English BT on dog borstal General Chat

I thought at the very least the dog should have been put on a long line, ultimately they were setting it up to fail as they knew it was going to ignore the owner, which was disheartening for her as well,it could have beent trained to recall to a whistle instead of voice as well....but they don't have very long i suppose...

I felt so sorry for Lola. Everything about her body language was fearful. As far as I could see everytime she reacted to her fear by barking she was sprayed, so she would therefore associate the spray (and negative ) with the thing she was scared of. The trouble with that that (IMO) is that they removed her natural 'warning' growl or bark, she will become sacred to do that so IF she ever was put in a scary position in the future she will go straight to bite mode. A dangerous thing to do. Even the manufacturers of the citronella spray collars say they shouldn't be used on nervous dogs. I was appalled that the trainer spoke at length about her nervousness then put one on her!!!! Yep he got results, she stopped barking, but at what cost? She went to the placenervous.......as did the Great Dane....who came out best from their experience??????

Excellent points Ailsa - found myself nodding to everything you have said there! You do know your stuff don't you

You know, I don't know that I know anything rachel, it just eseems like common sense and kindness to the animal. Treating a nervous dog with something like that....it just seems wrong.

I agree again - LOL! Common sense is mostly what its down to isn't it! Why can we see it - but a supposed trained professional can't? And despite the warnings on the screen how many dogs are today having a citronella collar fitted and may like you say not give the warning and just go full on - that is probably another worry to this scenario isn't it.

Initially I thought hey he is building up the owners confidence - like you watching how they dealt with the Dane - why couldn't they have used that with Lola? Shame if they didn't even try.

Yes I felt sorry for her because she literally flinched whenever that bottle got shaken. Why didn't he try clicker and treats with her I wonder?

Exactly Elmac and Rachel, just the things I thought.

I think Lynne is amazing, she adopts lots of different methods for different dogs and owners, which is just what you should do IMO...Mic is good most of the time too as he does the same....(sort of) but every week with Rob...ta da...there's the rattle bottle....it upsets me when it's used on a dog like Lola. The one last week was scared too. It's cringey tv, I hate to watch a dog being frightened.