Pet Cams – A Breakthrough in Pet Training?

By Amy Fernandez

It’s too soon to know for sure, but it’s possible that the dog training industry may finally have a tool to close that fatal communication gap that has separated theory from practical application since this business got underway. That’s a long time considering that mass market dog training got underway back in the 1940s.

The basic concepts were firmly in place long before then. The only thing that really changed was the realization that every dog was capable of learning not only basic house manners, but also potentially far more sophisticated stuff.

Essentially, the big revelation was a reassessment of owners, not dogs.  Theoretically, complex training has never been beyond the abilities of an average dog owner. Anyone can follow step-by-step DIY instructions. It usually worked to some degree mainly because dogs have lived with us long enough to generally figure out the illogical behavior patterns and contradictory communication signals coming from the human members of their tribe.

Human error is precisely why results consistently fell far short of those grand expectations. Nothing changed until about 15 years ago, when for various reasons, the dog training biz morphed into a mainstream profession with enough specialists, gadgets, and fads to rival the weight loss industry. Most of these amazing new the dog training market breakthroughs turn out to be hype, but there is one new innovation that may help us turn the corner, pet cams. These are wireless cameras that allow owners to watch their pet’s every move, should they choose to do so.

Regardless of methodology or philosophy, dog training boils down to the same basic cause-and-effect principles. The crucial underlying element that makes it work is timing and communication which, of course, requires paying attention to what the dog is doing. Logically, living with an animal should effectively bridge that gap. In reality, an alarming proportion of owners seem oblivious to the litany of canine crimes committed right before their eyes. That’s not say that owners don’t spend plenty of time fantasizing about exactly what their dogs are doing. Even Hollywood is cashing in on that longstanding obsession with the summer blockbuster The Secret Life of Dogs.

Although it’s an over the top comedy, it captures the central irony of this situation.

For unexplainable reasons, spying on your dog is far more interesting that watching it in action. Maybe it’s a byproduct of this techno-obsessed digital age, but the typical workday for legions of owners now includes substantial time riveted to that grainy remote footage transmitted from their at home pet cams. Along with the discovery that most dogs like sleeping better than anything, modern owners are finally waking up to all that stuff trainers have been lecturing them about for the last 40 or 50 years, such as the predictable connection between opportunity, intention, and habit formation. The only problem now is translating those insights into real-time behavior modification.