It's Me Or The Dog

[Meeps83]

I was flipping thru channels last night while getting ready for bed. There was an old episode of a show called It's Me or the Dog on one of the stations. Do you guys remember that show? There was a British lady named Victoria Stilwell that was the "trainer" kind of doing female Caesar Milan-esque stuff.

Well the dog in the show was this poor 8 month old Neopolitan Mastiff. He was "out of control". He jumped and nipped and destroyed the house and they didn't understand why. He hadn't gone thru any type of socialization or training. And because he ate the house, they kept him kenneled. Miss Victoria's answers were to NEVER kennel this dog because it is too confining and to neuter him to calm him down.

Ugh, the things I know now.

[arentspowell]

I use to watch a lot of Its Me or the Dog and I don't think Victoria Stillwell is "Cesar Milan-esque "at all! Her training techniques are based on positive reinforcement. I wouldn't say her techniques would work for all dogs across the board but the show did provide lots of really helpful techniques that viewers could safely implement at home.

[Berna]

Some things she does are common sense. I don't agree with all her ideas and methods, but that lady started in Britain, moved to the US, made a fortune - who am I to judge? LOL

[smartrock]

The only show of hers I recall is one where the owners had this little tiny dog that would only eat if put up on the dining room table and it wouldn't eat anything that wasn't prepared for her just prior to eating. She was being fed home cooked meat- not necessarily the worst thing, but also with no thought to whether it was getting any sort of balanced diet. I think it was another of those dogs that didn't let the husband sleep in the bed with his wife, wore clothes, wasn't taken for walks outside, all those things that seem the provenance of little tiny dogs. Victoria got her straightened right out- the owner, that is!

[swanska]

I watched every episode available when I first got Shadow. Evidently he had been trained by his original owner using similar methods. The first episode that I saw taught 'Leave It'. I just had to say it on our walk and he snapped into an obedient dog who stopped picking up every magnolia seedpod!!

Shadow was probably "dumped" near the dog park next to the animal welfare league because he may have been a Christmas pup -- the timing was right for the juvenile delinquent stage and the owner probably couldn't deal with him. I, a first time owner, naively took him on and spent many an evening crying and wondering what I'd gotten into. Victoria saved me until I could take some classes and then I continued watching until the show started doing the silly NYC episodes with wacky owners and strange pups. The classes were clicker training and used the positive reinforcement that I was learning from VS.

[Tanya]

Victoria is pretty much the opposite of Ceasar Milan as far as training techniques! I don't watch her show (I don't get it) but read some of her stuff and browzed her site.

[Labradorks]

The episodes I watched were not Caesar Milan-ish at all. I thought her methods were pretty good, and much of it was common sense and positive reinforcement as well as some "cause and effect" lessons. Some people are unable to deal with intact dogs. Neutering is not always the answer, but it *can* help. Also, some breeds of dogs just seem harder to deal with when they are intact. There was a mastiff in one of my classes whose brains were, I'm pretty sure, located in his testicles! Until I met breeders and had intact male dogs of my own, the only intact dogs I had been around were terrible and I swore I'd never live with one. Humping obsessions, peeing on everything, only being interested in pheromones? No thanks! I have found that having an intact male dog is more work and requires a watchful eye, and with that you can have zero to few undesirable behaviors. And, I have seen dogs really turn things around with neutering and, of course, training and consistency.

[Polly Pipkin]

It's on here every weekday and she focuses on positive training approaches and using treats as a reward.

I don't agree when she said that when wearing a Gentle Leader, your dog won't be able to carry a ball or a stick. . . Polly can do both at the same time!! But then again - we've known since puppy-hood that she's a character for sure!

Here she is - and yes, she walked home with the big stick!!

[BogeyBaby]

The dog trainer I took Bogey to uses the Victoria Stillwell "Positivity" technique to train dogs. Basically it is reward for good behavior but don't punish bad--instead redirect to good. It works on some levels, but not all. I don't know that she advocates for not crating though. That's weird.