What Do Tea Bags, Worms, and Dog Training Have in Common? #27

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Are you seeing things as they are? Or how you EXPECT them to be?  

Discover why you may fall for certain dog training methods despite them not being in your dog's best interest. Let's sharpen our critical thinking skills in our latest podcast episode!

Ever been convinced you saw something that wasn't really there? Picture this: a viral video had me believing there were wiggling worms in Lipton tea bags, only to find out they were just pieces of lemon!

This episode explores how our perceptions can be easily manipulated by compelling narratives. Join me as I unravel this eye-opening experience and delve into how it made me question so much of what I see and hear.

From debunking the tea bag myth to scrutinizing popular yet controversial dog training methods, we'll dissect how our beliefs can cloud our judgment. I share a heartfelt story about a friend's unwavering faith in a punitive dog trainer, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

This episode is all about sharpening your critical thinking skills and becoming a more discerning consumer of information, especially when it comes to the well-being of your furry friends. Tune in and empower yourself to make better-informed decisions for your pets!

Resources:

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All information is for general educational purposes ONLY and doesn't constitute medical or veterinary advice. Please consult a qualified healthcare provider if you or your dog are unwell or injured. 

TRANSCRIPT:

Have you ever wondered what you're watching when you listen to someone that's talking about anything, whether it's dog training, maybe it's dog health, maybe it's me talking about improving your dog's movement and well being. Do you ever really question whether what you think you're listening to and watching is true or nothing? So I will share with you a little story that will explain this a little bit more.

But in the meantime, in case we haven't met before, my name is Mary de Bono, and this is the easier movement, Happier Dogs podcast. And, yeah, so some years ago, someone had posted a video online, and she was talking about how she discovered that there's worms, the tea bags she was buying. And because I'm a big tea drinker, I was a little interested in this. Like, what brand?

What is she talking about? What kind of worms? Like, what is going on? And so I watched the video, and she was. She was buying Lipton tea. Now, I don't drink Lipton tea normally, but anyway, I was interested in looking at what she was saying, and she would rip open the bag, the tea bags, you know, from the little wrapper, and she would spill it out on her counter.

And she was filming all this. And the tea she was specifically buying was Lipton black tea with lemon. Okay. So she was saying, like, look at those worms, and they're even moving. And she showed, you know, with her video she was showing, and I could see those little worms were moving. It was kind of gross, because I'm like, oh, this is in the tea. And then you put the boiling water, those poor worms.

But also, yeah, kind of gross. And I thought, wow, okay. And she said she bought multiple boxes of the tea to verify this and from different stores, and all of them have these worms in them. Okay, so before you run out and throw out your Lipton tea, please listen to the rest of this. Well, then I googled it, and it turns out those were not worms. They were small pieces of lemon.

Now, I will tell you this. I will tell you that I was convinced that I saw them moving, that I saw those quote unquote worms wiggling around, because she said they were. And I had bought into the whole narrative that there are worms in this tea that I would have told you. Yes, I saw them move, because I really thought I did. And that was such an aha for me, because I realized that, wow, what we think we're seeing may not match reality.

And I'll give you another example. So sometime after that, and again, this was quite a number of years ago, I was talking with a friend of mine, and she's a really kind person who loved, loved her miniature schnauzer. Love this dog. And she commented that her and the dog would want this particular show. It was on Natgeo. I won't say the guy's name, but you know who he is.

Okay. And he was very, you know, he. He was very visible at the time, especially, and he was on this popular show, and he was supposedly a dog trainer. And I was talking to her about that, like, oh, you know, what do you think of his training methods and things like that? Because in my experience, what I have seen, because, yes, I did watch a number of those episodes, and I was appalled because he was using a lot of.

A lot of punitive measures. He would do a lot of leash corrections. He used choke collars. You know, he would strike the dog sometimes. It just wasn't. The dogs always looked to me to be very stressed, and it didn't look like something that certainly I would want to partake in. And I wouldn't have expected her to, either, because she was so kind. Right, right. But she was convinced this guy was fabulous.

