Phew...I stop checking the threads for a week and this is what happens??? I've scanned most of the messages, and I'm going to throw my two cents in:
Re: the video: The aggression was redirected aggression - Ceasar got in over his head. If he had been more into positive reinforcement, he may have gained control in the first few seconds by asking for a behaviour the dog was confident with (ie. a sit), reinforcing it positively, and getting the dog to work with him instead of against him. This MAY have worked - I would have been ready to react just in case it didn't. Once the dog committed to the attack, the only option Ceasar had was to control his head by keeping the collar up and using the leash to control his movement. There truly was no other option - if I was in that position, and a large dog committed to attacking while I was on the other end of the leash, I would have done the exact same thing. People need to keep in mind that dogs can do serious damage.
Where he went wrong: The biggest area (as far as I'm concerned) where he went wrong was not explaining to his audience that he screwed up, he set the dog up for failure, and that he wasn't choking the dog to train it, he was choking the dog to save his own hide after he screwed up. I never would have put myself in that position in the first place. This isn't an abandoned/unknown dog - there is a clear history of aggression. For dogs who I know have a history of aggression, I spend a ton of time establishing the basics and developing a relationship with the dog. Once the groundwork was done (and this could take months), I would expose the dog to the situation which had triggered the aggression, but I would have a muzzle on him (which I would have pre-conditioned him to as well). I have a lot more flexibility in how I control a muzzled dog who is in attack mode as opposed to an unmuzzled dog. I would have counter conditioned a competing emotional response. I would have tried to consider every possible trigger event and worked with the dog while those triggers were present. Also, ALL of this would have been in combination with the owner.
My biggest issue with the "popular" trainers on TV: This issue showed in the forum posts: people thought Caesar was choking the dog to train, as opposed to choking the dog because the dog could have maimed or even killed him otherwise. Now, on this forum, most people (thankfully) see this in the negative sense. Unfortunately, many average viewers trying to train their dogs at home will think about this in the positive sense, and choke their dog to punish any type of reactive behaviour. IMO, many of these training shows do more damage than good because they don't show any of the pre or post-training. You can't solve a dog's problems in an hour any more than you can teach a whole course of advanced calculus in an hour. What's even sadder to me is that there are people advertising themselves as "dog trainers" whose whole knowledge base is built upon watching shows like "Dog Whisperer" and "At the End of My Leash". I think the initial concept was good, if the audience was people who understood dog training and recognized the realities that were not being said. However, the huge majority of people have no idea what they are doing with their dogs, so the concept is disastrous.
(Finally) My Philosophy on Dog Training:
1. I firmly believe that the type of trainer I am reflects the type of person I am/want to be, and I keep this in mind when choosing my training methods. Therefore, I don't hit, slap, shake, or knock over my dogs. I prefer to focus on positive reinforcement through clicker training.
2. I often tell my students that in order to train dogs, they have to keep half an eye on their "Goodwill Bank". I put good will in the bank by using positive reinforcement. Every time I pet, play with, train, reward, or snuggle my pups I'm depositing into the bank. Correcting the dog (in any form) is a withdrawal from the bank. I tell my students they never want to get into an overdraft situation, because that's when their dogs start shutting down on them. A healthy balance in the goodwill bank = a healthy relationship with their dog. As a trainer, before I work with a dog where I know there's a history of aggression, I make sure there's a lot in the goodwill bank before I put it in a situation where a correction is necessary - otherwise, I'm setting myself and the dog up for failure.
Just what is this going to teach a frigntened, ill at ease dog?
