Hi,

I think if one wishes to say someone is desensitized to violence they should specify exactly how.

Personally, I have seen what's left of a body when sopmeone decided to play russian roulette and lost. I am desensitized to violence towards peopel completely (aside from children).

But I fnid CMs methods unacceptable and don't practice them on my dogs.

There is a wide range of sesitivity to all sorts of things - violence included. This needs to be considered when posting on here I believe.

Also there is no voice intonation or facial expression on here. Things that could be said face to face could quite easily cause offence on a forum and because of this I believe we should all try to make our commetns abut others less personal and more objective.

Laura xx

wish I had watched it now,

I didn't see it last night Becky, but I know the episode you are talking about. My interpretation of that situation is completely different !! My parents have always had staffies for their last 3 dogs, and the first two staffies both would do exactly what Daddy did to Cesar. It may be a terrier trait, I don't know, but the last time I saw that gesture I remember thinking "gosh that could have been Roly, or Blue Boy".

I have no idea, I'm not trawling through every CM vid to find it lol!
Did you see the one that (I think) Promethean posted on here (a backstage type film) where one of CM's dogs went to bite one of the other dogs! Also using people to goad the dogs into getting the bad behaviour they want!
Becky

That's unbelievably sad, no wonder they aren't happy!

There are at least 3 channels showing his programmes at the moment, well on the ones I was flicking through. I can't even remember the name of the channel it was, may have been Animal Planet, or Eden or Sky or Nat Geo can't remember.
Becky

CC - have you read stuff by other trainers? Ones who use positive methods? It`s just that the things you say you admire - calm, consistent behaviour, clear boundaries etc. are pretty standard in training or teaching.
Can I recommend Jean Donaldson`s Culture Clash if you haven`t already read it?
It`s one of those books you read and go Oh Yes! because she`s putting into logical form the stuff you probably already do instinctively, and explaining ways to manage behaviours in a very positive way.

I haven't read the book you recommend C & D but I shall have a look on the internet and see if I can get a copy. Thank you for the recommendation

Tilly, the first staffy I fostered, does the face nip thing. If she's coming for a cuddle she'll get right in my face, then kind of nip the air (she doesn't go to bite). I took it to be a play thing. Also, I don't see ears back as always a sign of fear. When I'm walking my dogs and they are really enjoying the walk, they put their ears back - we call it 'walking ears'. The second staffy we fostered used to put her ears to far back when walking they would meet in the middle

Agreed, ears back on their own means nothing unless you take into account the other signals a dog gives off. You can't take one aspect of body language on it's own and I don't, I look at the dog as a whole.
Becky

No, not at all Becky. They just don't get smothered in love and affection. All of his dogs, Daddy included, appear to me to be supremely happy, well balanced dogs.

He used to have what looked like a wolf cross - called Rocco.