this post was submitted on 23 Apr 2025
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[–] [email protected] 29 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Friend is jealous of dogboy

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Someone wouldn't like watching House M.D. if this is making them feel immoral.

House Trains His Protégé | House M.D..

(if you don't want to see the whole thing here's s timestamp for the more relevant portion)

That's just basic psychology more or less. These are just the thoughts you shouldn't say ouloud perhaps. You can often compare things because there's similarities, but the nature of the things being compared may make it offensive.

It's more like "training dogs has given me an understanding of basic psychology which came really handy in my relationships" than "I'm training my bf like a dog".

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 day ago

The lady has training with animals and is applying what she learnt to make a guy at ease with her... I'd say the friend is the asshole here. You do the best you can with what you got.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The NYT had an article from 2006 which described a very similar "training". It goes into greater detail. Here is an archived version without paywall: https://archive.ph/n4GPa

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago

When logic doesn't work, appeal to the lizard brain ... often. We're kinda not that complex.

I totally respect this, but worry egoes (his) will get in the way during a lull in the snacks.

[–] [email protected] 51 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

IDK as a guy this doesn't seem weird at all. If anything, it sounds like she likes him and is willing to put in work to make him feel more comfortable and make the relationship successful. She doesn't really use any dehumanizing language and the way she connects the dots between what she notices in dogs and her date seems very empathetic. If anything, the guy's lucky to have found someone with so much emotional intelligence and hopefully she's getting out what she's putting in

[–] [email protected] 282 points 1 day ago (9 children)

-Listens to what he means when he is speaking -Pays attention to his nonverbal cues about his emotional state -Respects his boundaries and only assists him in expanding them, not demanding he do so -Rewards him for engaging in new healthy behaviours that he finds uncomfortable

Fellas, is it being an asshole for checks notes engaging with your partner?

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Gotta say, this smells a little like a top tier troll post. That out of the way, I also would like someone to carry around peanut M&Ms for me.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

Top tier reward

[–] [email protected] 116 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Intent matters, and methods matter. But I think what the friend is missing is that the methods aren't bad; op is using methods developed from scientific analysis of abused animals with the intent to ethically care for them. Coming back to intent, she clearly wants to help this guy who her training is identifying as having some kind of background of abuse. The methods might be a little crude in the sense that they were developed for animals and not for people (who are animals, but animals with several distinct qualities from other animals, like the ability to communicate complex ideas), and there are different, more well-adapted methods for people, but they're only crude in comparison to those modern human-focused methods. They're still quite effective, and I would still consider them ethical for use on humans when paired with an altruistic intent, which she seems to be conveying. As long as she still views the guy as fully a person, a peer, then I see nothing wrong here.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 23 hours ago (4 children)

The only vaguely concerning bit I see here is the penultimate sentence. Evading consent is sketchy, but I'm not a behavioral psychologist and thus have no working knowledge on how that would impact his "treatment".

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[–] [email protected] 55 points 1 day ago (9 children)

Intent matters, and methods matter.

pretty much agree, it's not like she's conditioning him to sounds CLICK-CLICK good boy....

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago

Smart woman. She backed into learning how to short circuit the animal instinct (ego) of man. Shows how empathy and compassion work better, by going to the source of the issue, rather than being triggered and responding negatively oneself to the symptoms.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

62yo male here thinks she's a damn genius... maybe she should like, make some of those tiktoks or something...

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago

Isn’t this just reinforcement, like reinforcement vs punishment from behavioral psychology? It works.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Weak. Submissives, come to me and I will treat you as lesser than a dog. You may not be useless, but you are worthless 😎

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

I don't see a problem here.

[–] [email protected] 144 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Me, reading title: "WTF?!? That's messed up!"

Me, after reading the post: "I'm so fucking jealous."

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[–] [email protected] 77 points 1 day ago (1 children)

We’re all animals, whether or not we want to believe that is simply a fact. And on top of that we are stressed the fuck out which pushes people, to vary degrees, back towards monkey brain. I consider myself pretty self-aware and therapy has proven that but oh man did my last job do a lot to leave me defensive and short with even the people I care about.

There’s that phrase “you can’t logic someone out of an argument they didn’t logic themselves into” that very well encapsulates the idea that trying to force some higher intelligence, some emotionless, robotic reasoning onto people does very little to actually help(though it should help more than it does and I’m disappointed in people running on pure, angry emotion all the same).

We need to stop acting like we aren’t the way that we are, it just hurts us. I’m not saying we need to excuse bad behaviour because, unlike wild animals, we have a great capacity to know better and adjust, but we do need to be more ok with the reality of ourselves.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago (2 children)

To add to this, you can do this to yourself as well. Reward yourself for the right behavior, tell yourself your did a good job, etc. It's (I'm guessing) harder than extrinsic motivation, but it still works. Take advantage of having a stupid lizard brain under all the stuff that makes us human.

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[–] [email protected] 162 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Someone who always has a snack for me if I'm feeling down?? Sign me the fuck up!

[–] [email protected] 49 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I was like 'I need a caretaker/trainer'

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 day ago

My fat ass (food motivated btw) immediately thought of the snacks but someone who can make me quit my bullshit is even better!

[–] [email protected] 177 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If THAT is what counts as "being treated like a dog", woof woof!

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 day ago

I lucked out, I have someone to train me with snacks too uwu

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