All Hail Our Robot Overlords!

Have you ever noticed that there’s no outrage or global movement to ban electric fences, despite the fact that these fences pump out 5,000 to 10,000 volts?

Why is that?

I explored that idea back in 2015 at a conference put out by the International Association of Canine Professionals, as well as what it meant for the future of dog training.

Back then, almostvno one was talking about artificial intelligence, and the language of dog trainers — and the frames they presented to the public — were pretty uneven, incomplete, or nonexistent.

They still are.

Towards the end of my presentation, I noted that it was my belief that a lot of people carried around with them the trauma of inconsistent signals sent by bad parents and rotten bosses.

The frame of those who demonize modern e-collars is partially built on ignorance (both simple and willful), but also the belief that people cannot be trusted.

That’s the frame of the “pure positive” and “force free” crowd.

It has nothing to do with dogs; it’s a belief or frame that says people are cruel, stupid, and inconsistent monsters who cannot be trusted.

There’s a lot of internalized trauma in that frame.

But a robot with proven consistency?

No problem.

Folks generally trust machines, and we put our lives on the line every day with elevators, cars, stoves, and airplanes.

Machines are consistent, and so no one has any trouble with electric fences, despite the fact they have high voltage and deliver a real ZAP, and not a gentle tap, as does a modern e-collar.

I noted that:

“Because the electric fence is a ROBOT of sorts -- devoid of human input or decision, entirely mechanical in its application — everyone seems to be OK with it, even when the shock is FAR, far more intense than what is normally delivered by an e-collar.

“Ditto with an Invisible Fence pet containment system. Because Invisible Fence and electric fences are CONSISTENT and uniform and perfectly-timed, and NO HUMAN IS INVOLVED, even folks with “bad parenting scars” are far more likely to be OK with it.

“No human?

 

“No problem!

“In short, it’s NOT ABOUT THE COLLAR.

“Which brings me to where I think we may be going in the world of ALL dog training — Skinner Boxes on wheels.

“The Skinner Box was not a food-only system. 

“Yes, food was how you TRAINED a trick, but to proof it, or to stop self-rewarding behavior, Skinner Boxes also had an electrical floor built inside them.

“Clicker trainers forget that Skinner was a BALANCED TRAINER.

“For the record, I think dog training ROBOTS are the wave of the future. They will be:

▪️Attentive

▪️Communicative

▪️Consistent, and;

▪️Positive consequences will dominate (food rewards), with e-collar corrections for proofing and attention-getting.

“How far away are robotic dog trainers?

“Less than a decade I think.

“Motion-tracking cameras, combined with artificial intelligence, GPS locators and vibration-tone-and-stim collars, paired with a SEGWAY-like machine that rolls around on a field with a treat-dispensing box, could be built NOW.

“And at the prices charged by Board-and-Train facilities I think such a machine might be built before long, and least as a laboratory experiment in mechanics and artificial intelligence.

“Will it work perfectly right out of the box?

“Of course not.

“It will be a mess first time out, and then it will be demonized, and then it will be improved on multiple times before it is universally accepted.

“That’s what happened with MOST technology, by the way, from cars to E-collars, but the intervals between ‘bad’ and ‘good’ and ‘excellent’ are getting shorter and shorter. The world of tech is speeding up at an amazing rate!”