Beware of the Word-Salad

The other day, I had a flashback to a 3rd grade moment when a student named Dwight, was standing in front of the room giving his book report to the class. 

Dwight kept droning on about absolutely nothing that made sense, and thank goodness the teacher stopped him, because I was concerned he would cut into my lunch break.

She asked to see the book he was holding, and it turned out to be his Cub Scout Handbook which had zero relevance to the book he was reporting. This smart-alecky kid figured he could fake us out! 

I was genuinely embarrassed for Dwight. I mean how awful to have been caught in this tangled lie. But here’s the thing, with a straight face he said that he had read the book, but forgot to bring it to school and luckily he happened to have his Cub Scout Handbook in his desk (to hold as a prop). Even if that were true, his word-salad was a give away that he was intentionally misleading us for his own gain.

Of course you’re probably wondering what this smoothing talking little schemer has to do with dog training, and so I will digress…

As I’ve mentioned in previous blogs, the dog training industry is a microcosm of U.S. politics with their contentious attitudes toward one another. Both sides professing their love of dogs, with one side using science, logic, calm reasoning and the other making a lot of noise about how shock is painless and necessary otherwise dogs will take over the universe or just the family home. But at least with these two opposing positions, the lines are clear between those who take a “Do no harm” approach and those who represent the “Make Assault Gear Available” gang.

Recently, however, I recognized that another group has emerged. This one is soft spoken, educated, and uses technical terminology. I’ll admit, I was curious about this particular trainer’s free webinar and so I watched; actually I watched the replay too, so I could pause the video, long enough to slow down this fast talking, picture popping presenter. When I watched it live, I witnessed an amazing “sleight of hand” performance.   Most insidious was that while her mouth was smiling, the picture on the slides told a different story that didn’t align with facts. For example, she said, “I like to keep everyone safe when we have reactive dogs in class.” (Okay that makes sense.) “So we’re going to use muzzles”. (Yes, that agrees with safety). “And we’re using prong, choke collars, and face halters”. (What the what what?) “Yes, these suppress the behaviors” (Ah huh) “ But that is to keep everyone safe.” Wow, the circle of confusion of this word-salad, invites the audience to agree with everything, and not question that while the professional is telling the truth about using equipment to suppress behaviors, however suppression is dangerous and should NEVER be the goal to train a dog, unless you’d like to see what a ticking time bomb looks like!

The goal should be a dog with positively changed emotions, not a change in behavior that is suppressed so that it looks like an “obedient zombie” walking at his owner’s side, ready to explode. Which by the way, was what her own high-stepping demo dog looked like!

Here’s a human example: Say you’re afraid of bees. You and a friend are walking down the street and a swarm of bees comes along; suddenly you’re in a panic (fearful emotions), so you blindly strike out to swat the bees away (behavior response). Now your concerned friend tells you that you need to get over this reactive behavior, so they refer you to a therapist who, during the first session, restrains you while exposing you to a swarm of bees. The restraint suppresses your physical behavior, however, your fear of bees actually sensitizes you to bees, meaning that the fear is heightened. 

Imagine the poor dog, with no say in the matter, and a guardian who instead of advocating for their dog, blindly follows a sadistic trainer masquerading as a worldly scholar and dog lover.

Difficult to conceive that an educated professional, especially one who claims to know so much about positive reinforcement methods, has crossed over to the dark side.

This is a new generation of sophisticated grifters who apparently couldn’t make money by telling the truth, so they decided to use their credentials to twist the facts, just enough to make themselves sound credible. Every skilled  gaslighter knows that keeping their mark off balance is the way to convince them that what they thought was right is actually wrong!

These con artists don’t need the combative rhetoric to sell fear, instead  they use their word-salad, mixing just enough truth with BS to convince their target audience that they’re suffering from imposter syndrome and the cure is to buy into the big beautiful lie to sell to their own clients.

Unlike the dangerous ignorant dog trainers on TikTok or similar platforms, who appeal to anyone who has a 30 second attention span, these rogue professionals, target other professionals, to hook them into the cult which means acquiring  an “army” of misinformed individuals, who at the end of the day, are learning how to abuse dogs to line their own pockets.

Her closing line in the webinar was, “You’re not selling a training package, you’re selling the dream of being able to take your dog everywhere!”

This may be the trainer’s dream, but it is a nightmare for the poor dog!

And if you’re wondering about little Dwight, I’m guessing he has a cushy job in politics or perhaps he’s one of these con-artists dog trainers, using his carefully crafted word-salad to sell his big dream.

HAPPY TRAINING & ENLIGHTENMENT!

© Fran Berry CPDT-KA, UW-AAB all rights reserved 2026