by Peg R

Created on: January 23, 2011

I have been training dogs for 32 years.  I've lived through the choke chain mentality, the Barbara Woodhouse methods.  Neither of these individuals are wrong in their approach.  Caesar deals with mostly hard cases on his show and Victoria more typical household issues.  And although I have seen many shows where Victoria had aggressive dogs to deal with she also came to the point of giving up on several occasions and spoke about putting the dog down or giving it away.  Now this is not wrong...I too have given this same advice.  Caesars skills are really about his ability to handle the hard cases.

I am a pragmatist.  I'm not a "tree hugger" type dog lover.  I feel it is important to fully understand the dogs mind.  No trainer has done so much for explaining the way a dog’s mind works better than Caesar.  He also has done much more to explain the body language.  He also has pounded away at the calm assertive energy that is necessary in order to train a dog.  I feel that these skills are critical.  Victoria and Caesar speak of rewarding the correct behaviors.  Patiently waiting for the dog to deliver after giving the command.  Making the dog understand "associations".  Victoria calls this charging a word and Caesar activates the senses with smalls.  It’s the same thing.  Victoria does not train Red Zone Dogs.

Caesar is criticized on his methods of correcting fears in dogs.  Dog physiologist have said that by putting the dog in the position to experience that which causes him fear can do more damage.  Nonsense.  Trainers have used de-sensitizing techniques for years.  Hunting dogs are de-sensitized to loud noises so they don't go timid at the first sound of a gunshot.  You de-sensitize dogs to people, cars and noises when you train service dogs.  And Caesar is correct - the dog reads off of the owner.  So if the owner is feeling anxious or "sorry" for the dog that is about to have to go through its worse fear, the dog responds.

A perfect example of this is my small Rat Terrier.  She hates thunder.  She hides in the corner or in the bathroom next to the toilet.  She has always done this and one day I notices that as soon as I heard the Thunder I immediately thought of her and felt bad for her.  But one day my mind didn't go there.  I opened the front door and stood right on the threshold watching

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