It seems like all of the world’s major religions recognize something comparable to Christianity’s Golden Rule. It reminds us that we humans, like other animals, learn by modeling. If we want another person to behave in a way we find nonthreatening and even enjoyable, we need to display that same behavior first. Needless to say, that doesn’t sit well with some of us some of the time and others most of the time. After all, it takes a lot less energy to tell someone to do as we say and not as we do.
Given how reluctant we may feel about modeling good behavior for members of our own species, it’s easy to understand why some of us blanche at the thought of doing this for our animals…
No matter how much doing so may benefit them and our relationship with them.
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