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By Jayne, 9th September 2011,

by Colin Tennant – required viewing for CIDBT foundation copurse. To be honest I felt I learnt more from the top tips sections in this DVD than from Colin demonstrating his training methods. I was interested to learn the essential tools you need for basic dog training and it reinforced some simple behavioural tenets such as ignoring and avoiding dogs that pester you or jump up will eventually eliminate that behaviour. A nice tip was to use the lead in the house as well as outside and the best tip, I thought, was to use the recall command many times without going home straight afterwards so that the dog doesn’t associate the recall just with home-time.

I know Colin Tennant is very well respected  but I thought his demonstrations in this particular DVD were rather rushed. The whole DVD seemed old-fashioned especially at the end when one of the owners said she’d spent a lot of the 21 days “asserting her authority over” her dog.

The sensitive Doberman snapped at her owner during the “stand” training and the poodle growled his way through most of the DVD. I thought the in-fill storyline of the late owners, slow-motion shots of wet dogs and a long take with the woman with crazy fingernails and wine were very bizarre and added nothing to the dog training video. It seemed that Colin was working to a tight schedule. With more time he might have been able to create a rapport with at least some of the dogs. It also appeared that some of the dogs had underlying behavioural issues that really should have been addressed before embarking on this kind of training session. Colin’s one-on-one section with the Weimerana was much more succesful both in filmic terms and for the dog in hand.

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By Jayne, 9th July 2011,

image: Robert Clark

Just as I was finishing up my first module of my dog behaviour therapy course guess what should air on TV – Nat Geo Wild – for my benefit? National Geographic’s very own “Wolf to Woof: The Evolution of Dogs”. Timing was a little late for me but all the same it was a great bit of TV to round off my understanding of the subject.

As Karen E. Lange from the National Geographic says,

After wild dogs learned not to bite the hand that fed them, French poodles weren’t far behind.

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By Jayne, 24th June 2011,

Because I am in temporary accommodation because of a flooded house at Christmas time and because our kind friend that is letting us use his house is subscribed to SKY I can record whole series of the Dog Whisperer and It’s Me or the Dog and watch one of them (or both!) every day. This is pretty much what I have been doing for the last 3 months since I discovered SKY plus.

Ceasar’s “corrections” by snapping the dog out of a bad behaviour by various methods or “touching” the dog is cause for concern for a lot of people I read on the Internet. I am not sure that Victoria Stillwell would advocate the “correction” as she seems to prefer a slower, rewards-based approach to her training. Nevertheless – it seems to me that when your dog starts to snarl and bark aggressively at a passing child or some such unwanted behaviour, a quick and snappy redirection of energy is entirely appropriate.

As Dr Roger Mugford (Animal Behaviourist) says in his “Trained for Life ” article,

At my Animal Behaviour Centre, we have a constant supply of titbits and teach owners how to acknowledge desirable behaviours such as lying down quietly. However, certain discrete behaviours have catastrophic consequences and a well-timed punishment can, on single presentation, entirely prevent recurrence…

…The intelligent dog trainer must be careful and sensitive in his choice and timing of rewards and punishments. Both can produce positive outcomes or can inflict harm. Do you have childhood memories of touching a hot stove or naked flame? This was very effective aversive-training that still allows you to enjoy cooking in the kitchen or to relax by an open fire. Dogs are so like people!

Caesar insists that any and every aggressive dog can be made into a manageable and useful animal whereas Victoria advises people that their dog is a dangerous animal and its behaviour will have to be carefully managed for life. I am only just learning but what I do know is that every case is unique and deserves time, respect and a “last chance” with a professional before being given up on.

I love to watch both shows, especially Ceasar’s, because  of it’s big budget editing, glossy treatment and focus on sunny LA life although now Victoria is based in America she gets the same big budget treatment. And whatever their shortcomings these super-star dog celebrities have the most important thing in common – they love to help dogs. More recent research into dog behaviour has Cesar’s methods appearing more arcane by the week.

Kate Kellaway  in  The Observer, Sunday 17 July 2011 talks about professor John Bradshaw’s book “in Defence of Dogs” – “We have had it drummed into us by trainers such as Cesar Millan that because dogs are descended from wolves (their DNA is almost identical), they behave like wolves and can be understood as “pack” animals. The received thinking has been that dogs seek to “dominate” and that our task is to assert ourselves as pack leaders – alpha males and females – and not allow dogs to get the upper paw… Bradshaw’s hypothesis is that domestic dogs were descended from more sociable wolves but that “whatever the ancestor of the dog was like, we don’t have it today”. ..Dogs are not striving for household domination…But Bradshaw is far from suggesting we slacken in our efforts to train our dogs (it is the more brutal training methods he would like to banish). .. Millan, America’s internationally influential “dog whisperer” has made a television career explaining dog psychology in terms of wolf lore. Bradshaw says: “I am reluctant to demonise Millan, he has come under a lot of pressure.” On a recent tour of the UK, Millan was told his methods were close to breaching Defra guidelines (which forbid harsh training). “He is a smart guy and sees which way the wind is blowing. He is now embracing reward-based methods. All that stuff he spouted about wolves was not based on science.” …
Bradshaw favours humane, reward-based training. The latest science shows that dogs learn to “please their owners”. It is wonderful to hear this: he makes one feel fantastically upbeat about being a dog owner (and it is a relief to drop all thoughts of a primitive power struggle).

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By Jayne, 23rd June 2011,

Guest speaker is Roger Tabor and the conversation is hosted by Colin  Tennant.

From watching this DVD I learned that early humans did not possess the skills necessary to tame the wolf and that they had no reason to even want to although it is broadly accepted now that our domestic dogs do originally come from wolf type canids. Food availability and geographical landscape are major factors in the development and distribution of dog types. Archaeological, DNA and historical evidence have converged to make the strong case that humans did not befriend the wolf and selectively breed them for tame types but rather the wolves self-selected to become more adaptable to human proximity and their food sources.

Tabor Tabor explains how through DNA research (Parker) we know that some types are more closely related to the wolf such as the spitz types but no-wild dogs have curly tails which can be explained by the genetic mutations that come about from the domestication of a wild breed (Belyaev). Tabor’s expertise and knowledge comes bursting through in a lively and amenable fashion throughout the video.

He concedes that Coppinger has a strong case for his theory of the proto-village dog evolving from wolves but the timing of the village food sources do not explain the dog types found earlier than the time of agriculturalism and food dump surplus. He contends that the theory is still relevant but with earlier hunter gatherer humans and the by-product food sources of animal bones and meat surplus. Humans may not have intentionally domesticated the wolf but they have provided the conditions for the self-selection of wolves to domesticated animals to thrive.

In turn dog trait selection by humans for various reasons – including cuteness –  (plus climate and regional landscape variations) has resulted in the many different types of breed we see today.