It was pulling on the lead-a sign of dominance according to CM. He bunged on the ole illusion collar(as always tight under the ears & fixed there with the slip lead stopped, the rest was held loose in the hand-ergo dog cured ! He told the owners that the dog pulled because it was dominant over them & was allowed to get above them thus proving that it was a dominant dog !

I never say that, my dogs are never restricted in this way as a punishment, but they will move if I tell them to.

Would I send my Dog to CM to train or board, no not even if was a stuffed toy....

My current dog is 18 months old and full of mischief and personality, she is everything I like in a dog.

Sometimes when we are out and she is on the lead she will bark in excitement and anticipation of play when she sees another dog approaching.
I saw a dog behave like this with CM (Emily the pitbull) , he completely failed to read the body language of this over excited dog (which lacked the correct training )and said it was trying to dominate the owner and was 'dog aggressive' and he proceeded to 'alpha roll' the dog to force it to submit. This is not for my dog thank you. As she matures she is becoming less excitable and is learning to be calm when approaching other dogs and this is being achieved without spoiling her outgoing personality or quelling her natural exuberance.


My dog likes to bark when she sees people pass the window. I saw a little terrier behave like this with CM and he picked it up by the throat leaving its legs to dangle. Not for my dog thank you. I like to be aware of people coming near my house. My dog has learnt to bark a few times and then to stop and she is praised for this, no lifting by the throat required here.

There are many other incidents I could recount here of training methods I have seen used by CM which I would not want used on my dog, I could go on for hours . I would say he has a very limited ability when it comes to reading a dog's body language and he is too 'hung up' on Dominance.

I don't want a submissive Zombi dog thank you. My dog isn't perfect but she is well behaved for a youngster, fun to be with and a great companion. She also trusts me completely and has never know fear and I would like her to stay that way.

No more to say...except brill post. I agree. Cosmo is the same and Tango is learning to be the same....although it may take some time for her to believe she can pick up a ball that has been thrown if it is next to a person.

I wouldn't send either of my dogs away for residential training with anyone...

However, I would, in the right circumstances, attend a residential training course with my dogs, if I felt it would benefit us.

P.S. My dogs are always above me, as they are usually sat or laid on top of me... seems I am comfier than the sofa

Yes I would let CM look after my dog. After all the US is a litigious country by nature so if CM is creating these ticking time bombs people keep talking about I would expect there to be countless law suits currently pending against him. Searching on line I can only find two suits that have been settled out of court (there may be more) and these have been brought by dubious claimants!!

Plus I would love the opportunity to let my dog interact with so many other dogs and it not end up in a brawl. Having an only dog he seems to not know doggy language very well and often gets himself into trouble with other dogs.

Slightly off topic my dog nudges, jabs and pokes me to get my attention. So my question is, is he abusing me?

Yup, he is abusing you!!

Murphy headbutts me in the stomach if he isn't getting what he wants, it can be quite painful....

Your dog's inability to read other dogs has nothing to do with him being an only dog parsay, it's now to being correctly socialized as a young puppy. Throwing him in with a group of dogs that are subdued & lacking real character of their breeds(& I don't mean aggression in certain breeds) I've had rescue dogs that have been sole dogs before they came to me in the past & never had a problem & the only ones that had(have)problems are those that have not been socialized correctly.

My bitch Jessie was not a sole dog before I got her, but she had never been socialized with any dogs outside her own breed. She does have problems understanding other breeds of dogs, but as I took her to a multi breed dog training club, where the dogs are all friendly & non aggressive, she has made massive strides with other dogs. She has actually accepted our new Cavalier(who is the king of subtle behaviour)& behaves much more like a bitch with him, than she did with her own full brother when he came here at 6 weeks old in Jan 2008(she's now fine with WU as he is quite a submissive boy)

I remember a thread only a few weeks ago where someone's dog was starting to snap at the kids when they told it to get off the couch. So we all said don't let it on the couch until it learns some manners.

I know we were advised by people on Dogsey, when we were having trouble with Bryan barking when on lead to not let him sleep on our bed etc.

IMO letting dogs with 'issues' have free run of everything and everywhere in the house is a bad idea.

I don`t think it`s quite as simple as `don`t let the dog on the sofa`, is it? If the dog is growling at children when being told to do something the first thing you do is avoid that situation being repeated. So if it`s because of a bone you stop giving bones until the dog is better trained. I have 4 dogs with past issues. They all sit on the sofa, bed, whatever and have free run. They are now all very relaxed dogs in a very laid-back house.
I can`t understand why barking outside would stop if the dog slept somewhere elseTBH. Why was that?

Surely that would depend on the issues the dog has,

If a dog has issues with other dogs outside the home, why woudl it be beneficial to stop its free movement round the home.

Now if a dog has an issue with barking in th front room because he can see out that window ..then, yes, dont let him in that room.

Or if a dog growls at you while he is on the sofa/bed , dont let him on.

Each issue needs to be dealt with individually, not a blanket restriction of movement in the home!!