Nonsense. Remember when Fangio refused to adjust to what offenses were doing and kept Ramsey only on one side of the field?
Pepperidge Farm remembers.
Fangio was part of the problem in Miami.
I had forgotten that.
It appears that part of his "obedience training" required "absolute and unyielding obedience to commands, no matter what a player was thinking.
I was involved in obedience training with dogs and there were some trainers like that. I recall one trainer who was successful doing that with a Rottweiler. That dog was terrified of its trainer and was almost slavish in its obedience. Even the most minor "irregularities" were treated with severe punishment, i.e. being yelled at while being hit with the lead.
That kind of training was "counterproductive" with strong willed dogs - especially Basenjis, which are considered the most difficult dog to train in the world due to their inbred independence. Mine did OK in obedience, finishing 3rd in her class behind a Shetland Sheepdog and a Golden Retriever which are two breeds that do very well in obedience training.
I read a book by a man named Kohler, probably the best obedience trainer in the world. He trained all the animals for The Disney movies during the 1950's and that included several dogs and one cat. He focused on consistency and practiced routines prior to training.
He addressed dealing with the "real hoods" of the dog world with what he called the "kindness of an adequate correction". It involved hitting a dog "firmly" across its muzzle with a piece of garden hose that had a wooden stick inside as a stiffener. Going at the muzzle is what dogs in the wild to each other when trying to exert dominance, so he was "in affect" speaking their language".
The goal was to get the dogs undivided attention, not beat it to death. The trainers where I went to obedience class (the Queen City Obedience Club) in Cincinnati saw this technique used by Kholer himself during an exhibition he put on one evening in Columbus Ohio. At the end of the general training class there were two dogs brought in from the SPCA that were scheduled to "put down" the next day due to their uncontrolled aggression.
As I recall the two dogs were large breeds, a Rottweiler and a Great Dane. Kohler started by leashing them and then trying to get them to "heel". He used standard leash jerking techniques to get their attention and follow him. He had the hose I talked about available because of the probability he might need it.
Once the first dog started getting aggressive, i.e. snarling and snapping at him, he hit across its muzzle with some force, not just a tap. The dog quit its aggression and started paying attention to the trainer. The second dog required two "hits" before he began to pay attention to the trainer.
Based on the results he was able to achieve with those two dogs that evening, the SPCA took them off their "must be put to sleep" list.
Looking back to the Dolphins and how some of our past coaches delt with "difficult players", I recall Adam Gase delt with one of our RB's - AJ. There was a problem early in the year which was never really explained. Gase left AJ at home when the team went to the west coast for two games. When they came back all either of them would say was there had been a problem and that they had straightened it out. Things went pretty well for AJ the rest of that year.
I guess Teddy Roosevelt was right when he made his memorable comment: "talk softly but carry a big stick"! - LOL
