Lecture: The Effectiveness of Brainwashing (3) (1956)

Pavlov talks about making a dog insane. I’d like to shake the paw of a dog the techniques contained in his book would make insane.

These learned experiments by which we reduce a circle to a square and reduce a square to a circle while ringing gongs and dah-dah bells and feeding the dog and beating the dog–oh, bah.

I had a malamute once, he was a tough dog. The only way he could accept an acknowledgment was if you took a stick of firewood and hit him between the ears. My mother, who is a very little person, very small person, used to take a stick or a chain to this malamute and just used to beat him and beat him and beat him to make him stop chasing cows. And the dog would say, “Hahh-hahh-hahh-hahh-hahh-hahh.” He’d say, “I love you too!”

I used to come home after an absence. This dog was very ferocious. He was half malamute, half spitzbergen, very tough dog. He only knew one thing: when you put him on a leash and he felt that harness against his chest, he’d pull! And you went whether you wanted to or not. And he used to come–he’d see me coming up toward the house and he would rush out of the gate. I’d been gone for a month or two or three. And he would rush out of the gate with every fang bared. And I’d wait until he got there and I’d pick up the loose skin on both sides of his jowls and use his momentum and throw him about that far. And he would go over there about 25 feet and he would land, see. And he’d get up and he’d say, “Oh, it’s you, Ron. How are you?” That dog was half Russian! And Pavlov said that denying him a little food would drive him crazy.¹

Notes