Posts tagged "dominance training"

What animal lover hasn't daydreamed about applying for a job at the zoo? Or at a doggy daycare? Or tracking gorillas in Africa? We sure have, but since most of us may never actually get to work with the animals we love, we thought we'd introduce you to a few people who do.

Name: Victoria Stilwell
Age: 40
Job: Dog Trainer and Host of Animal Planet's "It's Me or the Dog."

You started out as an actor, walking and training dogs on the side. Why did you move away from acting?
I would go to an audition and come out feeling terrible and I would go to a dog training and come out feeling amazing. I remember thinking, "Someone's trying to tell me something." That was in 2000. I still did a few little acting jobs, but I came off the audition circuit and immediately felt so much happier.

How did you learn your training methods?
I learned from a lot of different people. I studied, I read a lot, I went to seminars and became certified. The whole idea of positive reinforcement has been around for decades.

You come down hard on dominance, or punishment-based training. What's the problem?
I always ask my clients: 'Do you want your dog to follow you because it wants to, or because it fears what's going to happen to it if it doesn't?" I've proven on my show, and thousands of trainers like me who use positive reinforcement prove that you can train a dog much more effectively. It doesn't matter whether you're just doing a little obedience training or you're dealing with the most aggressive animal.