Over the last twenty years since Compass the animal (particularly dog) training and behaviour industry has changed considerably. Initially there was very little available in the way of courses for people to study and most people who were working with dogs had done their learning ‘on the job’. Courses for interested individuals were few and far between and everything was conducted on the phone and by post, a simple static website was seen as cutting edge technology. Not only was knowledge of animal psychology in its infancy but questions about the quality of course providers and the content of courses were never asked. In all honesty, the few that were available were generally reputable providers with courses based on the science available at the time.

The development of the internet and mobile communications has changed things beyond recognition in a relatively short period of time and not all for the better. For sure, speed of delivery has improved beyond imagination. Originally, we would be doing well to get cheque payments cleared and course material posted within 10 days, now students can register online and they are studying within 24 hours. What had started to appear with increasing numbers of course providers was the face of increased competition.

Competition can be a strong motivator to improve and as the number of course providers started to grow it meant that we and others constantly looked at ways to provide a better service, getting courses formally accredited and ensuring that tutors were qualified teachers for instance. Sadly, the less than ethical side of competition started to creep in as some searched for ways of convincing people to part with money, unfounded promises of qualification, worthless letters after their names and false claims about the level of study on offer became commonplace. Worse than this was spreading untruths about competitors and their courses. It became obvious around 5 years ago that the motivation for providing education had switched for many from the spread of knowledge to simply making money and the morality of the tactics employed to achieve this was irrelevant.

The mushrooming growth of social media has provided enormous assistance to such underhand marketing, a piece of (untrue) news spreads around the internet at an incredible rate. As the old saying goes ‘A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.’ What I still find amazing is that so many people are prepared to accept what they read on some websites, Facebook or Twitter as absolute truth, without ever questioning it or seeking independent evidence. It seems that the more outrageous or salacious the story, the more worthy it is of belief and sharing.

The unfortunate fact is that the truth is seldom exciting so it gets overlooked very quickly, whereas something that draws immediate attention, regardless of how true it is, gets shared and shared again very quickly. There are three types of mis-information:

The mistaken. In this case someone genuinely misunderstands something and posts their interpretation of it on-line, this is then taken as fact and passed on again as such.

The spin. Here a piece of news that reflects badly on someone is reported in such a way as to either make them appear a victim and therefore invite sympathy or to be economical with the truth in such a way that the event is presented as a positive outcome.

The lie. In this case a malicious story is deliberately spread in order to undermine or discredit another individual or organisation.

There are casualties as a result of this new world, integrity and quality are put under pressure and people wanting to invest in a career are convinced to invest their hard earned money into education of questionable value. I was recently asked on Facebook what deals Compass was going to offer for Black Friday. When I explained that we didn’t get involved in that sort of marketing because dramatic reductions can only happen on the back of extortionate profit margins it was met with ‘lots of other companies do’.