I Did It Because They Told Me To (Milgram Experiment)

 About things we did to our dogs even though our gut told us we shouldn't.

First of all I want to thank to Many Mayer for writing this post and letting my translate it for you guys.

(Source: pixabay)

It's happening again, another lady called me with shaking voice and asking to talk about her dog.
With tears in her eyes she called to tell me how her dog's trainer told her to throw something at her dog when he's barking in the cage.
Her dog of course got traumatic and now he refuse to get close to his training cage.  
More than everything, she felt guilty. "I don't know much about dogs, so I got a trainer and I thought I can trust him because this is his job. It felt so wrong, and I did it anyway".
The first thing I said, was "that could happen for anyone, it doesn't makes you a bad person".

If you ever got to do something to your dog which is against you gut feeling, or if you want to know more about dogs- this post is for you.

Have you ever felt you just can't handle your dog and you need help?
I think a lot of people are having these moment and especially for anxious and attacking dogs, the dogs which with them everyday is a new challenge.
Sometimes out of despret we look for help in many places. Some people prefer to go to a dog trainer, others choose to take a tip from a friend that used to serve in army in Okez (a unit with trained dogs) or the Mr. Know All of neighboor dogs garden.

The common to all of these people who asking for help, is that between those the feeling is that they don't have the tools to handle with their dog and that others know better than them. Sometimes, when they get so depressed they will take anyones help.
The main problem is that when you don't have enough knowledge, you might do some things, even if they're agains your feelings. you relay on people who look like they have authority and know better than you.

(Source: Giphy)
Stenli Milgram experiment (1963) was a study about non-compliance with authority. Milgram wanted to see how people's behaviour changes when they get orders from authority. 

• The "experimenter", who was in charge of the session.
• The "teacher", a volunteer for a single session. The "teacher" was led to believe that they were merely assisting, whereas they were actually the subject of the experiment.
• The "learner", an actor of the experimenter, who pretended to be a volunteer.

In the experiment, every person met the researcher that takes control of this experiment, was dressed in lab coat and another person, called Adon Wales (they were both actors in the experiment).
The peron on the experiment (the only one who wasn't an actor), played as a teacher and Adon Wales was his student. The student set on an electric chair and the teacher needs to electricity him everytime he's wrong (Remember! Wales is an actor).

The purpose is to check the ponishment for the ability to remember things.
As a part of the game, Wales at first approched to the experimenter and say he have an heart disease and for that he's afraid from the experiment.
The experimenter told him that the shocks hurts but it won't make a long-term damage.
The teacher (the learner) is getting one of those electricity shocks before the experiment begins.
They're showing him the experiment's room (there's a seperation of a wall with a window between the teacher and the student) and they're the shocks are between 15 and 450 V.
Every Wales mistake - he'll get an electricity shock. for another mistake, the shock will raise in 15 V (As I mentioned, Wales is an actor. He didn't really got the shocks).

The main goal of this experiment is to see how the participants will react when the experimenter orders will hit their conscience- will they listen to the experimenter or their inner voice? or in other words - how far will they walk with electricity?

When students were asked how they think they would react in this experiment, they responed they won't get to maximum power and will probably stop it.
In the real experiment, 65% of participants got to maximum power which is 450 V, even though they showed signs of distress during the experiment (there's no doubt the experiment unethical and won't happen these days).

(Source: Giphy)

The fact normative people are ready to use hard punishments just because they got the order to (in this case, the experimenter who is running this experiment)
According to Milgram, that way he proved that authority can make people do extreme things.

This experiment always takes me to this place, of working with dogs.
A lot of people who called me been throught a lot with their dogs, and not a small part of them did things against their gut. If they asked them before, they would say there's no chance they are going to do that.
From that reason, people are using electricity collar, noise box or physical violence includes rolling the dogs on their backs and etc'.

 Just like the people in the experiment, dogs owners meet "profeesionals" the gives them tips agains their conscience.
Even the story about the woman from this post's beggining did things to her dog that she felt she don't need to.
It's enough that the person from the other side show some authority to effect inexperienced person, that not sure if he can handle with his dog alone. Sentences like "It's ok, he won't feel the electricity, it's just like a pinch" you can hear all the time, from bad dog trainers, sellers in pet stores and all other persons who think they know the best. And then, when the dog is crying in the first "pinch", they calm their owner, saying it didn't really hurt, he just panicked. And when you need to raise the tolerance, they say it's fine and not dangerous.

You can see the imagionation to dogs world in so other many ways, it's amazing to see how research conclutions matching what happened with the dogs owners.

Here are some examples to experiment conclusions and how they connect to dogs world:

• The more people don't understand and not sure about their way, they'll use ways that won't fit them. You can even say that trainers or people who learned in their training to use unhuman tools as they explain it won't hurt the dog, will believe to the authority (their teacher) and use that information later with their clients as it cheked and deeply researched.
• When you tell someone it has been tested on many dogs and that it's not really hurting them, they feel like someone is taking responsibility, which makes it easier for them. This owner's misunderstanding makes them trust the one who gives the orders. 
•  When there is a gradual transition from orders that can't make any damage to orders that make a lot of damage. That way, for ab example, a person that used to work with treats and slowly requested to use ponishment, because, "there's no other choice, he got to learn", learn to trust who guides him.

That way, people are hurting their dogs because authoritative factor tells them it's fine.

More than everything, I really want to make you get the idea, that even if we're doing something we have no idea about that, it doesn't mean we can't use our logic and our gut feeling. If you already done something that's against your conscience, it doesn't mean you can't change it. Sometimes, the owner's guilt makes them not try anything else while they can basically help their dog.

We are all humans, we all make mistakes, or doing things we don't really want to, but it doesn't makes us bad.
Milgram Experiment teaches us that sometimes there's things that can affect our behavior without our knowledge.

Eventually, there's always people who'd see ponishment as relevantive tool (with kids, too) and others who won't. I chose my way, and I'm here to help others choose it too.
Even when I used ponishment in the past, I didn't feel it's right but I did it anyway, mostly because I had no knowledge. A big part of this ability to move forward is basically from the fact that I let myself forget the shame feeling for all the things I've done. That's why the most important tip here is to tell you leave your guilt.

After doing this, and you're going in a new way with your dogs, the sky's the limit. (:

Thanks for reading!

(Source: Giphy)