A force free critic told me the other day that trainers like me need to have an open mind about balanced training and training tools. Is this true? Do we need to be more open minded?
After giving it some thought, I came to the conclusion that being open minded about balanced training methods and tools is about as useful about being open minded about blood letting to treat disease in this day and age.
I imagine that if early modern medical practitioners experienced pushback from the barbers that practiced blood letting, the conversations would have been similar to when modern dog trainers experience pushback from old-school trainers about our science-based training methods. Barber: I have been practicing bloodletting for 30 years and know more about treating smallpox than you do. How long have you been using this newfangled smallpox "inoculation"? A year or two?
Physician: The data and evidence suggests that the smallpox vaccine is effective at preventing smallpox and is much safer than treating the disease with bloodletting. We have achieved unprecedented results with little to no adverse side effects.
Barber: How do you know for certain that the people who have been inoculated would have suffered more had they not been inoculated? The severity of smallpox cases I have personally treated would never have been prevented by your vaccine. Like I said, I have been doing this for 30 years and have cured countless ailments using bloodletting. Your vaccine only works for smallpox. Bloodletting is used to treat many ailments.
Physician: Epidemiology tells us that the vaccine prevents and minimises the symptoms of the disease. Additionally, vaccine technology could be used to prevent and significantly reduce the symptoms of other illnesses in the future.
Barber: There are just a small number of studies that claim to prove the efficacy of your vaccine. There are thousands of years of testimonies of people who have been cured by bloodletting. Your evidence is sparse and not reliable.
Physician: When science advances, and better, safer technologies are developed, we should use them, regardless of how things have always been done. The scientific method and peer review process produces reliable data across all scientific disciplines. Testimonials are not evidence, they are anecdotes.
Barber: So you want to take the safer option rather than the tried and tested effective cure?
Physician: Yes, because the vacine is both safer and more effective. There is a high risk of death with bloodletting. There are infinitesimal risks associated with the vaccine.
Barber: The risk of death associated with the treatment far outweighs the risk of death associated with going untreated. I refuse to believe your so-called-evidence because I have built a very strong professional reputation as one of the best bloodletting barbers in the world. I will never concede.
Before I get accused of false equivalence between balanced training and bloodletting, let me make a (tongue-in-cheek) case for the comparison.
The use of balanced training methods have been demonstrated to have serious negative consequences.
Bloodletting to treat illness has been demonstrated to have serious negative consequences.
Balanced training methods are supported by anecdotal evidence.
Bloodletting practices were supported by anecdotal evidence.
Research suggests that balanced training is not only detrimental to dogs, it is also less affective than modern, force free training methods.
Research suggests that bloodletting is not only detrimental to the patient, it is also unnecessary and less affective than modern medicine.
Balanced training centres around the 4 quadrants of operant conditioning: positive punishment, negative punishment, positive reinforcement, and negative reinforcement. Balanced trainers believe that all 4 quadrants are necessary for effective behaviour modification.
Bloodletting centres around the 4 fluids of the body: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. People used to believe that all illness could be attributed to an imbalance of the 4 fluids.
Next time you find yourself entangled in the methods war, remind yourself that barbers today only cut and style hair, and smallpox has been eradicated. 😉 Science and progress will prevail.
I will be sharing this. What a great way to explain.