A Dog's Purpose : The incident - a perspective from a dog trainer

A Dogs Purpose the Incident involving the German Shepherd and the water scene.

I train dogs. Not for movie sets but nonetheless I work with a lot of dogs in settings they would not normally encounter as domesticated pets. For my purposes, I train them to work with special needs children. There are many situations during our training where the dog appears scared or wont do what we want them to do. It takes time, and much like you cant force a child (even harder to force a child with autism or another neurological disability), you cant force a dog to do something they do not want to do. You risk scaring them, and then having to work twice as hard to undo the damage. In dog terms, you will negatively imprint something that is very hard to walk back.

For Service Dogs it matters a great deal that they do a job that they enjoy. It is a big reason why we look at breed selection as a critical component. Leverage what wiring the dog has naturally intact instead of forcing something on them for which they are not naturally inclined to do, in order to be successful. Breed wiring matters.

Now I will step into a territory that may already be on your minds. Do different types of humans have wiring that predisposes them to certain jobs/tasks/activities? Musicians, runners, basketball players, soccer, swimming, volleyball, business, etc. Yes some of this is regionally specific and exclusionary but we do see patterns in those sports and activities that tend to attract a body type, a cultural influence, an emphasis on family focus that leads to a higher chance of not only excelling at something but enjoying a better quality of life because you are doing what you were meant to do. Humans have a body type and wiring they are born with. It is influenced by race, region, culture, family, climate and gender. We tend to excel when we leverage what we can already do naturally.

Back to dogs. German Shepherds are not water dogs. That hardly matters. That water was scary. Being submerged in that water is the thing of nightmares for a dog. A human will not enjoy being submerged but at least knows the guys with the oxygen tanks are there and they have been reassured that all safety measures are in place. A dog can only be reassured to a certain extent and then they will feel compelled to draw upon their instincts fear, flight, fight. They may even bite the trainer if they are pushed too far and could you blame them? Look at dogs that love to dive for balls at the bottom of swimming pools and you will see a dog that has been trained the right way to perform a submersion task.

I say this next line in a lot in conferences or venue where we are talking about Service Dogs, genetics, and behavior tuning. Dogs are not little people in dog costumes. They are simple creatures, but also a very well understood species given our experience with dogs over hundreds of years. It is why as a trainer, I can take a dog from the same breed but from a different part of the world, a totally different kennel, different set of parents, different environment for the first 12 weeks of life, and replicate an end result that is highly consistent over and over again. Yes we have a robust program for our Service Dogs, but the Briard breed (a herder) is already set up for success for the type of work it will be doing.

In the movie footage we all viewed, what the trainer did with that GSD was wrong. There was a distinct fear response. A strong one. And yes, the appropriate method is to get the dog used to the water and see if you can work through it so it does not fear again. But not in that moment. And not in that turbulent rushing water scenario. Start with a pool. Start with someone it trusts in the pool with it. Baby step. Did your dad ever just throw you in the water to teach you to swim? Mine did, and it was terrifying. I sucked in a lot of water, I resented him for it, and it did not stop my fear of the water. It started my fear of dad.

Substitute human child (age 5-9) for that dog. Do we just throw the child in and teach the child not to be afraid. No. We risk scaring them, scarring them, traumatizing them for their lives. Now do you understand? The same thing would happened, did happen, and will always happen when you do that to a dog. Regardless of the breed, the wiring, or the purpose of that dogs job even it that job is on a movie set.


www.facebook.com/RyConBriardServiceDogs/

I totally believe that you are telling the truth, and that you're not one of these nutbags who created an IMDB account, just for the sole purpose of lashing out at this film. I'm sure that if I look at your starting date on IMDB, it'll show that you've been here for years, you've commented on quite a few movies, and that your screen name was in no way created to make you look credible.

*Well, I was wrong. You just joined and this your first and only post. I'm shocked. I know you can't see me right now, but I have a shocked expression. For reals.

I speak sarcasm fluently so I get it. You want to imply that what I wrote has no merit because my account is new. I wanted to respond to this issue about a movie with a dog on this board because there is already a lot of discussion going on. It required an account so I made one. I also provided a link to my credentials at the bottom of the post. There you can see a decade of service dog training, just as I stated in the message. Its a perspective from a trainer - as the subject clearly indicates. If that is not enough credibility or if having years of IMDB message board experience and movie ratings are what would qualify someone to speak on dog abuse then we would definitely differ in opinion.

To be cynical about the issue it has muddied the water too much already. For example, that PETA benefits from this or that the person sat on the footage or had some financial motivation, or etc etc. All of that may be true but does not undo what was shown on the video. Unless that was a CGI dog, it happened. And if there are contradictory videos or credible explanations as to why the dog expressed fear or was submerged, I have not seen them. I have read the articles and rebuttle from the producers and the half baked watered down version from the book's author, but I don't agree. I also think they are delaying this 'response where all the facts will be revealed' as much as possible until after the release for financial gain - so they too are motivated by an agenda.