Social Media Dog Training

If you have a dog and you have a phone, then chances are you will have been the recipient of social media dog training. Something to promote a particular dog trainer or training style has likely come into your feed. Whether it's Tik Tok, Facebook. Instagram or Youtube as the media, there's no shortage of presenters eagerly informing the average dog owner that you're doing it all wrong, you're using methods that are torturing the dog, or you just need to watch this clip to see the miraculous change in this dog (in other words, what you're doing isn't working, and you need to change).

It's often demoralising to compare your own dog's progress to the shining examples in the carefully manicured before and after videos. And how can it be so difficult when these presenters can distill their truths down to pithy statements like "You need to stop doing this, and start doing that..." And then there are the posts that confidently affirm "science has proven..." yet are confusing, because which scientific studies have they chosen, and how rigorous have they been? 

With so much moralising, virtue-signalling, and marketing-disguised-as-tips going on, it's not surprising that the comments sections of social media dog training tends to turn into a dog fight (no pun intended). Then again, you have some presenters who just delete every comment on their post they don't agree with, creating a cosy echo chamber. 

Yet another unfortunate product of the social media age is the armchair expert, who having consumed lots of online content now feels confident in their ability to present themselves as an authority. It's not surprising that the average dog owner might be confused by all this information, often conflicting, derogatory, moralising and of questionable origin. To be fair, there is some excellent content out there. The problem is it's often lost amongst the sheer volume of information that is thrown at us these days. 

It helps to remember that most social media dog training posts are about marketing and presentation. Actual dog training is different and occurs in real time. It involves building the relationship between specific dogs and their owners, through listening to and understanding both species, and addressing the unique problems that bring a real life result - happier humans and more fulfilled dogs. So let's be discriminating in what we view on social media, remembering that it's primarily designed for entertainment, and focus on building our real-life relationships with our dogs.