So. And again, because she went in with that narrative when she watched the shows, she only saw what she considered to be good about the show. And so I even sent her a little clip that was making the rounds on the Internet about. During a show, during a show that they aired, he was basically hanging this dog, you know, this husky, and it was awful. And when I said, what do you think about this, though?

Like. Like, here's an example of something I'm talking about. And she brushed it off because she just wasn't ready to accept that her hero, we'll call him, could have those kind of flaws. So, again, I thought back to my experience with the tea leaves and the worms, the quote unquote worms that did not exist, that I would have told you I saw them moving. Okay. Because, again, I bought into that narrative.

So, you know, you can kind of think of it as, like, a confirmation bias. Like, when we believe something, we feel something strongly, our brain then finds evidence to support that, and it. It deletes or distorts other things that may be contrary to what we really believe. And this is a big problem in dog training a woman. I was listening to a podcast recently. She was talking about how she went to a different dog trainer, but he's very popular, I guess, on Instagram and other things, and he walks around with a pack of dogs, and I won't again won't say his name or the name he goes by, but she went to kind of audit the dog training clinic he was doing, and she said that it was really interesting.

She has no interest in his work because it doesn't align with her values. She's a positive reinforcement dog trainer. But she said it was really interesting when she did get a chance to talk to people that were watching, they were like super fans, right? And they were buying the merchandise. They were, you know, just thinking, oh, he's the most wonderful thing. One lady even said something like, oh, I feel like if a wild squirrel came in here, that squirrel would just jump into his hands because he's so amazing with animals.

And, you know, for people in the know, you know, who believe in treating our dogs with respect and love and using positive reinforcement to build that bond and to help teach our dogs, you know, how to live comfortably in this human world, we're appalled by that guy's antics. And she said it was just so interesting to see. So my question is always, where am I doing that in my life?

Because, again, with the tea leaves. Okay. I would have told you I saw those worms moving. Yeah. Okay. Now, I knew enough to take a deeper dive into it and not to, you know, not to go around bashing Lipton tea by any means, but still, where in our lives are we doing this? And, you know, I. So in the dog world, it's like when you consume information, because there's so much information out there, you know, and some people have really big platforms, and they have lots of, you know, lots of admirers, lots of fans, and sometimes you get sucked into that narrative.

But I would ask you to really step back and to think about, does this work, whatever it happens to be, whether it's dog training or some other aspect of doggy life, does it align with my values? And then say, does it really align with my values? Take that extra step to ask, does it really, and then, and I think this is really crucial. Then ask yourself, in what ways does it align, and in what ways does it not align with my values?

And really become your own authority on this kind of stuff doesn't mean you don't learn from people, but you learn to question what you're listening to. And this goes for my stuff as well, that I'm talking about. I encourage people to be their own guides, to be their own authority, their own teachers, if you will. Yes, you can learn from others. I continue to learn from others, and I've learned from others my whole life, and I want to make sure that I'm taking what's real, in other words, that I'm really learning something valuable and useful.

And, yeah, maybe there's times when you're not sure of what that particular teacher is saying really resonates with you or not or, you know, but there is definitely maybe a bunch of other stuff that does. So you. You can. You can be choosy, right, about what you do and what you take from that teacher. But again, I'd really encourage you to at least this is from, this is my path anyway, to question what you're consuming and to look at it, you know, to step back and ask yourself, again, does it align with my values?

Does it really align with my values? And then in what ways does it, because that will encourage you, we'll say, to look more deeply at it, to really parse through what you're consuming and figure out in what ways does align. And things may come to the surface then that don't resonate with you but don't align with your values, and then ask yourself, well, in what ways does it not align with my values or in what ways does it not resonate with me?

In what ways would it not fit into my life and my dog's life? So that's what I'd like to leave you with today, to really question things, to be your own authority. Yes, you have teachers. That's awesome. Again, I hope to keep learning for the rest of my life, and I hope to be asking good questions as well. So that's what I wish for you also. So let me know, by the way, if you have a question about me, about my work, about what we're doing here, or if there's some way I could help you, and maybe we'll do a podcast episode about that.

Thank you so much for listening, subscribing, reviewing the podcast, and I love sharing this work with you, and I can't wait to talk to you again soon. Bye for now.