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Controversial Twitch streamer Hasan Piker allegedly uses a shock collar on his dog on stream.
It is narrative shorthand for a villain - to emphasize his wickedness and complete removal from the family of man - to kick a dog for no reason other than vicious spite. While on air last night, expounding upon his hatred of America and its violence and imperialism, his dog Kaya stands up behind him. A Tibetan mastiff/guardhound mix, the streamer purchased her a long time ago as a puppy. Nowadays, she spends the majority of her waking existence sitting behind him, in camera as a prop during his streams. As soon as he sees that she's moving off the bed, he shouts at her, and reaches for something off-camera. Immediately afterwards, the dog yelps as she tries to lay back down.
It is obviously a shock collar that is being used. No amount of denial or snarky comments can get anyone to believe that their lying eyes can see any differently. And if you think that's an overstatement - I invite you to see the footage for yourself. The fact that the man still has a career after saying "America deserved 9/11" is testament to the country's tolerance for extreme left-wing radicalization, but this might very well be the thing that can take him down. Americans love their dogs: creatures of innocent, adoring love for man. The fact that Hasan uses his dog to sustain his flagging social media presence - in emotes and in donation messages - is a transparent attempt to associate his vile personality with an animal's emotional resonance.
You can tell a lot about a character of a man by his treatment of creatures who depend entirely upon his good will and care for their lives. By this metric, Hasan is a despotic and evil blackguard. One hopes that these clips are shown at tonight's congressional hearing to the Twitch CEO. At the very least, it will be entertaining to see how the man deflects for his pet demagogue. Perhaps, in a peace offering, he can offer to collar the streamer?
There is nothing wrong with using a shock collar. View the dog as a working animal, its job is essentially to perform as an actor contributing to his streams. In exchange it receives food, shelter and so forth. It seems like a fair deal for the dog, I see nothing wrong with this.
Pet owners online are some of the most deranged, toxic people I have ever encountered. They seem to view dogs and cats as our masters, that we must deliver them lavish accommodations and expect nothing in return. Suffice it to say I find this unreasonable. If a human is expected to have a job, so too can a dog.
I'm a dog owner, and I'm not deranged, I think I'm pretty pragmatic.
Tentative agree if you are a wise owner who understands classical conditioning and basic dog psychology. I don't think most dog owners meet this bar.
I have a friend who lives in a rural area with a dog who loves going for long walks to kill rabbits/see his dog "girlfriend" in the farm 3 kilometers over. They have a shock collar that activates if he leaves the property, which I think is great because it reduces his risk of getting killed by a car, but means he doesn't need to be literally tied to the house (which was the prior solution).
I have an uncle who uses the shock collar as a shortcut to actually training his dog by zapping it when it pisses him off, but he does 0 training to teach it what he actually wants. I dislike this greatly.
Refusing to let it move from a single location for any reason for hours on end is deranged, both as a job period for any living being, but especially a dog. They're restless creatures with a ton of energy.
My dog spends most of his time sleeping these days (he's 5), I tried pretty hard with him to get him to sleep beside me when I work at my desk. Seemed like a win/win, because I could interact with him when I needed a break instead of go on my phone, and he'd get way more attention then if he was on the couch in a different room. But it didn't work because he seems to really love changing his sleeping location every few hours, going for a drink, etc. He sleeps most of the day, but every time I leave my office he's in a different location than when I last left it. Most dogs I've interacted with share this behavior.
If Hassan did a good job at training, he'd create a strong positive association with lying in that bed behind him. But I image even if he did (what I've heard about him and the fact he's using a shock collar makes me doubt this), I bet it would still want to stretch its legs, get water, whatever. It's a fucking dog, they like to move, we like to move too ideally (see: how shit desk jobs are for your physical health) we just have an easier time overriding that impulse, to our detriment.
I'm all for dogs having jobs, many breeds need them (every border collie I see in Toronto is autistically fixated on fetch as a replacement for herding, it's sad). But "sit here for hours and never move from this exact spot" is antithetical to their nature, and the 10,000 years of jobs they've done for us thus far.
Agreed. I think another aspect is the hypocrisy of it. Using pain to condition a working dog who has a job like herding is one thing. But this dog's job is literally "be in the video stream and look friend-shaped, so that viewers will continue to watch". It is very much unsurprising that people have an emotional reaction to the dog getting shocked.
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