Apologies - that should be Nigel REED!

 

I don't know this trainer, but would recommend Kikopup videos, she has such a good calm way with dogs and gets marvellous results

 

He came down this way to do a seminar evening type thing, I was interested to go and see what sort of thing he promoted, but unfortunately I was away that weekend. His website/facebook doesn't give much away...

 

This is one of the longest videos I could find on youtube.

 

 

Having watched more of his videos he seems to be a mixture of talking about leadership and alpha and referring to wolves and more positive training methods like treats patience consistency, not reacting when the dog does something you don't want and praising and treating when they do.

His underlying theme seems to be if you aren't being a leader and showing the dog what he should be doing then the dog will be anxious or feel he has to look after you or defend you from the world or explore and check things out ahead of you. If you can take the role of leader then you can show him that you will take care of things so he doesn't have to.

So in essence his actual training isn't too bad but he is spouting alpha wolf and pack leader stuff. I agree that the collar pulling wasn't good. A house line would be better.

Here are some more....

 

In his first of the two videos above he tells the two owners that their dog has separation anxiety because they are not the pack leaders.

His lead walking teaching is pretty general except he does't give in to lead pressure, he pulls the dog away. And at the end explains his success by saying "When your dog knows you are the leader ......"

So for me he is too 'pack leader' I'm afraid. I am a great believer in 'leadership skills' just not 'pack animal theory'.

J

 

I agree. I am also put off by the fact that it's all buy my book and sign up to this and there is very little out there about his methods and philosophy without digging around for a few videos on you tube.

I have to say that I much prefer kikopup. She has lots of freely available content, is very clear on her methods and rationale explains when she makes mistakes what the consequences are and there is no you must me a leader alpha or head wolf thing.

Personally I would give this guy a miss and go elsewhere or at least not buy his content.

 

It was all the being the leader that got to me really and it does put me off, although some of his training is fine using positive reinforcement and nothing negative apart from grabbing the dog by the collar and hauling him off somewhere. Isla doesn't like to be manhndled by her collar so it wouldn't be a sensible thing to do with her, I was surprised that the gsd took it so well.

I must have met a lady dog walker recently that must have watched his training videos as she told me during her chat that she was thinking of becoming a trainer. She chatted away telling me what her training beliefs were and I was happily agreeing with it all until she started on about being the 'leader' and I immediately switched off from her and I even found myself moving away and stopped taking part in the conversation. It's odd how much that affected me and made me want very little to do with her, which has now made me wonder how dogs feel about it all.
Having watched the above videos and can now clearly see that this dog walker and wannabe dog trainer had been getting all her ideas from.

 

Right - off to look at Kikopup: thanks everyone.

 

I suppose this thread has reached a natural end, but I'm still thinking about that video - it seemed to me that he got good results in spite of his philosophy, not because of it.
He reminded me of a friend who always said "thank you" when his dog barked; he got that from Jan Fennell. I didn't give it much thought at the time, but got Fennell's book shortly after I got Monkey. The whole philosophy just seemed contrived and arbitrary, built around some idiosyncratic interpretation of dog ethology.
It was intimidating and demoralising at first, I was thinking "This will always be unintuitive to me" and fully expecting M to develop all sorts of problem behaviours if I forgot to eat a cracker before feeding her, or smiled at her too often. Luckily for her Monkeyship, another book then pointed us in the direction of reading Jean Donaldson, and we've been getting along just fine since then.

Edited to add, I just watched the second video, he was quoting all Jan Fennell stuff and sure enough, the credits call him a dog listener ie JF'S organisation.

 

I definately think there are better channels on youtube (kikopup being one). However, I do find it interesting how the word "leader" can provoke strong reactions in the dog world. I consider myself to be my dog's leader, but that doesn't mean that I follow pack theory. Being a leader to me means that I need to make decisions (e.g. when we go out for a walk, where we go, whether we will go up and say hello to another dog, whether I want my dog to follow me out of the front door or stay where she is etc.). Being a leader means that I make important decisions for my dog's safety as well (if I let her lead me then she might lead us to run across the road to chase a cat). But being a good leader does not mean that we decide everything and the dog has to like it or lump it. A good leader listens to those they are leading, works with them and motivates them. A good leader leads by example and shows those they are leading how to behave with the kindest, most considerate methods possible. A good leader accepts that mistakes will happen and when they do they do not blame those they are leading, but rather they reflect upon their own actions in order to alter them in future.

Unfortunately the likes of CM have tainted the word "leader" for many. A more accurate description for the way he trains should have been "pack boss" or "dictator".

 

Great post @Sairy which sums up my view perfectly.