"Daddy's Home, and He's Pissed": What Bad Dog Training Can Teach Us About Authoritarianism

How To Train Your Dog With Love + Science - Dog Training with Annie Grossman + Anamarie Johnson PhD

In this episode, recorded on November 6th, I recap some of the weird moments having to do with pets and other animals in the run up to the election, from Peanut the Squirrel to Kristi Noem shooting her puppy, several stories about people eating dogs and beyond. But the apex of the weirdness came to me in in a speech where Carlson Tucker starts off talking about how American’s are too nice to dogs, and then devolves into talking about how those on the left need to be, well… spanked.

As a positive reinforcement trainer, I cannot help but reflect on the Trump’s win through the lens of animal behavior, as I’ve come to understanding it through working with dogs. This leads me to wonder what would happen if political governance wasn’t rooted in punishment? Is it possible that helping people to better understanding and applying positive reinforcement in dog training could have broader implications for society? Maybe? Maybe. Maybe if we all spent more time training, we’d at least spend less time doomscrolling…

This episode includes parts from the last two chapters of my new book, How To Train Your Dog With Love + Science, one about studies that have been done on spanking kids and the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior’s recommendations on using punishment with dogs, and the other on BF Skinner’s suggestion for change people’s behavior on a societal level without force.

An audiobook version of the book has just been released from Tantor Press, narrated by Eunice Wong. If you’d like a review copy of the audiobook, I have a handful of download codes I can share to the first few people who email me to ask! Put audiobook in the subject.

Ruff timeline:

00:00 Reflecting on the Election Through a Behavioral Lens

00:52 Donald Trump's Childhood and Authoritarianism

02:01 Weird Moments in the Presidential Campaign

Note: I edited both the Carlson and Noem clips here for length but without changing the meaning. I felt that playing the clips in full was just too inhumane.

05:54 Tucker Carlson's “Daddy’s Home” Speech

07:05 The Role of Punishment in Behavior

08:19 Positive Reinforcement in Dog Training

11:28 The Importance of Good Dog Trainers

13:02 Book Excerpt

Links:

Boston Globe article I wrote about Romney and his dog in 2012

Mary Trump’s Too Much and Never Enough

Youtube: Dog Bonking

Audio montage clips:

Trump “Eating The Dogs”

RFK Jr whale incident

RFK Jr denies eating dog

RFK Jr bear cub story

Kristi Noem reads from her book

JD Vance on peanut the squirrel

JD Vance on cat ladies

Tucker Carlsons’s Georgia Speech

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