Posted on 05/22/2009 3:56:17 PM PDT by JoeProBono
Study Finds Mimicking Trainers Could Make Dog Behavior Worse: Trying to make your dog less aggressive by showing them you are the boss is a waste of time, researchers in a new British study say, especially when using popular new training techniques that urge owners to use physical force to make their dogs more compliant.
According to the study, physical control methods usually shown on TV or touted by celebrity pet trainers like "The Dog Whisperer," Cesar Millan are "ridiculous" and could do more harm than good by making aggressive behavior in dogs worse. Researchers from the University of Bristol's department of clinical veterinary sciences studied dogs for six months They compared their observations to existing studies of wild dogs, like wolves, and concluded that generations of dog lovers have misunderstood "aggressive canines."
The study asserts that, contrary to popular belief, dogs are not trying to assert their dominance over their canine or human "pack" and aren't motivated by maintaining their place in the pecking order.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Agreed, bad owners do need a bit of discipline at times.
I want a dog that will sit when I sit, will come when I call, will run when I run and will smile when I cry.
Who paid for it? Us or the Brits?
I want a dog that will allow me to sit on the sofa.
Okay now, you took my joke and personalized it (if indirectly) .....that’s not right....but I will tell you this. A dog, especially understands ‘dominance’. Usually, that’s something short of physical. But when a dog does something bad, like snap at a toddler/baby, you can bet your ass I’ll break them completely. And it will hurt.
Cesar is a Dog God. He really is. I’ve known one other man who is just as good, who trains police dogs. They speak the language.
The thing is, Cesar doesn’t use force. These people may have studied the wrong thing. I’ve never seen him manhandle or strike a dog, or throw a dog down. He rules dogs with his ~attitude~. Would other people who do not carry the same gravitas with dogs have the same effect? Nope.
These enhanced techniques are a recruiting tool for vicious dogs.
I herd them all last night fighting outside my bedroom window
Dog who survived train wreck: Kissimmee, Florida (1911)
Flower child owners believing in the inate ‘goodness’ of animals causes a lot of damage. The kind of damage that comes from pit-bulls run amok, dogs biting and scarring children, dogs killing other pets...all for the sake of a misplaced sense of humanity where it has no logical natural inclination.
I love to watch The Dog Whisperer. Cesar is more a people psychologist than a dog psychologist, IMHO. He really has a knack for getting to the crux of the matter.
We have adopted dogs over the years, and there’s an excellent book called MINE! about dog training of dogs that tend to have aggressive guarding behaviors, whether it be guarding a place, a person, a bone, or food. I highly recommend it if you find yourself with a dog who “guards” things. Our last “adoptee” was a food guarder, and we found the book extremely helpful.
Well if we can run a national economy from a government cubicle why can’t we train dogs from one.
make_mine_pistachio_please_
total waste of time tv show. i got cable hoping national geo would have interesting history, culture and nature shows. instead we get this idiot with an accent telling idiots how to handle their own stupid animals. (why did they buy them animals if they are out of control???)
to see this crap on national geo is pretty bad.
so many of the educational channels have nothing but cheap entertainment, really bad stuff, dog wisperer is one of the worst. nothing educational there.
Agreed. Cesar knows what he is doing full stop. I told my neighbor about his walking technique and she said her dog would never obey it. It worked instantly. Most problems with dogs are humans, same with children.
I’ve never had the pleasure of owning a dog from puppyhood. I’ve always acquired a free “troublesome” dog.
I can tell you that you will get NOWHERE with those dogs if you are afraid to whack the crap out of it. The first step is to make them welcome and make them feel safe and feel like they belong in your home. They must OWN their own space. The second step is to let them know when you are happy with them. And the third step is to let them know when they should KNOCK THE *ING CRAP OFF THAT GOT THEM DISOWNED THE LAST *DAM THREE TIMES THEY WERE KICKED OUT!
There’s no such thing as compromising with a bad dog. They must fully understand it is MY WAY OR THE HIGHWAY. no grey areas allowed.
My personal belief is that the troublesome dogs are often the smartest dogs on the planet. Their problem is they are TOO smart and their original owners were worthless morons. This is why I don’t like dogs that are naturally perfectly obedient without training. I think everyone knows exactly what I mean by that...stupid fat slow lazy dogs that have no ideas of their own whatsoever. A dog gets itself into trouble when it has ideas of it’s own. This is a sign of intelligence, imo.
My current dog is quite intelligent. Not exactly perfectly obedient. But I don’t spend lots and lots of time with her to destroy every little disobedient idea that pops into her head.
I like to challenge her mind sometimes. The first “puzzle” I gave her was to give her water in a tall skinny glass when she was really thirsty. She learned quickly that if she tipped over the cup, she would lose the water. She is now conditioned to take food and water from containers that easily tip over and she NEVER allows them to fall. In fact, she actually goes around standing up empty containers nowdays...in hopes that they will fill up with something I guess. Her bed typically has a ring of empty containers standing up in an arc around it...like the devil worshippers put up a ring of candles around a shrine of some kind. And she carefully steps over them so that they never fall over.
I wipe my mastiff’s face after he gets a drink of water, and he comes up to me for that. A friend has a mastiff that he has trained to wipe his own face. He put a towel in a bucket, and the dog sticks his face in, rubs it around, and comes out dry. He trained the dog by sticking a treat in the bottom, after every drink of water, when it was little puppy. Wish I’d thought of that.
That would be the same person that can herd them......
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