Essential reading for all dog owners that are thinking about getting a puppy and for those with the less than perfect dog.
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The BBC’s “The One Show” recently caused an outrage amongst the dog community when it introduced its latest dog “expert” onto the show.
This flamboyant and good looking young man demonstrated to millions how to stop a female Jack Russell Terrier from showing aggressive behaviour around its food bowl by effectively putting his foot into her mouth for three hours until she gave up exhausted and obviously stressed by the whole experience. It wasn’t long before two face book pages, liked by thousands of dog lovers, were set up demanding this person be removed and hundreds of complaints were made to the BBC and OFFCOM.
“The One Shows” own face book page was hijacked by hundreds of angry protestors and major dog organisations and respected university lecturers on dog welfare and dog journalists wrote press statements condemning this method of treatment. Even the RSPCA stated they were in the process of investigating whether dog welfare laws have been breached. So how did this happen and why?
Over the past years ordinary people have gained instant celebrity status by becoming an “expert” in their field. One such dog trainer in the United States has made an extremely successful career from doing just this with many TV shows and books to their name. It must be quite tempting for some production companies and trainers to try and emulate this achievement. However, the dog community are very much aware of the huge controversy surrounding the methods that this particular US celebrity dog trainer employs and how much clever editing goes into making these programmes so popular. They no longer rely on the more “traditional dominance methods” of dog training and are now better educated than ever before in how dogs learn and behave and use reward training instead. Many have been encouraged to continue their personal development in their fields and belong to accredited organisations. Thus when the BBC offered up their new and naive young behaviourist and he got it badly wrong the dog community grouped together in their thousands barked loudly and did not let go until this particular trainer was removed from the show.
But does it matter how a dog is trained? Yes of course it does as none of us want to see our pets suffer physically or emotionally. We take out pet’s health very seriously and religiously book them in for yearly veterinary medical checks and boosters. But would you take your pet to someone claiming they could do all a vet could at half the cost because they had attended a short therapy course, claimed a diploma, put a few worthless letters after their names and placed a nice advert in window of the local pet shop window? No yet this is what many dog owners do when they are looking for help with training and behavioural issues.
At present anyone can set up as an animal therapist/trainer/behaviourist with no knowledge, experience or education and charge you money for the privilege. There are great trainers, therapists and behaviourists out there but you have to research and find those with suitable experience and qualifications. To help you do this I suggest for a trainer you take a look on the APDT website (Association of Pet Dog Trainers) for their guidelines, ask lots of other dog owners for their views and go along to see for yourself if you feel your dog would enjoy that particular environment. Any mention of choke chains, slip leads or electric shock collars run for the hills and stay if you see lots of happy dogs
being rewarded for getting it right.
If your dogs behavioural needs are causing you to worry visit the APBC (Association for Pet Behaviour Counsellors) website or the ASAB (Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour) accreditation page on their website for a qualified behaviourist in your area. Please beware of anyone offering you a quick fix or telling you that they can cure all by staring at a photo.
There are moves to regulate this minefield of contention. The Animal Behaviour and Training Council is a newly formed regulatory body that represents animal trainers and animal behaviour therapists. It sets and maintains the standards of knowledge and practical skills needed to be an animal trainer or animal behaviour therapist, and it will maintain a national register of appropriately qualified animal trainers and animal behaviourists.
The better educated you are the clearer the choice you can make who and how you respond to your pets emotional welfare. It might take more of your time but at least you’ll be able to question what you are seeing on your TV and computer screens and what you reading in your books. Keep dog savvy.
Rosie Barclay BSc (Hons) MPhil CCAB
Certified Clinical Animal Behaviourist
http://asab.nottingham.ac.uk/accred/reg.php
Copyright Rosie Barclay 2007 | site by digitalteepee