Warning about the "Dog Whisperer" and Dominance/Agrression Training Methods
Okay, so I have been doing my certificate 3 in Companion Animal Services.
Now, while doing the dog training segment of this course, our attention has been directed to some really disgraceful stuff that goes on in the animal training world.
Now, I am sure you are all familiar with the old style of training, and even the best of today's trainers grew up using the same training method.
In the old days, the accepted method of training a dog involved being the "Alpha" and dominating the dog. Many trainers and people used to do things like tagging the dog (jerking on the lead), hitting dogs, hitting dogs on the nose, yelling at them in a "commanding" voice, etc.
Nowadays, the industry standard code of practice requires a newer, better method, called +R, or Positive Reinforcement. This is because the old method involves hurting the animal, and can cause the animal to become aggressive when it has had enough, and lash out. Positive Reinforcement training has been proven as a far superior method, and it has been shown that old stuff, like tagging, can actually cause sever pain and spinal damage to dogs, as can choke chains.
One the number one people both vets and dog trainers have told me they hate while I have been doing this cause, is Cesar Millan, the so called "Dog Whisperer". He uses a variation on the old outdated dominance methods. Here is a YouTube vid of a news report showing some of the horrible things he does to dogs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpcNOwbRyOE
Other companies to watch out for are ones like bark busters.
Please, please ensure that if you train your dog, or hire a dog trainer, that you/they use Positive Reinforcement. The health and happiness of your pet is dependent on this, as is the safety of your family.