NYTimes Op Ed - I will not project colonial, capitalist or patriarchial concepts on my dog

I will not project colonial, capitalist or patriarchial concepts on my dog

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My Year of Being Very Online About Dogs

“Dog training has become just one more target for the woke community to prey upon!”

If you own a dog and have ever searched the internet for advice on that dog, there’s a good chance you’ve encountered Zak George.

Mr. George, a 45-year-old with 3.69 million YouTube followers and the slightly goofy, hyper energy of a doodle mix, is the most popular dog trainer on the platform. He’s the most popular by a long shot: Cesar Millan, the dog whisperer, has 2.71 million. Those trying to deride Mr. George — and there are many — will often say he stopped being a dog trainer a long time ago; what he is now is a dog influencer.

Then, around this time last year, I watched, transfixed, as Mr. George began launching broadsides against an approach to training dogs known as balanced training (more on just what that is in a moment). In video after video, he declared that the dog training industry had reached a crisis point and that it was time for a reckoning with those in the profession who train with what are called aversives — tools that cause a dog discomfort.

The videos did what they were intended to do: They sparked a response. But not just any response. Comment sections filled with discussions on “woke idiots” in dog training. “Radicals Are Hijacking Dog Training,” posted one trainer, calling force-free training, the anti-aversive movement of which Mr. George is arguably the most prominent face, an “ideology” and a “cult” with a “radicalized agenda” — language that sounded awfully familiar.

Even before this, I’d seen the occasional Instagram post by a trainer using terminology that seemed drawn from another context: I’d paused on several posts that applied the term “consent” to dogs — as in, we should get their consent before we pet them. In some cases, the trainer’s vocabulary seemed drawn from even more distant shores: “I will not project colonial, capitalist, or patriarchal concepts on my dog,” one post read, in between tips on leash reactivity and separation anxiety; “don’t gaslight your dog,” another urged.