A programme called “Train your baby like a dog” was first shown on Channel 4 last week. The announcement of the show caused uproar and led to calls for the channel to cancel the series.
The show sees dog trainer Jo-Rosie Haffenden teaching parents to use dog training techniques to help their children. In the series she‘ll assist a three-year-old boy in dealing with his tantrums and an 18-month old who refuses to sleep in her cot.
Many people have signed a Change.org petition calling for the show to be axed, claiming it is “dehumanising” to children and could potentially leave them vulnerable “to grooming in the future”, because it teaches them “to comply with an adult’s demands”.
Jo-Rosie uses clicker training techniques, with detractors claiming she is “using it to bribe a child into doing a chore or task”.
It’s an unsurprising reaction, from people who don’t understand the principles. I used dog training techniques to raise my children – and they’ve turned out well. The basic principles (which) apply to any animal, including humans. These are:
– reward the behaviours you want – and they’ll do more of those behaviours
– ignore, manage or prevent behaviours you don’t want – in human terms we’d call that parental guidance and having rules
Bribing never works in the long term – with dogs or children. Giving rewards properly – timing them correctly and giving the right rewards for different situations – does work, and is where the skill of training lies. Clicker training, used in the programme, simply uses a non-confusing, dependable, repeatable sound to mark the correct behaviour – and it’s always followed by a suitable reward.
It’s been used very successfully in a variety of contexts, such as helping children with autism and helping athletes learn new skills and is well-proven.
All this furore reminds me of a great programme I watched in the 90s, where a great dog trainer, Annie Clayton, used clicker training to help people (women) train their spouses. Though that can be difficult as I’ve found with Himself…
Keep training,
Carol