Website of interest I came across...

edited March 2011 in General
This is interesting...
...I came across this website (www.superdogs.com) awhile back and apparently book marked it.

These are words that struck my interest:

"Violence, aggression, shock collars and dog training with food often makes dogs even more aggressive, dangerous and unpredictable."

"The best training method is the one that actually works.

RELATIONSHIP-BASED OBEDIENCE"


http://www.superdog.com/superdog_aggression.htm


"Acquiring the good things in life often requires effort, resolve and character, not just effective techniques."

"The idea is to get your dog to listen to you.

How well your dog responds to you is directly proportional to your ability to engage him or her. Mostly, you engage your dog with your attitude which is reflected in your voice. Your voice alone should be enough to engage your dog.

If your dog does not focus on you, then you will probably not be able to engage your dog and get him to be calm or obey commands."



http://superdog.com/superdog_method.htm


I don't really know anything about the guy..."the trainer"...but I kinda like what he expresses on his website. I thought this might be worthy of tossing "out there" and sharing with you all.

Comments

  • I'm surprised that he lumped dog training with food in with the other punitive methods as a way to make a dog more aggressive, dangerous and unpredictable....

  • You would think that food rewards are "positive" based, wouldn't you?

    I can see how food reward based training could turn "negative" though. Assuming the dog in question is either food aggressive or the owner/handler/trainer is rewarding the wrong behaviors.
  • It's kind of confusing, and doesn't really go over how they train a dog. They use a lot of those power words that aversive trainers use (subordinate, submissive, pack leader, etc) but I don't know if that is their actual philosophy or they are just using those words to appeal to the public that believes in that stuff.

    I don't see what the issue is with food rewards, I can get my pups to listen pretty well with that, well enough to start competing with them
  • edited March 2011
    I think it's confusing, too.

    Some people think the odds with Russian Roulette are good because the gun only has one bullet in it.
    On the contrary, a professionally trained dog is like a police officer with a loaded gun protecting the children.


    Don't understand this statement. Are the dogs supposed to kill people? I don't get it.

    If you have a multiple-dog household, you especially need to manage your dogs correctly to prevent fighting. We recomment that you feed your dogs in the order of their dominance in the pack.
    However, if a dog is pathologically dominant, we often feed that dog last during the initial training period.


    I don't like this idea of giving the "dominant" dog preferential treatment. First of all, I don't think it improves the quality of life for anyone involved. More importantly, it then puts me under the control of the "dominant"dog. If I want to play with dog B or give dog B a treat or feed dog B first, Dog A just needs to deal with it. If it makes them act up, then, in my opinion, they are "pathologically dominant" because normal dogs aren't obsessed with dominance (that's a human thing). I don't need to endorse Dog A's pushing everyone around, and I don't need his permission to do anything.

    Some people think they can innoculate themselves against dog aggression by owning a small dog.
    Everyone knows small dogs are never aggressive and are always good with seniors and children.


    And I think this is meant to say the opposite of what it says, because it doesn't go on to dispute this statement at all.

    Superdog's program is not nebulous and has objective training benchmarks :
    1) The dog will go 6 to 10 feet away and disengage contact,
    2) The dog will hold a "Down-Stay" for 30 minutes to an hour, and
    3) The dog will "Heel" with the nose behind your leg and will even walk 3 to 6 feet back if asked.
    There is not going to be significant Obedience or behavior problem solving if your dog won't do these three things. There is no in-between, either the dog does these or not.


    Why is there no in-between and how do these behaviours affect aggression? Again, no explanation.

    Superdog's behavioral training program is not as much about commands as it is Behavior Modification.

    This contradicts the last quote. I thought it was all about which commands they obey.

    Superdog's Philosophical Axiom is that all good dog trainers and behaviorists should have many photos of aggressive dogs that they successfully trained.

    Having photos doesn't prove anything, nor does not having photos. Actually, the photos on the website don't tell me much at all because there's no context. What are they doing now that they couldn't do before and how is it preventing their deaths?

    I personally guarantee that you get the same results as you see in these photos if you do what my trainers and this website tell you and practice a few minutes every day.

    You guarantee my dog will pose for a photo? So what.

    His methods might be good and they might not be. I don't know. They're not presented well on this website because it's confusing and doesn't explain a whole lot. I don't understand the philosophy or the methods, or how it's different from other training methods.
  • "Some people think they can innoculate themselves against dog aggression by owning a small dog.
    Everyone knows small dogs are never aggressive and are always good with seniors and children."


    --> I think he meant this as a "sarcastic remark". Since he paired up a bite photo with a smaller sized dog under his leg.

    @Calia - Beth I think you're on to something with your statement, "or they are just using those words to appeal to the public that believes in that stuff."

    His website, to me, seems to be mainly an "upsell" on his training services and appears to be directed towards people who have an aggressive, "danger to society" dog with a proven history of attacks or bites. I think he is selling his training services as more of a "last resort" when all else fails kind of ordeal.

    However, I don't know the guy, I don't know his methods and there really isn't enough information on his website to truely pass judgement. I just like some of the positive ideas that he gives in a few of those quotations/statements. And I find some of the other statements that he gives rather peculiar. I'm a bit amused by it, which is why I decided to share it here on the forums.

    For example, I don't agree with having a dog "lag" 3-6 feet behind while on lead. I think it's perfectly fine having a dog walking in front of so long as he or she isn't dragging the walker. The walk on lead is just a personal preference, in my opinion, anyways and up to owner discretion.
    As for feeding, I always feed my dogs at random...so there never are any particular order. However, the dogs that go into their crates first and dogs that don't whine or get impatient are the dogs who get fed first. Again, it's all owner discretion.

    This is just one of those sites in which you take what you like and leave what you don't =]. I think that he does have some good quotes on there and you can perceive the positive quotes in which ever way you like. Please ignore any of his contradicting or confusing statements.
  • I want to see a more clear description of their chosen training methods. There is a lot of lovely pictures. And lots of pleasant talk. Even on the "methods" and "philosophy" page there are tons of descriptions of how the dog should behave and even the kind of person who makes a good trainer. They talk lots about the results of each session. But I can't seem to find what they actually DO during these sessions. Admittedly I only skimmed. But what do they actually do? Vagueness like that makes me uncomfortable.
  • "pathologically dominant"...

    So, a dog that is "pathologically dominant" must have that "dominance disease". If only we could find a cure for that disease. LMAO

    ----
  • More than anything with this guy, I would love to see a video of a class session just to get a better idea of what they do. Nothing on the site tells you anything about how they will get your dog from point A to point B in being obedient. Closest I see with training is them listing what commands they teach in each lesson.

    It's a pretty site, with some good music, but not really something that would impress me enough to want to call them to help me with my dogs.
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