As the father of four daughters I credit my many years as a dog trainer for me being a better dad. I can honestly say that I’m a really good dad.
Training dogs has taught me a great deal about how to raise kids.
Now, if you know me as a dog trainer you know that with dogs I use training collars like electric collars and prong collars. You may think that makes me an awful dad if my dog training skills have transferred over to my parenting techniques.
But here’s a strange reality that many have found weird and inconsistent with me. But it’s not inconsistent and I’ll explain why.
Here it is: I use physical corrections with dogs, I don’t use them with kids.
I don’t spank my kids. In fact, as a grown man, I try to never even use my ‘presence’ as a threat (standing up quickly to approach them, grabbing them to take them to their room, etc.) when my kids misbehave.
Now, first off, I want you to know that I’m not a parenting expert. And I’m not here to judge anyone for how they parent if they currently use spankings in their parenting.
It’s none of my business.
You absolutely should listen to me about how to raise a dog, I’m one of the best around at that.
Whether you think I have anything of value in raising kids is up to you to determine. And if you see it different from me I hold no judgement on you and hope you don’t negatively judge my parenting either.
In the videos below I explain exactly why I’ll use physical correction with a dog but not with a kid.
Bottom line, our kids are different from our dogs. I know some of you think of you dogs as kids but that doesn’t make them capable of being raised exactly the same.
I’ll be the first to admit that there are PLENTY of parallels in raising a dog and raising a kid. But there are enough differences for me to have made two very clear truths:
- The most humane dog training efforts MUST use physical correction
- The most humane child rearing, in our home, doesn’t require physical correction
I explain why below:
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