, to the dog at your feet or on the sofa next to you. Right there. That’s the natural world in your own home.
Michael Baugh Teaches dog training in Sedona, AZ and online everywhere. He specializes in aggressive dog training.
What is positive reinforcement dog training?
Positive reinforcement dog training teaches dogs which behaviors work by making desirable behaviors worthwhile. Instead of using pain, fear, or intimidation to suppress unwanted behavior, we arrange the environment so that the behaviors we want become more likely. In Sedona, that approach fits naturally with learning to live responsibly alongside our dogs, our neighbors, wildlife, and the desert environment we all share.