Reply to Doggie "Boot Camp" recommendations?

Forum Index » Pets

Reply to "Doggie "Boot Camp" recommendations?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It's abuse at Cesar's hand too.[/quote]

Whatever, crazy. Dogs are not people. That is the cornerstone of Cesar's behavior modification. Stop thinking that your dog has "guilt or shame or holds a grudge or is selfish" or any of the nuanced human emotions that you think "afflict them". Cesar modifies humans to adapt to the dog's way of thinking. As it should be.[/quote]
Those are strange assumptions to make about me.  I used to love Cesar until every dog trainer I talked to shuddered at his name.  Positive reinforcement methods are the gold standard these days.  Cesar's like a cut-rate plastic surgeon with no medical training or license operating out of a strip mall in Vegas or something.[/quote]

New poster here.  As someone who has had great success with Caesar's methods and who has also worked with dog trainers (good and bad), I am wondering what specifically about his methods you object to.  I view what Caesar does as fundamentally different to what trainers do.  He is not focused on sit, stay, down, that kind of  thing, but more on how to "be" with a dog, if you will.  I know some of his methods are controversial, but on the fundamentals he seems very sound and also I thing most dog trainers will agree with them.  For example:

1.  Exercise.  He is a huge proponent that dogs must get adequate exercise or they will not behave.  Do you disagree with this?  In my experience, my dogs' behavior is 100% related to the amount of exercise they get.

2.  Having a "calm assertive" energy.  This has been huge for me.  Recognizing that I am in control and can interact with my dog in a calm way is key.  You notice Caesar never yells, gets excited, etc.  Instead he is patient, calm and in charge, and advocates for dog owners to have a similar demeanor.  He is very adamant that you cannot be "assertive" without also being "calm."  Do you disagree with this?

3.  Setting rules, boundaries and limitations.  This is another cornerstone of his methods.  Setting aside the methods by which you enforce rules, boundaries and limitations, do you disagree with this as a concept?  Have you ever met a dog trainer who does?

4.  Positive reinforcement.  I have never seen Caesar spray water at a dog, hit a dog with force, or otherwise do anything that looked to me to be injurious to a dog.  I see that there are three possible exceptions.  First, I have seen him use a shock collar in rare circumstances, and he also does his "bite" touch on dogs, and finally he makes his trademark "tsssh" (NO) sound.  I will get to these two topics in a moment, but will say that he DOES use positive reinforcement methods.  For example, his "no touch no talk  no eye contact" rule is positive reinforcement.  In other words, your dog only gets attention (a reward in itself) when it is not jumping all over you and being crazy.  Do you think ignoring an excited dog's bad behavior is wrong?  I also view his rule about not letting a dog pull you out the door on a walk as positive reinforcement.  That is, the dog gets the reward (walk) when it is calm and ready to follow your lead.  Same thing with waiting calmly to be fed.  This works beautifully with my dogs.  I ask them to sit and wait while I pour their food in the bowl, and wait for my signal to eat.  This is a positive reinforcement.  Dog behaves calmly, dog gets fed.  Do you specifically disagree with any of these methods and if so, why?

5.  Controlling space.  I don't see how this harms the dog and it works very well.  Trainers have not helped me cure my dogs of barking out the window at passing dogs.  What has worked is me getting between the dogs and the window and "claiming" the space.  The dogs settle down, and I don't have to say a word or touch them.  Once they do, I praise them and all is well.  Do you disagree with this method and why?

Onto the areas for which he is criticized.  I'll start with the least controversial to the most:

1.  "Tsssh" sound.  I think it is fine to tell a dog "no."  Positive reinforcement does not mean you can never tell a dog no.  I've had trainers who don't like Casear say, "of course you can say "NU-UH" in a stern tone to your dog when you see them about to do something naughty."  I  don't see how you can train a dog without saying no.  For example, when one of my dog's starts nosing around the cat food dish, all it takes is one stern "HEY" from me to make him slink away.  You can't, for example, clicker train my dog NOT to eat the cat's food.  Maybe there is a way but I can't think of it, and the "HEY" works really well and doesn't seem to harm my dog.  Wondering what you think of this?

2.  The "bite" touch.  I'll grant that if done incorrectly this could be bad, but then you are not following Caesar's method properly.  But Caesar always points out that this is not hurting the dog but is rather a way to gain its attention.  I guess you either believe him on this point or you don't, and maybe that's where the controversy lies.  To me it never looks like he is hurting a dog.  I have noticed that dogs do not respond to sounds the way they respond to touch.  And he is correct that the dogs at the dog park DO use physical touch to "correct" each other.  Finally, he uses this technique in instances where pure positive reinforcement doesn't seem to be effective, like when a dog is very ratcheted up and aggressive.

3.  The shock collar.  He seems to reserve this for extreme cases where the owner could not otherwise communicate with a dog and the dog was in danger otherwise (like a farmer with a tractor chasing dog) or for violent aggressive dogs that were on the verge of being put down.  Are you ok with using this kind of method in these situations, particularly where positive reinforcement has failed?

I'd genuinely like to hear your views.  As I said, I've used C's methods with great success and have never felt like I was mean to or harming my dogs.  I also feel like there is a huge overlap between what he says and what trainers say so I wonder why the animosity.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics