The Agency-Accountability Framework

The Agency-Accountability Framework was written by Dr. Stewart Hilliard, and based on a series of discussions with Michael Ellis and Forrest Micke beginning in 2023. The framework draws on Comparative Psychology, Animal Welfare Science, Stress Science, and relevant Ethics and Philosophy sources to characterize the essential features of the best current integrated dog training systems. By “best,” we mean those systems engineered to be the most technically sophisticated, pragmatically effective, ethically-defensible, and most consistent with good welfare for dogs and all other human and non-human creatures in their orbit.

Among the overarching conclusions upon which the framework rests are:

  • Dog welfare is best understood in terms of the presence or absence of the dog’s sense of predictability and control, rather than merely the presence or absence of stress
  • A consistent ability to predict and control events– whether they are pleasure-producing or displeasure-producing– results in a property of behavior called agency that is critical to dog welfare
  • Dog welfare is best defined not merely in terms of the dog’s brief emotional response to a training situation, but in terms of the dog’s emotional state– and degree of behavioral choice– across the broad sweep of its existence
  • Dog welfare cannot be considered separately from communal welfare— the economic, emotional, and physical well-being of the dog’s guardian, other human beings, and other animals in the community of the which the dog is a member
  • Accountability refers to the ethical responsibility of the guardian for: the dog’s effective, humane training; for the dog’s welfare; and for the welfare of other human beings and animals in the community of the which the dog is a member
  • When conducted according to modern principles and using technically-sophisticated procedures– and against a background of positive reinforcement– aversive control of behavior is fully consistent with dog welfare

The Agency-Accountability Framework is offered as a resource for any Kynology.org community member (membership free of charge by starting a Kynology.org account). Note that the framework is a living document that will be gradually expanded to reveal the scientific and scholarly foundation upon which it rests. The framework may also be revised to conform to new science or insights that come to light. You are invited to accompany us and monitor the framework and see how it evolves over the coming years.

Please be our guest and examine the Agency-Accountability Framework by hitting the below button. You will have to log in to your (free) community membership account on Kynology.org, if you have not already done so.

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