Early on Friday mornings BBC2, and at 4.30pm on Friday afternoons, BBC 1

Any one watch tonight?

I thought it was a really bad Idea putting food in the ring and unfair on the dogs. Its hard to get any dog to do heelwork without introducing extra distractions.

and the camera person that cookie was barking at could have shown themselves to her Julia looked a bit nervous then.

Have to say I agree with you to tempt any dog but especially rescue dogs with Apple Pie Cheese etc was a bit much . Obviously they thought What a feast let's forget about the heelwork.


Again I agree that it would have been better if the camera person had shown themselves Cookie was getting really wound up.

Be interesting to see if anything about this is mentioned when it comes back on at 10.

I think the 'tasks' were unfair on the dogs tonight.
With thier backgrounds and histories, I just think it was too much in too short a time.
The food was a bad idea and poor old Cookie should have been 'shown' that there was no threat etc.

I also feel the task was ver+y unfair on the dogs, it set them up to fail big time. The highest level competing Obedience dogs dont have to face that kind of food challenge while doing heel work so expecting these dogs after so little training to cope along with the studio etc was just not right imo.
Too much pressure, too much expectation, and no doubt a lot of people will think badly of poor Casper so will blow his perfectly understandable behaviour out of all proportion

And yes, it was also not handled well regarding Cookie, with all the trainers there surely one of them should have had the sense to step in and show Cookie that she need not be afraid.

Sadly this particular episode gets the thumbs down from me.

Totally agree - the food was way over the top. If there had to be a food temptation - and I don't think it was at all necessary - then why not put a couple of dog treats on the table so that if the dog succumbed to the temptation then it would have eaten a couple of treats and not put the handlers or the dogs in a situation where they then had to remove the dog from the food.

I think it was totally unecessary and was a really bad decision. All training should encompass the idea of not putting a dog in a situation where it can fail. Poor Cookie was not given the chance to see what she was spooked by - not the fault of the handlers but those who should have known better.

Sorry folks but again I was not impressed by the way the dogs are being used to provide entertainment rather than the public being shown how to approach various problems they may encouter with any dog, and even more importantly, being shown how to deal with such problems.

I actually think tonight's show was a disservice to the dogs and to rescues in general.

Do agree that the food was all wromg. I know how hard it is in the gold test to do the food test, with dogs totally bonded to their owners. Well done to Selina who removed the food for Chumps sake. Obviously they had not had these foods in practise & only met them in the rehearsal. This is ridiculous, to do thid dogs need to train first without the atmosphere of a studio.
As for Cookie & the camera I'm glad the public voted her straight through & saw that as the natural reaction it was.

Of all the stupid things to do!!! A banquet in front of rescue dogs that have only had a few hours training, especially when all concerned knew that little Casper is a 'work in progress' with regard to food-guarding - how crazy can you get!!!! It's fortunate that Casper has very good bite inhibition and no one was hurt, but imagine if that had been one of the bigger dogs.

What was at first an excellent opportunity to promote the cause of rescue dogs is now becoming the opposite through bad planning for the sake of entertainment which is something that I hoped this show wouldn't succomb to.

The concept of the show is still, in my view, excellent, but why oh why have they gone down the route of exerting too much training pressure. It isn't needed because watching a dog blossom is true entertainment. I just hope that lessons are learnt tonight and the producers will see that!

I missed the 2nd half guys, who went out?

Cheers

Lizziel, you know our opinions on the show have differed so far, but I have to say that I totally agree with you on this one.

I think this was definitely a case of entertainment at the dog's expense and completely wrong.

I know the judges said they didn't set the test, but I wonder if they did even voice concern beforehand.