Thursday, August 27, 2009

Dogs trying to take over at every turn???? REALLY?

Has anyone else seen that show on Animal Planet, it is a dog training show that is on before "It's Me or the Dog" with Victoria Stillwell? This one is called "In the Dog House". I am not sure of the trainers name, and I should find out so I can STAY AWAY from this guy and any advice he would give. I had heard about this show from a friend and so I found it on Saturday evening and sat down to watch it. The first week the guy comes in and grabs these dogs by their cheeks and lifts them up while they are fighting and flailing, it is horrible to watch, he continues to hold them up like that until they give up so he can do what he calls "pin" them, meaning to throw them on their side on the floor. Aside from this being really cruel in my opinion, goodness I can not imagine what happens to the little old lady who watches that and has a fairly aggressive or very fearful dog and tries that, someone is going to get seriously hurt when the dog really feels they have to fight back. I also think this type of thing would take a fearful dog that might react out of fear and give them something to really be afraid of.

Last week he treated us to a show about why treat training is so bad. Apparently if a dog gets any food other then his dinner, (not sure if it would be equally bad if you used his food for training....hummm..), but the minute that dogs get any other food and ESPECIALLY HUMAN FOOD, they are on the path to attacking children naturally looking for food and having no boundaries between their food and the children's food or the children. He used a demo of a dog that had been trained with treats at some point in his past, they put a doll on the couch and the dog was looking and sniffing on the couch, proof a real baby would be in serious danger from this dog because he had been given treats, HUH??? My poor dogs have been treat trained, and they eat human grade food raw, so goodness they must be very much at risk on so many levels, it scares me to think what might be happening to my dogs, ......NOT, LOL.

The trainer (I am really sorry I did not remember his name...) makes firm and fast rules that the dogs do not get on any furniture, they do not get any treats, they should not have toys, and in the first show he went so far as to say these people were not allowed to touch their dog, because with each touch and scratch behind the ears the dog gained dominance over his stupid care givers.

Is there seriously an audience for this type of training, I think that sounds sad to think there is. I would choose not to have dogs if I could not play with them, scratch behind their ears, teach them some tricks with treats, or treat them humanely. If I had to constantly be guarding against my dogs because they were going to take me over, what fun would having dogs be?

Breeze did awesome at class this week, her pads are finally healing after she had the allergic reaction to the field we train in, and Liz is looking ok so hopefully she will get the aOK to go back to normal activities on her September 1 appointment with the holistic vet. Breeze has an adjustment and acupuncture treatment too, so I am hoping they both will be back to 100% for their Tuesday's lesson.

HOW DID IT GET TO BE ALMOST SEPTEMBER ALREADY?

3 comments:

Diana said...

I saw that stupid program too. I didnt watch to the end because it was so upsetting. I agree with everything you said. I think that guy is crazy and if people follow what he says, bad things are going to happen. We probably should send a letter to Animal Planet telling them that its a horrible show and they should be ashamed. Diana

Sara said...

I haven't seen that show, and am glad. Maybe animal planet was looking for an alternate view to Victoria Stillwell's approach to dog training, but that is just horrible and cruel.

I agree with Diana, some sort of letter writing compaign needs to be started. I'll mention it to the rescue group at my agility trial this weekend.

Sam said...

Glad Breeze is feeling better!

I haven't watched this show, but I keep on hearing more and more about it and he sounds like just another Cesar Millan.. with all these ridiculous notions of dogs wanting nothing more than to "be dominant" and take over.

As a fearful dog owner, I can tell right now that I would NEVER let someone who uses these brutal physical methods anywhere near my dog. I wish the TV stations wouldn't show this stuff. Because, regardless of any disclaimers for people wanting to try it at home, people WILL try the methods, and both dogs and people will get hurt.