Harsh conventional training.

                    Does this look like building a bond, in any way? 


I was flipping channels, when I saw a guy with a Jack Russell puppy on a long line.  I stopped to watch what it was.  I'd never seen the show but the guy with the hat looked somehow familiar.  Where had I seen this guy before?  Finally I remembered seeing him on the internet somewhere.  He is a dog trainer (Don Sullivan) and he was trying to get the dog to retrieve. It didn't take long for my first gasp.  When the puppy didn't give him the ball out of his mouth his slapped it in the face several times.  Then he threw the ball and reeled the puppy in like a fish caught on a line.  How this was going to teach the dog to retrieve I don't know; but I do know that the puppy would soon learned not to go near the guy in the hat.  I shuddered.

Next up was a gorgeous, soft Golden puppy.  Visions of the rehabilitation I'd had to work on with another Golden puppy who'd been in the hands of a harsh conventional trainer years ago flashed in my head.  He'd been reduced to a shell of his once exuberant self when I met him.   I wondered what he was going to do with this puppy, then he started.  He was doing "stay," and I say doing instead of teaching because the lesson the dog learned was; if you move I will yank on your neck really hard.  The puppy was placed in a down position and when it moved; Don Sullivan came back and yanked it back down by a rope he had attached to the puppy.  The whipping motion of the puppies neck made me shudder; I could barely watch and actually got a pit in my stomach.  The look on the puppies face was heart wrenching.  I could not believe that this Public Broadcast Network was supporting this behavior.  They not only support it but were promoting him, his barbaric methods and his horrible collar he sells.  I was shocked.

The longer this went on the madder I got.  The puppy was now afraid of the guy in the hat, obviously.  He was sending so many mixed messages that you could see the confusion and fear setting in the puppy.  I wanted to go through the t.v. and yank on Mr. Sullivan's neck for a bit.   The next dog was a beagle who was to learn not to cross the street.  Same message, move and get yanked and/or hit.  Yanking on and hitting a puppy or dog is just not acceptable.  Watching the dog cringe as the hatted man came close was maddening.  New dog owners might see this type of training and try it.  It is all wrong, it goes against everything that is known now about canine behavior. 

Let me just say, dog training has come a long way since the chain and yank method of the cave trainers.  Not all have evolved, many have stayed in their caves; unwilling to learn, grow or even have a look at true canine behavior.  Just because people have been yanking on dog necks for a long time, in no way makes it right.   Trainers like this have no expertise in canine behavior.  All they know is that hitting and yanking gets the job done.  They do not see the fallout behaviors; they are unwilling to learn how to truly connect and bond with a dog.  It is all about just making them do it. 

I am appalled that the network condones this type of training.   Seeing Sullivan yank around a soft, doe eyed puppy should have been enough to have someone, at least one person say "hey, I don't know if this is good." 

I'm just disgusted.