Well said Joedee re the TTouch. I stopped watching DB a few weeks ago, how did they force the Kelpie to accept touching?

I also hope for seriously aggressive dogs we have more than a once over vet check some seem to have. It's good the vet is there...but, dogs with aggression should have blood tests and x rays, depending on what info is given perhaps neuro work ups etc etc.

I am on an aggression list in the US, and one dog, a standard poodle, was aggressive and the owner luckily followed her gut instinct and the dog was x rayed for a second time... turned out it was having a lot of pain due to compressed (think it was compressed) vertebrae.

One owner I'm in touch with (she's not near me at all) has an aggressive problem with her dog, and has just been told it's almost certainly a seizure problem. He has already been tried on phenobarbitone but this caused him to be worse so the behaviourist and vet are working to gether to find a combination of drugs that will help him. However, it took a third and final behaviourist to actually get to the bottom of this and we don't know yet the end result.

The first advice she was given, when I first met her via the internet, was the sort of advice seen in the first series of DB. Jerk, shout, etc. which would have not been fair on dog or owner. Hum.

Dogs often won't show chronic pain. Not saying the kelpie was in pain but a thorough vet check over is always the first port of call, or should be, as it has to be ruled out to be fair to dog and owner.

Wys
x

I believe he is "lead trainer". Can't quite recall where I read it, but I know I did.

Hi Wys
The kelpie was muzzled and made to sit by the owners side...made being, if the dog was standing it's rear end was pushed down. If it became aggressive (which it did) the bloke told it off (at one point yelling 'you're not going to win' or words to that effect) and the dog had to put up with him stroking him in a sit.
The man was very wound up and had to leave the dog at one point (just after he shouted at it). The dog, didn't make any progress in that situation, it remained aggressive and still didn't follow the sit command.
The reaining was taken on the day after that to some lead work, where the dog did okay, but muzzled, it still didn't sit though, had to be forced into it. The following day, the dog was handled and walked without the muzzle and the man had gloves on. It bit him.
It was a VERY tough case for Rob.
I know little about handling dogs that are aggressive like that.
It had been to classes, seen other trainers and behaviourists, had even been to puppy socialisation classes. It was EXTREMELY aggressive towards the owners and I am surprised that they had not been more hurt in the past.
i really don't want to comment too much on that one as my experience is limited. I do believe however, that Joodee's suggestion of TTTouch is a brilliant one and someone else handling it as well. I also believe that asking a handler to handle an aggressive dog, when the handler is wound up and fearful, isn't a great idea, but i suppose there were restrictions in place on this programme.

I've just heard from Rob that next week's is particularly interesting, at least for me; he has a GSD with dog/dog aggression. Sounds familiar...

I thought last night's was really interesting - don't think I could have persevered with Bis for as long as the owners did. I really hope he continues to improve.

The one thing I noticed with the rottie was that Mic had the owner yanking him over jumps - in a headcollar?! Surely that can't be good for its neck. And I noticed in the follow up she had it out on a headcollar with a fabric muzzle underneath

The rottie had a bigger neck than i do!

I found that too. But I took comfort that my belly far exceeded his!

Whilst you may deem others opinions narrow minded I agree with Nursey I found the treatment of the kelpie very distressing, the dog appeared fear aggressive and was showing calming signals and IMO hanging an aggressive dog by its collar and forcing it into submissive positions was not helping, something had made this dog hand fearful and I agree T Touch could of been tried. I also noted when the dog did sit on his own there was no praise or even acknowledgement that it was now doing right.

I wonder about the vets inspection as well, just how thorough are they? Did they do xrays, blood works etc to check medical reasons? It appeared that even before the programme the dog was hung by its collar and lead surely that could of led to damage of the neck or throat causing pain and if someone is causing me pain I'd react pretty much as the dog did.

The one thing I thought was responsible was the decision to not put them through a test, however, Mics reaction, the gloating and mickey taking (excuse the pun) just showed his rather immature attitude.

I don’t think this is a blinkered view just a difference of opinion and to me less blinkered than only seeing these people as some sort of all knowing gods whose methods are the only right ones.

I think the vets inspections are to ensure the dog is able to partake in the actually training and subsequent test - however, this does not go all the way. Had a dog showed visible signs of an injury, they probably would have limited what it did, but unfortunately I do not think they did tests of the nature you describe, which could be a root cause of some problems.

I agree with differences of opinion. I just have a problem with comments of issues with the programme but without saying what they are. Guess im just nosey and like to know what people are thinking and why!

I've not seen this one's yet, hopefully I will catch it later in the week. It sounds like an interesting one! I don't think I will enjoy seeing the kelpie forced into sitting and being stroked though Sounds like it has big problems, I hope the owners get ongoing help, not just the 3 days of the programme.


Did anyone see lat weeks episode? I only saw the end and Mic was helping a woman with a lovely dog. They said that this had been the woman's last option or she was going to have the dog put to sleep. But in the test she had to do recall and walking to heel. So why was the dog going to be put down? Was there another problem that I missed?