The Dish by Darcy

A young family was at the house today. They told me that a few years ago they adopted a terrier who had some issues, nothing major at the time but definitely in need of some training. They’d watched Cesar Millan’s The Dog Whisperer and saw dogs doing things like their dog was doing and being fixed by Cesar “like it was magic”, so they tried it on their dog. They did everything he told them to, walked, no affection before discipline, and they handled the dog just like they’d seen him do on TV. They lifted him high off the ground when he tried to attack someone, using a leash up close behind his ears, they ‘alpha rolled’ him when he threw a temper tantrum, they cornered him to catch him and put pressure on him to move him away from things, “touched” him with a foot, grabbed him with a hand that was suppose to be translated as “a bite by the dominant dog”, and made the sound ’ssst’ just like Caesar showed them. Their dog went from warning people to stay away from him to attacking with no warning at all. Now they have a dog who is so aggressive, no one can look even at him.

After several weeks, which is what the TV programs told them, they thought they’d have a great dog with good behaviors. They quit using the TV show’s methods when the dog got worse instead of better.

To this day when they have company, no one can look at the dog at all. If their eyes happen on the dog, they reach to pet, speak to or try to come into the house, the dog attacks. This young family doesn’t want to put him down because he is pretty good with the Mom, who adopted the dog, and pretty good with the Dad. The children have to completely ignore the dog to be in the same house with him. When he warms up to them, then they can carefully pet him until the next time they come into the house.

These are the stories I’ve been hearing from people who use the show’s methods to train or change their dogs’ behavior. They are creating biting dogs when they only hoped to do the right thing for the dog.

I gave them some ideas to keep everyone safe and strongly suggested that they find professional positive training. I hope they take my advice and get some help. The dog has already bitten and means to bite again when he attacks. If they stay in touch with me, I’ll share the end of the story with you.

The TV show warns and warns against trying the methods at home because partly, I believe, the training you see on TV is not complete. What you see on TV is not all there is to it. If you are having behavioral problems with your dog, please find a positive trainer and get them to help you. Even some of the worst dogs have been turned around with positive training. The best thing? The positive training is more likely to stick with the dog. The old traditional training may change things for the short time while someone strong and unafraid is in the room, but it probably won’t last. I have noticed on the new episodes that even Cesar is saying that this is not magic, it takes time and effort. I’m happy to see that no episode this season has ended by claiming a cure like in the past several years of shows.

The ironic part of this story is that I just watched a new The Dog Whisperer on TV. Cesar was dealing with this same problem only with a bulldog, not a terrier. The problem with the terrier was created with the old episodes of the program and “fixed” with a disclaimer that the bulldog was not “cured” in the new episode. The dog on the new TV episode will probably always be scarred but at least they are managing his biting now. There were a few stitches in faces shown on this new episode. It just doesn’t have to be that way.

[If you saw this new episode, you saw one of our SitStay Service and Therapy Dog Vests being used for the series, the vest is on backwards but that's not the part you should notice. Cesar had a warning embroidered on the vest that said don't touch or look at this dog. That did help warn people to stay away so the dog would not bite them.]