Welcome to Gaia! ::

@alex: yep ^^. i just got it last august.

@miri: my mom doesn't know that i'm clinically depressed and am taking anti-depressants. she doesn't even know that i went into therapy. it'll just break her heart and she'll start blaming herself. again, mental illness is seen as taboo in my family and she will think that my depression is a sign of her inadequate parenting, even though she's a great mom. i made my sister and brother swear never to tell her.

Hmmmm...i wonder if we have dog whisperers around here in Hawaii??? XD
awe... feel better sad heart

Kari: It's entertaining to watch, but I *highly* doubt you'd be able to reenact the actions, unfortunately. X3; The guy is able to do it through confidence, some kind of outward energy aura, that stuff. He took the leash for the dog and was like "Come on, puppy" and walked outside and the dog freaked for like 20 seconds and then was perfectly cool, where the family couldn't make the dog not afraid for like three years prior. xd

I would be careful about imitating that Dog Whisperer guy... A lot of people say his methods are inhumane. Check out the criticism section on his Wikipedia page.

Edit: You adopted Theo, right? There's a good chance that he suffered some abuse in his last ownership. My cat, Krystal, was adopted and has refused to go outside for all 8 years I've owned her, even if the door was left wide open. My grandma's cat does the same thing, since he was a stray who was abused by a bunch of jerk kids.

Miri: Ahah, that criticism section is a load of crock. Alpha rolls and such are perfectly fine and don't impose any harm, unless of course, you're attempting it on a dog that's ready to bite your arm off, but then that dog itself is a danger, not the methods used.

All the pet trainers I've read about, watched, or talked to all agree on the methods described in that criticism section.

And saying they're inhumane? They might as well say that domesticating dogs is inhumane because they were wild originally, a long time ago. rolleyes


Edit: And now that I think about it some more, spanking a child is more inhumane than alpha rolls or leash corrections. They'd better be against spanking a child too, with that attitude they have. neutral

I feel flooding may be immoral, but in no means inhumane. Teaching a kid to swim by tossing him in the deep end is probably one of the best ways to learn to swim at a young age - provided there's adults available in case things go wrong.


Essentially, I feel a dog should be a dog, dangit. It doesn't need fancy special treatment with diamond studded collars and all that. The dog is a pet - a follower, if I may, and should be treated as a subordinate. Sure, you can love the dog and it can be a family member, but in no means should it's training be anything more than it needs to be. Alpha rolls and leash corrections have both been performed on my dog, by me personally many times, without any repercussions. If it works, why waste time trying to do something that's more "humane" that might not even work at all?

My cat's never really been introduced to water, but I'd like to have a cat who likes water, so I actually plan on taking her into a bath with me sometime soon. It's not inhumane, it's a learning process.


Edit: Metaphor time! Flooding is essentially tough love. 3nodding A "you'll thank me for this later" type of moment.

sweatdrop oh boy....
i didnt mean to cause this... i was just explaining what was going on Theo ^^;

I bought some soft paw gel cap things for her nails, so if she does claw I won't feel much, compared to the multiple lacerations she's already given me before I got 'em.

Maybe it's another personality quirk of mine, but while I can't willingly "flood" myself, I'd be appreciative of those who would force it upon me, because it'd benefit me in the long run.

I was flooded when I was a kid. With swimming, too. And while I still can't swim, it didn't cause me to dislike or mistrust the person any more or less.

And, I may be a bit disliked for this, and it's nothing personal against you, but I find the whole "girl afraid of bugs" thing to be a bit inane. If it can't harm you, it's not really worth fearing. My sisters and mother are all deathly afraid of nearly any type of bug, yet I'll purposely let bees crawl on me to show them it's worthless fearing a little thing that you could squash in a second if so desired.

Then again, in all of the instances above I just stated, they're all probably due to my ego-flood with my will power. I take pride (albeit likely a bit much at times) in having a strong enough will to do things that many have trouble with, for whatever reason. Fears? Bad habits? Anxiety? All useless, I says. Granted, I understand not everybody is like me in this regard, but I just don't see how they can't be. @_@



Edit:
quote > "Forcing your child to think they will die is not a way of teaching, its torture."

In regard to tossing them in the deep end of a pool, they may think they'll die. There's definitely a risk of harm in that situation. However, in the majority of situations, such as taking an afraid dog into public, or putting bugs onto somebody who's afraid of them, they should quite quickly realize their fears are unfounded and there's zero chance of harm. Hence, it's less of torture and more of learning. Facing your fears, it's been called. I just don't see that as suffering at all.