Victoria Stilwell Article

[lil_angel]

I read this in The Sun (my Grandad buys it ) and I think Victoria Stilwell writes a good article not just on the subject of dangerous dogs but she also puts across the message of when considering a dog and where you should get one from.

 

Please ignore the sun's stupid 'typical' photo of a snarling rottie. The article is worth a read.

 

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article636837.ece

 

Also dont look in their discussions section as stupid peoples comments are enough to make your blood boil

[rip and cap]

Under todays legislation an employer must provide its employees with training how to use a machine (eg a press) which is covered by guards and sensors and almost impossible to injure your self. Yet any one can have a dog which is much more capable of injuring some one. A good piece and i agree with the training but why would it be impossible to enforce training? Obviously we would get individuals breaking the law as with any other law but how would this be impossible to enforce?

 

The reason i can not see a government enforce it is because it would loose more votes than it would gain. Although it would be the way forward for the current shambolic dda.

 

Any one who haven't got time to do the training and take their dog to classes havent got the time required to own a dog.

[Ingrid]

Any one who haven't got time to do the training and take their dog to classes havent got the time required to own a dog.

 

I resent that comment, I have lived with & owned dogs all my life, I don't have time to attend training classes in the evenings or weekends but I do spend time with my dogs and they are as well trained as their breed allows.

[Mrs Mop]

Any one who haven't got time to do the training and take their dog to classes havent got the time required to own a dog.

 

Maybe I should have left my husband at risk of falling to go to training classes, at the time they are held it was far too early to put him to bed where he would be much safer. If I was going out, I always went out before he got up normally. My dogs may not be up to obedience competition standard but they are obedient.

[melissa]

Good atricle, she is well known & popular shame she doesn't have more of a say than some of the faceless goverment officials who determine the rules! It is true though, unfortunately a lot of people do still give very little thought to how dogs will be with their kids, they see the puppy & think aaaah the kids will love it not thinking about what the dog might need or they buy a dog as some sort of guard dog & then are suprised when it is aggresive??! some of these poor dogs must be sooooooo confused as to what is required of them

[rip and cap]

I resent that comment, I have lived with & owned dogs all my life, I don't have time to attend training classes in the evenings or weekends but I do spend time with my dogs and they are as well trained as their breed allows.

 

 

Maybe I should have left my husband at risk of falling to go to training classes, at the time they are held it was far too early to put him to bed where he would be much safer. If I was going out, I always went out before he got up normally. My dogs may not be up to obedience competition standard but they are obedient.

 

 

What are your views on training/educating owners and dogs? Do you think there should be training/education for owners and/or dogs? If so do you think it should be compulsory or voluntry as it is now? They aint gonna relax breed specific legislation with out a more efficient legislation replacement.

[Mrs Mop]

What are your views on training/educating owners and dogs? Do you think there should be training/education for owners and/or dogs? If so do you think it should be compulsory or voluntry as it is now? They aint gonna relax breed specific legislation with out a more efficient legislation replacement.

 

You don't need to attend training classes to learn how to train a dog.

 

The problem with making anything compulsory is many don't want to go and won't no matter what the consequences are, far better to encourage owners to learn how to train their dogs but not necessarily in training classes.

[Ingrid]

Training classes only work if you are prepared to put in the time to work with the dog in between, a couple of hours compulsory class attendance once a week will make no diference whatsoever, all it will do is add yet more legislation to responsible owners.

 

I still firmly believe that you need to go back even further and make the breeders responsible for every puppy they produce, and in that I would include crossbreeds as well as pedigree dogs.

 

Rather then a licence to own a dog, a central register of every dog born and papers required for their sale.

 

It may not solve the problem in the short term but hopefully if something like this happened the breeding lines etc could be checked to see if it was a genetic problem or bad upbringing.

[ReikiAnge]

I still firmly believe that you need to go back even further and make the breeders responsible for every puppy they produce, and in that I would include crossbreeds as well as pedigree dogs.

 

I agree. I know it's very difficult to imagine it happening but I do believe that the way dogs are bred and then sold/rehomed in the first place must be restricted in order to improve the current situation - and it would help with the number of strays and dogs pts too.

 

If dogs could only be obtained from reputable/responsible breeders and rescues (and yes I know there will be differing opinions on what makes one of those) then it would be far harder for those less responsible and/or knowledgeable/experienced to acquire a dog in the first place.

 

I'm not opposed to other ideas by any means but to me it makes sense to deal with things at the start of the problem - ie how dogs are brought into the world and where they go to as puppies, and as adults when things don't work out. It's kind of like puppy farming - it's great that there are rescues there to pick up the pieces and rehome some of the dogs no longer required by the industry, but it doesn't solve the problem of the dogs being bred and sold by puppy farmers in the first place.

