Living in the world of Care Bears

In France, animal training based on positive reinforcement has supporters and detractors.
When opponents wish to ridicule so-called positive or kind training, one of the main taunts heard is that "we don't live in the world of care bears."

I was born in the 80s and I grew up with care bears on TV. I loved these teddy bears so I did not really understand why talking about the world of care bears could or should be pejorative. This expression could imply that it would be harmful to be positive 🤨

I wanted to understand better, so I went back to watching Care Bears episodes in the last few days (it was hard, I sacrificed myself for the purpose of these lines 🤥😅).

So… the Care Bears, what are they about?

It's a small group of cute little bear cubs who each have a name, a symbol and a profession associated with a drawing on their bellies. When all the drawings come together, it forms a rainbow to bring together energies and make dreams and wishes come true 🥰

If we look at the various films and series, care bears are friends who show kindness, courage, determination, reflection and effort to help an individual.

Unfortunately, the term has been misused and can now be offensive.
The French Larousse dictionary gives this definition to the word “bisounours” (care bears name in France):
“Often pejorative. Person of great naivety, whose excessive kindness or blissful optimism nourish an idealized vision of the world, in perpetual shift with reality. »

Kindness and optimism would therefore be out of step with our current reality, our world as we know it.

Damn then, that doesn't really suit me, because I had no plans to become mean and pessimistic anytime soon 🤷‍♀️

In the different episodes of Care Bears that I recently watched, I began to take notes on the connections that could be made with animal training and I was amazed to see how the Care Bears were just on point ! I was able to find situations, dialogues or behaviors for:

🟥 Managing our emotions when we are frustrated or angry
🟧 Finding alternatives to unwanted behaviors
🟨 Socializing
🟦 Increasing our creativity
🟩 Being kind
🟪 Enriching our daily life
🟫 Practicing enjoyable activities
🟥 Improving a trust relationship

To tell the truth, I was even able to see concrete applications of systematic desensitization, but also of positive reinforcement, shaping, and so on 😳

Care Bears are individuals with many qualities. For example (names are the French ones as I don’t know them in English) :

🔴 Grocâlin is a great optimist, she encourages her friends and always has a good analysis to solve the problems encountered
🟠 Tougentille is sharing, affectionate, generous
🟡 Grotaquin is adventurous, fearless and friendly
🟢 Toubisou advises and invites children to share their emotions
🔵 Toutcurieux is interested in everything, likes to discover the world

In the training and life with my pets, I WANT to be optimistic, to encourage my dog, to analyze problematic situations in order to reduce behaviors that I might consider undesirable. I want to be affectionate with them, I want to share my house with them, my furniture, my bedding, my days, my hobbies, I want to live adventures with them, I want to help them manage their emotions as they help me to manage mine, I want to encourage them to be curious, to discover new stimuli and I want to invite them to let me know what they like and what they don't like.

I work daily with aggressive, reactive, phobic and anxious animals, and regardless of the intensity of the problems these cuties encounter, I want to be a care bear for them and protect them from Professor No Heart, sworn enemy of our dear teddy bears, who doesn't believe in kindness 😒

Science tend to demonstrate that "the world of care bears" (positive reinforcement) allows for better learning and limits the harmful side effects of "Professor No Heart’s malicious methods" (positive and negative punishments, extinction).

If we don't actually live in THE world of care bears but in a much more complex world of humans, I am nevertheless convinced that we should strive for this ideal in the training of our pets, by making the effort to imitate as much as possible these wonderful, kind and warm little bear cubs.

Animals deserve it.

So if tomorrow I am -reproached- for "living in the world of care bears", it will be a huge compliment for me that will attest to my personal and professional qualities, those that I want to continue to sow and share around me. 😁😊

Horray to the world of care bears, horray for positive reinforcement and vive la science 🌈