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New training show on Animal Planet

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sands904 Contact Me Site Administrator Posted: 8/15/2009 7:55:58 PM	If any of you have caugth Animal Planet's latest dog training show, I am very sorry! I just finished watching my first (and last) episode of 'In the Dog House' with Brad (the incompetient trainer). He is a horrible a$$ who jerks the dogs around while yelling at both them and their owners. I am currently studying dog behavior in hopes of becoming a trainer someday and am appalled by this show and his techniques. If anyone is using such techniques on your dogs I urge you to reconsider. I have a very fearful dog who used to bark/lunge at other people and dogs but with positive reinforcement, counter conditioning and desensitization we have made huge progress. Logan is now walking loose leash next to me 90% of the time and very rarely reacts to people and it getting much better with dogs. I have been working with him for about 6 months but during the last two months I have begun reading about dog behavior and it has extremely progressed our training. If I had tried yelling at him and jerking his leash he would be even more scared, fearful and stressed. I just don't understand. We stopped hitting children with a ruler in school because we thought it was cruel and didn't really help so why do we use similar techniques with our dogs? People learn better with encouragement and positive feedback and so do dogs!

sycadoog Contact Me New Member (62) Posted: 8/23/2009 4:04:56 PM	I have yet to see that show but It does not sound like one I will watch at all based on your comments. The only one I have found that I really like and will watch is "It's Me or the Dog". Victoria Stillwell used only non-violent tactics such as aversion therapy through noise and treat rewards to retrain the dogs and explains why the dogs behave the way they do to their people. She is a big fan of the click and reward training that most dogs respond well to. She also does not pretend that the dogs are fixed instantly. She shows that the process takes time and mistakes can and will be made. It is a shame that Animal Planet would air a show that supports such out dated practices and the fact that people still use them.
sands904 Contact Me Site Administrator Posted: 8/23/2009 8:33:12 PM	Yeah, I love Victoria's show. I never miss it (Thank you Tivo). I have also been doing a lot of reading about dog training and behavior and her methods are the way to go. I wrote to Animal Planet maybe more people will also and this guy will be off the air soon...
Linda78 Contact Me New Member (69) Posted: 8/24/2009 7:18:41 PM	Do you have any books or methods you'd recommed regarding dog behavior? I'd love to learn more about it as well, but, there are just soo many books out there. don't know who to believe or trust. I haven't seen the Animal Planet trainer, either. will try to catch it so i can see what you're referring to.
sands904 Contact Me Site Administrator Posted: 8/24/2009 9:30:12 PM	You are right there are tons of books/methods out there. The method I recommend when training is positive reinforcement. This works by giving the dog a treat, praise or some other type of reward for performing the desired behavior. The rewards works as a reinforcer to increase the liklihood that the desired behavior will happen again. If you are interested in a good read to start off with I would recommend "The Other End of the Leash" by Patricia McConnell. It was the first book that I really read about Dog Behavior. I learned a lot and it was a great book. Some of the other ones I have read are from the IAABC's (International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants) recommend reading list. As far as the show I don't recommend it(In the Dog House)...but if you are interested in seeing the alternative to positive reinforcement and the techniques used to train dogs in the past you could check it out. You should definitely check out "Its Me or the Dog" on Animal Planet Saturday nights. It is a great show!!!

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