Dog Training vs "The Greatest American Dog" on CBS

I concede that I only watched a brief portion of this show recently. Not really my idea of entertainment when I do find a few moments to kick back in an evening. I also was concerned to see one of the judges was Victoria Stilwell, for reasons outlined in this earlier post. After a few minutes I had enough and quickly changed the channel. Perhaps it's a great show, but the short clip I viewed didn't hold my interest.

The segment I was watching involved a musical chairs scenario for the contestants. What I did find interesting, from the standpoint of a trainer, was that these dogs were not trained. Yes, I know they may all do some tricks and their owners love them - but tricks and training are two different things. Dog training involves building communication with your pet.

In the segment I was watching, none of the dogs really had any idea what their owners wanted, and the owners had no way to tell their dogs what their wishes were. One of the most basic commands is "heel", which these dogs didn't seem to know. When wanting their dogs to jump up on one of the "chairs", the contestants had no communication to help their dogs understand what was wanted. I saw a lot of confused dogs, and a lot of frantic owners. That's not what training is about.

If you enjoy watching this form of television, that's fine. If a dog can find a paying gig I'm all for it. For me, seeing a TV show proclaiming "America's Greatest" featuring dogs that can't heel and lack language with their owners is a bit unsettling. There are dog shows and competitions throughout many communities where you can see dogs that are actually trained and will run circles around these TV contestants.

Every owner has choices in what type of relationship they want with their dog. I prefer to have my dogs be well behaved, calm, and obedient. Yes, I can teach tricks as well, but that's not really too helpful in day to day life. I guess it can be entertaining, however . . .