스페셜 에피소드: Dr. Karen Overall의 반려견을 위한 심호흡 프로토콜

As a starting point, Doctor Overall claims that dogs can recognize and control their emotional states like humans do. At this point, it really doesn't matter how many PhDs she has. Expecting a dog to use deep breathing consciously to manage stress on their own is unrealistic. Period. Dogs lack the self-awareness humans possess. I mean, would you expect your dog to practice yoga? It would be adorable but utterly impossible. Humans greatly struggle to master deep breathing during mindfulness practice. These are meditation practice techniques. The central tenet of any meditative practice is that one's ability to direct and frame their thoughts and feelings dictates the quality of their experience of life and the world around them. If you haven't tried to meditate, you have no idea how difficult that is. From my personal experience, for the longest time, I couldn't tell the difference between active meditation and letting my mind wander. Meditation is about learning to be aware of the present before your thoughts take over and interfere with your perception. And here is Doctor Overall suggesting that your dog could become little canine yoga. Atropomorphism at times is not a bad thing. But in this case, it grossly overestimates dog's cognitive abilities. I really find myself questioning Doctor Overall's PhDs given the sheer absurdity of such training protocol. What is even more absurdity is that breath work protocol is endorsed by the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behaviouries, APDT, and many other force free advocate as a legit treatment. I've read and I've watched many of Doctor Overall's plausible sounding bullshit. She insists that dogs can choose to use deep breathing techniques to control their emotions. I am not exaggerating. Here are brief excerpts from one of her presentations. If we can teach dogs to self calm by taking a deep breath, they'll slow down, they'll stop moving, they'll be receptive to calmly and slowly being petted and massaged, and be able to follow the rest of our physical and verbal cues. So, I'll read the whole thing. But basically, if we can teach dogs to self calm by taking a deep breath, they will slow down and stop moving, be receptive to being calmly and slowly petted or massaged, and be able to follow the rest of our physical and verbal cues. Such dogs will also learn that they feel better and get more information when they relax. And then, they will learn that they have control over their reactivity. They can choose not to react. That's her words. I suggest that you do a search.

We're going to put a link also of some of her presentations for you to watch, unless you've seen them already. But there is plenty on YouTube of her and her followers using the protocol. So, I also want to show you briefly with a dog what this cognitive training looks like. Come, Rocky. All right, so here is Rocky. He's a one year old. He's my rescue puppy. That is mine. And he's going to flare his nostrils for the camera. Good. You probably cannot see it because his nostrils are very small. Nice. So, yeah. That's like somebody waving a slice of pizza or a steak in front of me. And me trying to choose to control my emotions and go in a meditation state instead of thinking about the pizza. Yeah. So, if you are telling me that she is consciously taking deep breaths and she will choose to do that when she's highly aroused, highly stressed, in order to calm herself down and center herself. You're really way out there. But does she flare her nostrils? Sure. The processes she describes are clearly misleading and it's really pride-time pseudo-science. It's flawed logic and here is why. The smell of food triggers involuntary biological response geared toward digestion, such as salivation. It has nothing to do with the deep systematic relaxation that results from controlled breathing techniques. Digestion, salivation, does that ring a bell? We can teach dogs to associate cues with certain behaviors, but there is no way, no way, dogs can actually understand the physiological benefits of deep breathing. Let's talk briefly about conditioning versus cognitive control. Dr. Overall's claim is that dogs can learn to choose to change their emotional response. While dogs can learn to modify their behavior through training, they do not have the mental capacities to consciously change their emotional responses as humans do, through awareness, understanding and cognitive strategies. Teaching a dog to sit calmly using positive reinforcement does not require nor involve understanding emotional states.

Dogs do not have the capacity for abstract thinking, which is necessary for reframing thoughts and beliefs that influence emotions. Dogs cannot engage in complex thought processes like introspection or rationalizing their emotions. Of course, dogs can be trained to alter their behavior in response to certain stimuli. However, this is achieved through conditioning or what we call training rather than conscious emotional regulation. The notion that dogs can manage emotions through controlled breathing is ridiculous. Can we teach dogs to control their arousal level using breath work on their own? Come on. For example, instead of this bogus proposition, a dog trainer should focus on gradually exposing the dog to a fear stimulus while perhaps use positive reinforcement. We can also increase the intensity of a stimulus to build tolerance without causing much stress. Yes, we can change dog's emotional state associated with certain situations. I demonstrate how this is done in my TWC course, but it is certainly not done through deep breathing techniques. To wrap this up, the idea of using cognitive behavioral therapy as with humans for dogs overestimates their cognitive abilities and lacks any scientific support. All the videos I have watched are beautiful example of snake oil salesmen. Effective dog training should rely on well-established conditioning techniques that align with canon behavior and physiology. There are way better ways how we can influence emotional states. But most definitely this cannot be done in the way using current overalls protocol. They are humane and scientifically backed up methods that ensure realistic expectations and improve the quality of life for both pets and their owners. Dr. Overall's breath work protocol is not one of them. Thank you for watching. As always, questions and discussions are welcome. Thank you. Thank you.