Don’t worry everybody, these razors won’t hurt your dog. I can’t guarantee that they won’t hurt your logic, though!
A Philosophical Razor is a principle which allows us to eliminate (or shave off) unlikely explanations for a phenomenon. In dog training, we use Razors all the time to help us find the most likely solution for a problem behaviour by eliminating the least-likely ones.
Here are three philosophical razors, with some examples of how to use them in a dog training context.
1. Occam’s Razor: “Simpler explanations are more likely to be correct”
Occam’s Razor is the most famous razor, and for good reason! It is extremely powerful and can be applied to almost any problem to help cut away unlikely solutions. Occam’s razor suggests that more complex explanations are less likely to be correct than straight forward ones. For example, it’s more likely that your dog is digging because she thinks digging is fun… rather than your dog is digging because she feels sabotaging your gardening hobby is the best way to ensure you spend more time with her playing fetch.
Occam’s Razor is a crucial tool in dog training. Human beings are adept at pattern identification – it’s one of the things that has enabled us to become such an intelligent species. Unfortunately, it has the side effect of causing us to believe complex falsehoods over simple truths, especially when we are contending with some form of bias. The dog trainer is in a particularly excellent position to apply this razor. We are unbiased and impartial, which allows us to see the simple explanations more easily.
2. Hanlon’s Razor: “Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence/ignorance”
Hanlon’s Razor is my favourite razor of them all – I believe the world would be a kinder place if we all carried Hanlon’s razor around in our pockets. This razor not only cuts away unlikely explanations (most people are not malicious by intent) but acts as a shield to protect us from feeling unnecessarily maligned. I apply this razor to dogs and their humans alike.
Most often people assume malice in their dogs during toilet training. Pooping on the floor is, after all, a pretty significant insult in our human world. If you’re a dog however, pooping on the floor (in the absence of stress / medical problems) usually just means incomplete or inadequate house training. When humans assume malice, we are quick to punish our dogs for the offence but this is detrimental to house training in the long run. Dogs who are punished for pooping become wary of pooping in our presence and end up concealing their accidents from us, or even refusing to poop around us outside even when it would be appropriate. What’s needed isn’t punishment for a perceived crime, but steady guidance to help our dogs learn the appropriate behaviour.
You can use Occam’s razor on dogs to reach the same conclusion as Hanlon’s razor, but when dealing with people Hanlon’s razor also helps us feel protected against malice. If we feel maligned, we may become upset with the human and attempt to “correct” their bad behaviour where steady guidance towards the goal behaviour is more appropriate. The human is quick to scold the puppy, but this isn’t because they are malevolent - they are most likely stressed out and frustrated themselves. These humans are lacking a vital piece of information on their dog training journey and it’s the role of dog trainers to fill in these gaps instead of scolding our clients for making poor choices. Scolding a human for not knowing the right answer is just as dangerous as scolding a dog – it makes us feel worse about our abilities, less in control of the situation and more overwhelmed in general. Ultimately if those feelings are cultivated training will be unsuccessful and the dog will be rehomed.
3. Adler’s Razor (Newton’s Flaming Laser Sword): “What cannot be settled by experiment is not worth debating”
Adler’s razor feels wrong, as everything is worth debating to some extent. Debates make life interesting! But when it comes to designing a training plan for our clients, it is crucial that we focus on observable behaviour only and not fixate on information which we cannot possibly obtain. An example of this is focusing on observable behaviour (body language) to gauge our dogs mood rather than spending unnecessary time worrying about whether my dog would feel offended if I bought him the cheaper hot pink coat it rather than the tasteful blue one which costs twice the price. We can’t know our dog’s opinion on something, and we can’t ask them how they feel so there’s no point debating it. Buy the cheap coat, and if your dog appears uncomfortable return it and try another.
Adler’s razor comes into play when we don’t have, and cannot possibly gain, all of the facts. With dogs, it’s usually because the dog is a rescue and we have no idea the type of life they’ve lead up until they were brought to the shelter. Many times, a rescue dog will display odd behaviour: barking at bearded people, an apparent hatred for golden retrievers, or even fear of stairs. We can’t know what caused this behaviour, and speculation on what happened only consumes our time. Instead, we must focus on the observable behaviour and work towards helping our dog overcome the challenges they are facing. We can do this with or without understanding where the behaviour came from, so it’s not worth discussing.
Adler’s razor is known as “Newton’s Flaming Laser Sword” because philosophers have a very odd sense of humour and because it’s seen as more “extreme” than the other Razors. Since Alder’s razor cuts out a huge swathe of discussion without ever addressing it, it leaves us with a feeling of immense dissatisfaction at the large burning hole in our reasoning left behind. Use with caution!
