This last week we were on "vacation" (read college and farm visits, more work than vacation). On the bright side we had cable TV where we were staying and got to watch the Olympics and I saw an episode of Victoria Stilwell's "It's me or the dog."
It was a good episode. She worked with a couple who had four dogs, each with their separate issues. I like most of what she does. It's not perfect and sometimes I wish she'd be a little gentler on the people but part of that is her TV persona. It's great having a charasmatic trainer encouraging positive techniques. Some of her training isn't as clean as the clicker model for example, putting the cue on before you have a very high likelihood of the behavior but it's doable for the average pet owner and works most of the time.
By the end of the hour I realized how much more impressive any training looks when you cut the training time with a video camera. Teaching "leave it" for example does not take 5-10 repetitions and is then ready to be used with joggers. But it does look magical, that way!
I would imagine this phenomenon works in the favor of Cesar Milan to a major degree. Plus, correction based training usually works quickly to suppress the behavior but doesn't fix it in the long run.
I wish the TV programs gave more of a sense how long it actually took to train a behavior and to "fix" it. Not doing that makes the trainers look better but it gives viewers the wrong expectations for their own dogs. In their favor they do give some of the broader time periods like if they leave the owners on their own for three days but not how long a session takes.
I was quite glad to catch the Stilwell episode and that she's on the air. If you attempt to use the methods she advocates you're much less likely to get bitten!
Looking forward to seeing Tom again tonight!
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There is a reason Milan's show has a "do NOT try this at home" disclaimer at the beginning of every episode. because it isn't SAFE!
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed your watching cable. :-)
Mmm. It is sort of ironic, a show explaing explaining how to train dogs but don't try it at home! Smiles.
ReplyDeleteHave you seen Victoria Stilwell? Did you like her show?
ReplyDeleteI have seen that show. I like some aspects of it, way more than Milan's show. At least she is positive based for the dogs. I don't have cable so I can't watch either show very often.
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