No war on my part either. I love discussions where I can learn.
I've been wathcing the "Dog Whisperer" and the new lady, on "it's me or the dog" and comparing their very different methods.
they both accomplish the same thing, but her's are more like you and his are more like me.
He walks in and immediately lets the dog know who is the boss. Just through body language. He doesn't say a word to them yet they know immediately that there is a New Sherrif in town. Once he establishes that, conquering the behavioal issues is easy. Their reward is being able to be next to him, the leader.
She on the other hand corrects each individual problem, and rewards with treats. they have to learn many different commands, and expect treats when they perform.
His method works much faster, the theory being, that the dog will try to please you just because you are the leader. And once that is established, any bad behavior can be corrected with just one sound.
They both agree that the family has allowed the pet to take over the house by not setting boundries.
I prefer his method, for several reasons, unless I am teaching tricks, I do not use treats. Just like with my children, good behavior was expected and had it's own rewards.
the second reason being is that people lie and dogs know they lie, therefore they pay more attention to body language than they do verbal commands. Body language doesn't lie.
Believe me your dog knows what you are going to do before you do it. they know when you are weak and volnurable, the know when you are happy and when you are sad and they know when you are mad.
So if you are not in the right state of mind, your dog will not listen to you unless they are doing it for a treat.
When you are late for work and your kids just spilled their milk, and you can't find your car keys, and the dog runs off with the kids homework, you don't have to to go and get a treat and hope the dog will find the treat more desireable than the than the homework.
With my method it is a chhht, and they stop what they are doing, and when I touch the item in their mouth and look them in the eye, they release it without a word spoken.
So I guess what ever works. On the other hand if I were working with someone elses aggressive dog, that became aggressive because he was not taught that he was not the pack leader, my methods might be different
The dog whisperer's biggest problems are the people that refuse to set boundries for the dog because it might hurt his feelings.
BTW my kids also knew from just one look that they had pushed me too far.
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