Victoria Stillwell

yellowbear

When did she stop being a dog trainer and start being a relationship counsellor?

I realise the programme is heavily edited but there's less training and more therapy for the families.

krlyr

Haven't seen the show but many dog trainers will state that the issue is just as much training the owners as it is the dog. Lots of dogs pick up on and react to arguments, stressed owners, fear, anger, etc. so it does make sense to address that as well as changing the dog's behaviour by training the dog too.

marlot

We adopted a German Shepherd who would wet herself if my wife or I called upstairs to the other (not in an aggresive way). We'd been told she came from a couple who were divorcing. It took a very long time for her to gain her confidence.

I absolutely agree that 90% of dog training is training the human to do the right thing - the dog then naturally follows.

marlot

On their website, Battersea dog home says "Most of the behavioural and veterinary problems we encounter at Battersea are due to owners not looking after their pets properly."

yellowbear

Oh, I understand all that. It makes a lot of sense. I just wonder why it's HER counselling the families and not a proper therapist. Let the therapist do their job and leave Victoria to do what she's good at.

marlot

My wife works with troubled teenagers in her day job. She finds a lot of the techniques she's been trained in work well with dogs!

Pthree

I am 99.9% sure my Mother has been using positive reinforcement on my Dad for the past 43 years (though I doubt either of them would admit it!) :rotfl:

She has a very well trained pooch too.

P3