training

Today is a "guest appearance" in the blog, with a post by Jenny.

Apparently Training dogs the Woodhouse Way 'makes them more aggressive'. Researchers at the University of Bristol have studied dogs at a Dogs Trust centre and re-examined footage of wild dog behaviour. They have found that heavy handed treatment of dogs leads the dogs in turn to become aggressive to avoid that treatment.

No sooner does Victoria Stilwell put out an appeal for anyone interested in appearing in It's Me or the Dog, than Cesar Milan is on the lookout for dog problems to solve!

Does your dog pull and strain ahead when you are out walking? Would you like to achieve the harmony of having him walk calmly at your heel? Then get involved with Dog Train and Behave Week, which this year is focusing on walking on lead. There are tips on the site from expert trainers such as Dr. Roger Mugford, Victoria Stilwell, and Gwen Bailey that will benefit you and your dog wherever you live.

Here's the press release about the event:

Over the years of making DogCast Radio I have been privileged to interview many training and behavioural experts. Even an amateur like me can't fail to take in some pearls of wisdom when bombarded with them like that. I thought you might enjoy some of the gems I've picked up along the way, and if you have some I've missed let me know.

Relax – stress is the enemy of good training

Tim Glass, author of Just This Side of Heaven sent me a link to a cartoon depicting what it can be like being an author with a dog at a book signing. I told him not to take it personally if people want to meet one of his lovely Beagles with more enthusiasm than they do him. Apart from the fact that dogs are usually cuter than their accompanying people, they are just more approachable too. You don't feel at all self conscious when greeting a dog, even a celebrity one.

I was recently asked what was the best dog related advice I had been given. It was quite an easy question really, because something Graeme Sims said sprang straight into my mind. He said that the secret of good training was to love your dog so much that they can't resist you. I think that applies to life with a dog in general, not just training, but certainly if you apply that to life in general with a dog, I think you get better training results.

We've just got home from a highly enjoyable visit to Graeme and Maureen Sims. Graeme has a book out later this month, and having read it, I can thoroughly recommend it. Give a Dog a Home focuses on how best to settle rescue dogs into their new homes, and how to approach training them. Graeme uses two rescues dogs he has taken in, to illustrate how it can require lateral thinking to come up with a training regime that suits the dog. The interview we recorded today with Graeme will be in a DogCast Radio show later this year.

The book is a great read; Graeme is a brilliant