I don't. dogs are so mainstream that it's easy for people to just go and get one and not do any research, and even when they do try to educate themselves it's very easy for them to find the wrong kind of information and, without anything to discredit it, to believe in it.
I blame the industry for not doing more to reach out to owners and prospective owners. Bad breeders who sell puppies without educating the buyers on what to look for in terms of training and health care, vets who think they know something about dominance :yikes:, trainers who quietly teach classes without any efforts to reach out to the community but only teach those who find them and media outlets like NatGeo who promote methods that are ineffective, dangerous and ill-founded.
I don't think its a matter of blame, unless we are talking about the sort of training techniques that boggle common sense, which is not what CM does. I don't blame owners, and I don't even really blame CM. What he's doing is relatively traditional, indeed, more moderate that most traditional training. Its outdated, and there are vast improvements out there, and he should really look into them, but nothing I've seen him do has shocked me. You can train a dog that way. It "works" in the sense of stopping your average dog from being out of control. In the hands of someone who knows what they are doing, it works pretty well. He's become fameous and wealthy training dogs that way, and I don't expect him to stop. I'm sure he thinks that what he's doing is just fine, and if you'd asked people 30 years ago, they would have seen him as cutting edge. That might not be an excuse, but its completely understandable.
That said, there are MUCH better, much safer ways to do things. Moreover, they are ways that will do a lot less damage in hands of your average never-owned-a-dog-before person, and are more humane. But I don't think its a matter of blame. Its a matter of education and evolution. Now that more and more people are speaking out, it seems likely that other methods will begin to gain ground. Just keep in mind that there are people who still beat their dogs and rub their noses in messes to train them, out of sheer ignorance. Against that, or against total cluelessness, CM is a distinct improvement. (I'd even say he's an improvement over those nits who beg their dogs to do things "sit sweetie, please? sit, sweetie? for Mommy?" or maybe its just that those people drive me nuts)
I have warned multiple people off CM and will continue to do so, just as I will continue to give people lists of good training books and offer what advice on positive methods I can. But I don't think its a matter of blame. I'm pretty sure CM believes what he is saying, and that he authentically loves dogs and wants to see people succeed. His methods are unfounded and outdated, and dangerous in the wrong hands. But I've seen much, much worse, and I'd rather see CM out there than totally untrained dogs dumped at the pound because their owners can't stand them any more. The real trick is to show people that there are much, much better ways to do things than CM, and to get them to understand ideas that are more complex than "dominance," and, moreover, to get them to understand that these ways are easier! Not sure how you do that except for more television shows though.
And a comment on bad advice: tragically, there is not only bad advice from CM (and worse advice from others) out there, but there is also bad positive reinforcement advice out there which is enough to put people off the method all together. I've read enough new-agey, lovey-dovey, flaky "positive training" crap to ruin twenty dogs. Its not that postive reinforcement isn't the way to go . . . its that there's a lot of poorly written stuff out there that basically doesn't tell you what to do if your dog doesn't do what the book says they should. Moreover, its so determined to get away from CM type techniques that you get the "never say no" philosophy, which isn't much help when the dog is chasing the cat up the bookshelves. This sort of thing is enough to drive people back to CM, which is a real shame.
. The others have no problem with the idea of defending themselves.
