From whence we came…
I have been writing Canine Nation articles for Life As A Human for more than 3 years now. There are nearly 130 of them on a wide range of topics. The Canine Nation Podcast has been available for just over 2 years now and has over 80 episodes available for download. Almost since the beginning, we have had the Canine Nation Forum on Facebook and more than 275 of you have participated in our community to one degree or another. I want to thank all of you for your support and contributions over the past 3 years. It means the world that there are like minded people out there working with dogs and using science and scientific methods to make life better with our dogs.
Originally, I had planned on writing a dozen or so articles for Life As A Human to help the site get off the ground. The continuing positive response to my articles has kept me writing and input from the Nation has kept me thinking and coming up with more to write about. Some recent events have been very encouraging such as the response to my “how-to” videos and post about non-behaviours like “leave it”, “drop it”, and “wait” and Dogwise.com adding my ebooks to their catalog. I thought this would be a good time to begin giving those of you who are part of our Canine Nation community a deeper look at what I’m doing and why I do it.
Howling in the wilderness or trying to bark above the crowds?
When I wrote the first Canine Nation article, I was more than a little naive about the larger world of blogs in general and dog-related blogs in particular. My initial goal was to share what had come out of my experience with the behavioural science based training techniques that I had learned and used for (at that time) 8 years. I didn’t consider myself to be any kind of expert then and I certainly don’t consider myself one now. Yes, I have learned a lot but I have also discovered that there is much more I’d like to learn about.
People seemed to like what I was writing. So I kept writing. At the time, I stuck to books, research papers, and seminars and classes as I learned more about dogs. I paid little attention to what was being written elsewhere on the Internet about dogs and training. But once we got the Canine Nation Forum started, I was invited to join other online groups on force-free, positive, and science based training. Suddenly I found that I was not just a lone cry in the wilderness but just another voice in a much larger crowd clamoring for attention in the ADD arcade of the Internet blog-o-sphere.
Uniquely redundant
So now, armed with the perspective of a veteran, I am forced to face the question of my relevance in the larger world of the “dog-o-sphere.” My recent reading of groups, forums, blogs, guest posts, and even articles on prominent websites devoted to dogs and training has shown me that there is no shortage of people willing to share what they know.
The spectrum is amazing. Respected authors and animal training professionals like Jean Donaldson, Patricia McConnell, Karen Pryor, and Ian Dunbar compete for readership with dog-mom’s who discovered “Clicker Training” a few months ago with their new puppy and are gleefully posting pictures and “how-to” articles. It seems that the Internet gives the same tools for access to everyone regardless of the contributions they may have to make or the enthusiasm with which they wish to put their stuff out there.
In the beginning, I thought Canine Nation was a new, fresh, and unique perspective on living with and training our dogs. I’m not so convinced that is true today. Given all of the voices out there, surely there will be some more valuable and some less valuable than what I put together each week. In the grand scheme of things, Canine Nation is just one of hundreds (possibly thousands?) of blogs about dogs and dog training.
The dancing monkey, the cheerleader, or the agent of change?
Depending on who is reading it, the average Canine Nation article could be different things to different people. For some it is amusing fodder to be poked fun at, more new-age, positive training twaddle about “spoiling” dogs with food and not delivering the tough love that some think all dogs need. For others, it is an exploration of new perspectives and new ideas about dogs and training that will inspire them to look differently at their relationship with their dogs.
For still others, Canine Nation is another place to get that fix of validation for what they already know – positive training can save all the dogs and make their lives better. It is this cheerleader role that keeps me up some nights because with it comes certain expectations. Like it or not, some in the positive/force-free training community have become as entrenched in their ideologies as the traditional compulsion trainers they rail against. And so I run a very real risk of disappointing those readers who have certain expectations and want to hear particular messages.
I have never written for a particular audience. Part of my logic in keeping my focus on science, research, and critical thinking was to keep from trying to cater to any particular point of view. I read, I work with the dogs, I learn, and I write what I have come to know from my own perspective. Right or wrong, insightful or mundane, it is my experience that I share for what it may be worth.
And into the future we go
Above all, I would like to remain relevant. There are a lot of people out there talking about dogs. Some of them are spouting nonsense and others are moving our knowledge of dogs forward every single day. I’m sure that Canine Nation falls somewhere on that spectrum or even in multiple places depending on your point of view. This is an interesting time. There is much more that Canine Nation could be doing. Or less.
As I write this, my third ebook, “Best Friends: Relating With Dogs” is being finished for publication this summer. I am looking at producing a series of videos demonstrating various training concepts and methods we use regularly. There is the possibility of doing a more comprehensive DVD production covering a wider range of topics on dogs and training. I am in the process of finalizing content for a series of talks and seminars that I hope to be offering in the fall and into 2014.
My hope is that Canine Nation continues to find an audience. The core message has always been one that encourages independent thought. The presentation of ideas to be tried out and tested by those who read the articles and listen to the podcasts. It has always been about interacting with the dogs and listening to what they can tell us. If I’m helping people do that, that’s great.
No longer alone
In a very real way, I started this as a lone howl in the wilderness. My articles have had more than 100, 000 reads and the podcast has had more than 34,000 downloads. That doesn’t happen without support. The Canine Nation Forum community has been instrumental in spreading the word about my work and I am grateful to all of you for your efforts.
People have come to my articles and podcasts from such a variety of sources. Facebook, Twitter, iTunes, StumbleUpon, Google+, links from individual and trainer websites, recommendations to students, friends, and family. It has truly been amazing.
Going forward, I would like to involve the Canine Nation Forum even more in what I’m doing. In addition to your continued support, I want to be sure I’m addressing topics you all find relevant. I will be looking for more ways to get feedback and suggestions from the forum on not just articles and podcasts but new projects as we go forward. I would like all of us to collaborate in this “Try it and see!” approach rather than being just another prescriptive “system” of training.
Thanks again for being here. It means the world to me.
Eric
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