Originally Posted by
pagan
Speaking as a trainer, I think all of us are always learning no matter how long you've been training.
The guys at dog borstal, victoria stillwell, cesar millan, jan fennel et al, are all at the mercy of the tv producers who want to condense hours of work into a 5 minute sound bite.
Well yes and no - I would like to think if you were a good trainer if you saw the edit and it condensed things to make your training methods dangerous if other people tried them then you wouldnt work with the station again - the dogs should come before the fame and TV raitings - so its a mistake anyone could make once - but for many series of the program
None of the multitude of programmes gives you the insight into the full training and it never provides you with all the tools you need to cure your own problems properly, this is never down to the trainer, but the production team.
All good trainers will tell you that advice should be individual to you and your dog and influenced by how you both learn and what you both feel comfortable doing. There are supporters and critics for all trainers - whether on tv or not! As long as the methods are not cruel or cause pain and suffering (in which case they should be banned) -everyone will always have their own preference.
ahh but that is the problem - non CM fans think some of his methods ARE cruel, do cause pain and could make SOME dogs worse in the long run - that is why it gets heated
and again before anyone jumps on me here - I am not saying anyone on here is using cruel painful methods - just SOME of CM's methods are IMO
Going back to the original point - overall I think his methods encourage people to have a healthy well fed happy dog that can interact sensibly and politely with people and other dogs which is something we should all aim for, but there have been particular cases for which his 'remedies' have raised some eyebrows.
I would say that until you have tried to solve these cases yourself you cannot know how you would approach such behaviour and the likelyhood is that he has exhausted many less forceful methods before employing these methods, but this would be the 'uniteresting' introduction that ended up on the cutting room floor.
I think you will find on here that some of the people against CM HAVE had experience of sucessfully dealing with these types of dogs.
And I have never seen heard or read about CM employing any softly softly methods behind the scenes
Cesar has a lot to offer in the way of advise for general dog-ownership:
exercise, discipline, affection - all important factors to having a well balanced dog. how many of you have missed a days full exercise of your high energy dog and then spent the first half of the next walk regretting that, usually with aching shoulders!
Exercise
Forced walks where the dog is not alowed to sniff?? running round with a roller blading man instead of investigating the world in a doggy way and hours on a treadmill
Yes dogs - and humans need exercise AND mental exercise, if you take your dog out every day and run it till it drops then every day it can run a little further - so you are training your dog to get fitter
My dogs have a varied life with mental and physical stimulation - and they are trained so they know when I need them to walk nice on a lead and when to bomb about and be a dog
Disciplin - nope thats not fair because you are not letting the dog know what is expected of it - TRAINING, rules and routien - then you dont need disciplin
Affection, yup that is the reward - but rewarding for good behaviour - any time good behaviour is given - not after making sure you have run its paws off and yanked and pssd it into submission
I have now exhausted myself and will get quietly down off my soap box, quit preaching and hopefully avoid a hail of arrows from any of you who disagree with me lol!!