Ceasar the dog whisperer

[dr2little]

Todays show he's gonna be teaching some dog aggressive rottweilers.

I hope the show dresses him up as a poodle then....Now THAT I'd find entertaining!!!

 

[Rubylove]

It's starting to feel as though you feel that I've picked on you a bit and it was certainly not my intention. Cesar talk just gets me going, in fact all of us in the dog world who come from a real behavior background have a hard time keeping it zipped when the topic of Cesar comes up.

He really is a hack though. See, I just can't ZIP IT....sorry

**snort** You're a crack-up. I totally agree - there are definitely some `just don't get me started' dog topics around! I've never watched The Dog Whisperer as I said, because I really feel that I don't need to add any more topics to that `don't get me started' list!

You know who I was thinking about the other day? Barbara Woodhouse. She was considered such a pioneer and the be-all and end-all of dog training. I wonder what would be thought of her methods now? The chapters in her book `No Bad Dogs' kind of speak for themselves in a scary way, `Curing a fighter', `How to use the choke chain', `How to scold', and I love this one `How to detect schizophrenia' :yikes:

However, I've not read any of her books or seen her show since I was a child, so perhaps I should not criticise out of hand....

 

[krisykris]

It's starting to feel as though you feel that I've picked on you a bit and it was certainly not my intention. Cesar talk just gets me going, in fact all of us in the dog world who come from a real behavior background have a hard time keeping it zipped when the topic of Cesar comes up.

He really is a hack though. See, I just can't ZIP IT....sorry

I know you aren't picking on me =). I appreciate your view and all the helpful advice you've given me in the past as well!

You don't need to zip it and you should be able to say whatever you want!!

 

[oriondw]

I hope the show dresses him up as a poodle then....Now THAT I'd find entertaining!!!

So I watched it...

Some of the things he says are correct to a certain degree.

Some of the things he did... well. Yeah, its a good thing it says not to try it at home.


First episode with Rottie... He basically used a prong to get quick immediate results, and got the dog to get used to his dog pack in 2 weeks. Neither of those "fix" the dogs issues.

Second episode had extremely fearful GSD. He did some work with it, waited 3 month then they showed the dog again. The dog was still so scared, it was shaking, but didn't bark anymore... Instead of rehabilitating the dog, he just made it shut up. After that I just changed the channel.

 

[dr2little]

So I watched it...

Some of the things he says are correct to a certain degree.

Some of the things he did... well. Yeah, its a good thing it says not to try it at home.


First episode with Rottie... He basically used a prong to get quick immediate results, and got the dog to get used to his dog pack in 2 weeks. Neither of those "fix" the dogs issues.

Second episode had extremely fearful GSD. He did some work with it, waited 3 month then they showed the dog again. The dog was still so scared, it was shaking, but didn't bark anymore... Instead of rehabilitating the dog, he just made it shut up. After that I just changed the channel.

:yikes: WHAT???? No Poodle suit?? ...glad I didn't watch it then.

 

[Gijora]

Second episode had extremely fearful GSD. He did some work with it, waited 3 month then they showed the dog again. The dog was still so scared, it was shaking, but didn't bark anymore... Instead of rehabilitating the dog, he just made it shut up. After that I just changed the channel.

i wonder if the dog ever bites someone, out of fear, with no vocal warning, who will be blammed?

 

[Doberluv]

i wonder if the dog ever bites someone, out of fear, with no vocal warning, who will be blammed?

The dog, of course. Or the breed.

 

[Shannerson]

He does lose his temper at times and the poor uncertain dogs are even more fearful. That is sad. I wonder what the dogs think when he gets in their face and forces them to roll over.

 

[Herschel]

I don't think that my quiet action of telling the dog she needed to stop barking was unpredictable as in abusive if that is what you are saying. She acts like she has never been socialized. If I had acted predictably, I would have coddled her and said in a sing-song voice to be quiet. I was told she has to have the bark collar on her when the young daugher has friends over to play; they just place the bark collar on her, never letting her know what she is doing is wrong without the shock treatment. I think that is abusive.
Yes, she seemed to be glad someone took control of the situation by tellling her that her actions were inappropriate and I was in control, not her. I did not physically touch her or scare are.
She ran away before I corrected her from the other dog. She also ran away from anyone trying to pet her except her close owners. I am not saying all evening I worked with this dog; I just once corrected her. It got her attention; then owner came back and the same behavior resumed.
Obviously it would take more time to correct this fear barking behavior as that is what I call it. I felt like she was trying to control everything because her owners were not.

Just putting in my two cents here. I am not a dog trainer, just a dog owner. What should I have done if I was wrong?

I never said that you abused the dog, either physically or mentally. I wasn't suggesting that at all. I'm a first time dog owner and not a trainer by any stretch, but I would have handled the situation differently. I think we can both agree that the dog was barking out of fear/fear aggression, right?

Your correction was to present a startling sound/action to stop the behavior. It's good that you were being proactive, but is it so different than the "bark collar"?

You: Dog is scared and barks, you get the dogs attention with a sudden correction.

Collar: Dog is scared and barks, collar gets the dog attention with a sudden correction, albeit harsher/more painful than yours.

The different is just a matter of magnitude. In both cases, the dog learned that even thought it is scared it shouldn't bark in order to avoid the correction. That is quite different than the dog learning to be comfortable in new situations or in the presence of new people.

Next time, could you try taking 5 treats and having the dog work for them? First, have the dog sit. Then, have the dog down. Then go back to a sit. Ue the 4th treat to get the dog to stand, 5th to have the dog sit. Then, praise her and let her know that you aren't someone to be feared. The lessons to be learned from this are:

1) You show up and offer treats
2) To get the treats, the dog must listen to you
3) You are a confident leader. Instead of acting unpredictably, you redirected the barking and focused her attention on something more constructive.

 

[Shannerson]

Okay, Herschel. I'd try that if it were my dog. Although I think the dog should stop barking when it is told to, but that may be later in training. I would think this dog would have to start at the very beginning of any training. She has a load of issues.
I see how you are saying to redirect behavior and that is great.