 

Just my thoughts.

[fuzzielady]

Up until 2007 I always trained my own dogs, then I discovered the fun of traing classes. So not sure about the compulsory training idea. I have always, even as a child, been around large powerful dogs so grew up large dog savvy. I do think though that something has to be done, ie dog register and or some kind of strict one of training, to prove you are capable and responsible enough to have a potentially powerful dog.

 

I like the idea of breeders/rescues being responsible too

[cycas]

I have never taken a dog to training classes either. I've got a shelf-full of dog training and behaviour books though.

 

However, I think, slightly reluctantly, I would support the idea of an examined dog licence, similar to the driving licence. It would be inconvenient for me personally to have to trek to a class to take a qualification, but I think it would do a lot to get the point across that dogs are things you need to prepare for, not just buy on a whim.

 

I'm not confident in the 'central register' idea. I think the costs of running it would wipe out most crossbreeds, and I'm really not sure that would be a good thing.

 

I also think there would be a thriving market in illegally bred dogs.

[celeste]

I still firmly believe that you need to go back even further and make the breeders responsible for every puppy they produce, and in that I would include crossbreeds as well as pedigree dogs.

 

Well said, completely agree with you 100%, sadly a lot of BYB and professional breeders are either ignorant or choose to ignore temperament issues, there have been a few studies done on the heritability(is that a word ?) of temperament and the over whelming evidence is that there is a very strong heritability factor regarding temperament

[rip and cap]

You don't need to attend training classes to learn how to train a dog.

 

The problem with making anything compulsory is many don't want to go and won't no matter what the consequences are, far better to encourage owners to learn how to train their dogs but not necessarily in training classes.

 

My comment was just an idea related to my work (forklift instructor). I get a very similar response as yours when people come to do refresher training and many say it is a load of bo11ox. They are correct, i agree and i also agree with your comment.

 

It is all money and ways of boosting the economy many say which at the moment is balancing on its last leg. I would expect you to also say this if it was something introduced in future.

 

Obviously it would have to be brought in with compulsory chipping, register etc to trace dpgs which do not attend. It would also have to be staged in not to affect many current situations at the moment (Any dogs born after a certain date etc).

 

When i say compuslory classes i mean may be 1 day introduction training before having a dog and perhaps going once every 6 months for the first 2 years and once a year afterwards for assessment/advice.

 

Many things would need to be considered as like your own situation where perhaps a family member could take the dog. As you can now see i didn't mean weekly obedience classes to start with. I was just suggesting an idea related to my work.

 

Again please remember that we are trying to make our thick and stupid government realise that the deed is to blame and not breeds. They will not just say "yes you are right and we were wrong from the start. Pit bulls are no longer illegal and we will never ban any more breeds in the future" They will need an alternative to be in place before they will think about relaxing bsl.

 

Training classes only work if you are prepared to put in the time to work with the dog in between, a couple of hours compulsory class attendance once a week will make no diference whatsoever, all it will do is add yet more legislation to responsible owners.

 

I still firmly believe that you need to go back even further and make the breeders responsible for every puppy they produce, and in that I would include crossbreeds as well as pedigree dogs.

 

Rather then a licence to own a dog, a central register of every dog born and papers required for their sale.

 

It may not solve the problem in the short term but hopefully if something like this happened the breeding lines etc could be checked to see if it was a genetic problem or bad upbringing.

 

 

As you will see in my reply above we agree on most of your comment. As for the training classes you will also see in my comment that i was not talking about several hours a week but something like the legislation related with my job.

[Ingrid]

As for the training classes you will also see in my comment that i was not talking about several hours a week but something like the legislation related with my job

 

Now there is where we do totally differ, in order for training classes to make any difference you really would need to spend a lot of time with the dog.

In your job the people doing the refresher have mostly been driving forklifts on a daily basis so therefore have possibly picked up bad habits (bit like with all do with normal car driving).

You really can't expect someone to spend a day learning about dogs then send them off for 6 months to try it out, unfortunately with dogs you only have one chance to get that important first few months right, get it wrong and you can spend years trying to rectify the mistakes !!!

[rip and cap]

Now there is where we do totally differ, in order for training classes to make any difference you really would need to spend a lot of time with the dog.

In your job the people doing the refresher have mostly been driving forklifts on a daily basis so therefore have possibly picked up bad habits (bit like with all do with normal car driving).

You really can't expect someone to spend a day learning about dogs then send them off for 6 months to try it out, unfortunately with dogs you only have one chance to get that important first few months right, get it wrong and you can spend years trying to rectify the mistakes !!!

 

 

If you think the idea was stoopid you tell me. My other half doe's all the time. You women.