The Dogs Queen of Gambit
[Music]
it was
10 years ago when i started playing
chess with vika
she blew my mind completely
because always been very active
emotional
extremely smart and so unpredictable
she would jump into the water in the
middle of winter
or attack someone during our classes
she’s never been easy but i’ve never
given up
well she forced me to become the queen
of gambit
because my thinking must be faster than
hers
to avoid many dangerous situations
vika is a dog
but i could also call her a tasmanian
devil
when she was a puppy her behavior was
unbearable i was crying a lot
because of her it was so depressing
especially when she was aggressive
towards other dogs
i still remember when she beat my little
sister
because her dog stood next to her
vica pushed me out of my comfort zone
but thanks to her i met amazing people
who helped me and now here i am
a person who’s been learning about dogs
for the last 12 years
i’ve observed hundreds of them
how they function in our society how
people treat them
and what they can teach us
now it’s me who helps others
so why do i care about that
just think about it dogs
are the most common animals kept around
across the globe for the last dozens of
thousands of years
i’m sure that everyone here has met a
dog
even if you’re not the owner they’re
around
at parks in the streets maybe your
friend or family has won
and yet we still know so little about
them
sit stay leave it
come
probably some of you think
that working with dogs is only about
training them
how to take orders but nothing could be
more wrong
in fact training means understanding and
respecting the needs of an animal
not just commanding
imagine that you’re calling a kid for
dinner
while he’s playing computer game almost
impossible at the beginning
am i right same thing
happens when your pup is exploring some
interestingly smelling bushes
it’s quite hard for him to resign from
this compelling activity
what i do is translate the dog’s
behavior
to our human language and the exciting
thing about language
is that it has an impact on our
perception
let’s take max
he’s pulling on the leash probably
you’d label him just as stubborn
impolite but imagine that you
are him you’re attached to a leash
you can’t do what you’d like to do
wouldn’t you try to free yourself
we also feel bad when we are not
understood
and limited by restrictions
anger fear frustration
these emotions which we know from the
lockdown situation
can be also the reason of max’s behavior
can you imagine living in constant
pain and pretending that everything is
okay
tigan was
but she didn’t want to be touched i
don’t know how many times
she beat her owner’s hands because of
that
deegan’s human consulted many doctors
behaviorists and even a dog psychiatrist
before she realized that her dog was
misbehaving
because she was suffering
there is no such thing as a bad dog
the thing is that we mostly base our
knowledge
on superficial beliefs your friend told
you something about your dog
your neighbor complains about him almost
every day
we can say the same about children who
by the way
are very similar to dogs
even scientists use identical methods to
study the minds and behavior of both
children and dogs
somebody once said that children don’t
cry to manipulate impulse or
whatever and the same goes for dogs
they are not born to dominate us
this dominance theory has been busted by
science
i don’t know what’s going on
but i’m so stressed
says max during the so-called
traditional training jerked on a leash
push down to make him sit
lay or whatever
this kind of old-fashioned practices
lead to physical and mental pain and
usually they produce
more problems for example neck injuries
fear of the owner or just general
anxiety
what’s more these are not efficient
and ethical training methods
were you able to remember anything where
you were stressed
at school no i’m wondering why research
says
the higher the level of stress
the lower the learning abilities
i’m showing you how bad i feel
when you are too close it could be
another one of max’s fault
you can find many silly movies and
pictures on the internet
where animals suffer but are considered
as cute
or funny there’s nothing funny
in cuddling a dog growling and showing
his teeth
he’s not smiling he doesn’t feel
safe because you’re crossing his
boundaries
and this can lead to a tragedy
every year there were like tens of
millions of accidents
that a dog bites someone
how can we avoid that ask yourself
why why doesn’t your dog want to be
touched
why doesn’t your dog listen to you
the universal answer lies in the
relationship
would you like to learn from someone you
don’t trust at all
from someone who crosses your boundaries
someone who shows who’s the boss
and doesn’t respect you
probably not neither does your dog
answer yourself how you would like to be
treated
the most important thing know your dog
he talks to you just observe his signals
if he is showing you his thief move away
if she starts to bark
check your surroundings maybe she
noticed something
you don’t see or smell
if she doesn’t listen to you check your
own emotions
because dogs are like reflections of
ourselves
for example when you are angry they
don’t want to cooperate
if he misbehaves instead of punishing
him
get him out of a situation and think out
what to do next time to help him
in coping with emotions
remember about rewarding even the
smallest successes
make sure that your pupil is able to
focus on your request
i mean that is ready for training
mentally
divide a task into easier steps
just keep it simple
building trust is a process but
it’s absolutely worth it
our thinking must be fast enough
to be able to play chess with our dogs
exactly
like in the case of myself and vika
sounds like too much effort well it
comes with
responsibility for both of us
other human beings and our pets
i have a dream in my dream
the basic psychology classes are at
schools
from the early stages to teach us
how to cope with emotions describe
them understand behavior
become passionate and more curious about
what’s going on inside the mind
if we know how to communicate with
ourselves and each other
we’ll gain the huge power to live
a better life with real strong bonds
without hurting our beloved
and actually it doesn’t matter
if it’s a dog or child
because we all are animals