# Victoria Stilwell - Thoughts?



## SydTheSpaniel (Feb 12, 2011)

I've been going training video crazy ever since we made the decision to get a second dog, and a puppy no less! I'm trying to get a good head start in learning valid training methods that are also positive. I've never raised a puppy myself. We had two litters of puppies growing up from our GSD, but I was young! I found this video tonight, and was wondering what the thoughts were about this woman, are her methods acceptable? Does this video look like a good one to follow?






I know she's on TV like Cesar is, but I think(?) she follows a more positive technique. But I'd love some opinions on her, her methods, and any other good trainers who have up to date, proven methods with video online!


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## lil_fuzzy (Aug 16, 2010)

VS is pretty good. I know a lot of people find her annoying, but you can't really argue with her methods, as she's a reward based trainer. There are plenty of clips from her show available on youtube, it's called "It's me or the dog".

As for crate training, it looks good to me. I didn't watch the video in details, I skipped through it a bit, but it looks like the general idea is to build up a positive association with the crate and provide environmental enrichment, and no good trainer is going to argue with that.

Personally, I would lean more towards doing Susan Garrett's Crate Games, where the crate isn't just a place to keep your dog, but a training tool which can be used to train a variety of things, but for pet dog owners, Victoria's approach is great.


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## bgmacaw (May 5, 2012)

She's an actress who got into dog training and built a career around that. From the shows I've seen, her techniques are OK although there is some extra family drama thrown in for the reality TV audience. I think there are better channels on YouTube for dog training (Kikopup, etc) although they're less photogenic and animated than Ms. Stilwell.


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## elrohwen (Nov 10, 2011)

Personally, I really like her. She's a huge advocate for positive training and (I think this says a lot about her) she has modified her methods over the years as she learned more about PR. She was never abusive like Ceasar, but some of her original British episodes have things about eating before the dog, being the alpha, etc and she has completely dropped those things now. I subscribe to her blog and she does a lot of wonderful things with promoting PR training, rescue dogs, etc with her fame which is also awesome. 

The newer seasons of her show are kind of silly - lots of family drama (for TV) and totally normal dogs who just never get exercise or training, but her methods are good. Some of the first seasons of the US show were decent - fairly entertaining with some good training advice thrown in.

I can't watch the video with sound since I'm at work, but it looks ok. For watching videos I prefer Kikopup and Susan Garrett's crate games, but I don't think you can go generally wrong following VS.


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## HollowHeaven (Feb 5, 2012)

I like her. -shrug. She uses positive methods that actually seem to work, the followups seem to show the dogs doing well as long as the owners are keeping it up. She uses techniques that everyday owners can learn and easily apply and keep up with. 

She may not be the best, and yeah she's on TV and there has to be a bit of flash, but I'd rather see her on every station than Cesar. At least she's not abusing dogs or handing out useless, negative outdated information.


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## Selah Cowgirl (Nov 14, 2009)

her methods are great but she is an annoy woman.


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## Amaryllis (Dec 28, 2011)

Her show these days is really light on the training, but I like VS. Honestly, I like the show, too, because while it might seem ridiculous to us, to the average dog owner, that stuff really is rocket science.

One show I caught recently, there were 4girls living in a house in CA. The lessee did not have a dog, the sublessees 4 tiny dogs between them. The dogs were allowed to pee and poop EVERYWHERE. It was horrifying. The owners were clueless. "What, I have to clean up after my dog?" "Walk my dog, are you nuts?" "I don't understand why she's being such a b**ch, doesn't everyone live in a home covered in urine and feces?" (not actual quotes)

VS unloaded on them! And she got stuff done. I don't know if it lasted, but the house was clean, the dogs were walked, the lessee was mollified. And nobody yanked a collar or jabbed a neck.

I'll take it.


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## SydTheSpaniel (Feb 12, 2011)

Thanks for the replies everyone! I will definitely check out some of the other suggestions. I don't usually watch her show on TV, as I don't have cable at the moment. Even when I did, I didn't watch it very often. I found this video on her youtube channel, and liked what I saw. Thought I'd get some opinions and even suggestions on other similar trainers who have videos.


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## Ratness (Jan 5, 2013)

I like her, and her show! I used to watch it a lot, but haven't been able to for awhile.


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## TorachiKatashi (Sep 29, 2010)

Selah Cowgirl said:


> her methods are great but she is an annoy woman.


This. I like her more than CM, obviously, but something she has so much in common with CM is that she's completely _obnoxious_. Oh lord does she grate on my last nerve.

I don't like any dog training shows, honestly. Regardless of the methods, they all have the same effect of "I watched 3/4ths of an episode of -Insert Trainer Here- and now I'm a dog training expert."

Granted, we're talking about a woman who has told people to have their dogs put to sleep simply because her methods didn't work. So maybe she's not any better than CM after all.


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## HollowHeaven (Feb 5, 2012)

TorachiKatashi said:


> Granted, we're talking about a woman who has told people to have their dogs put to sleep simply because her methods didn't work. So maybe she's not any better than CM after all.


In what situation did she say this?


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## bgmacaw (May 5, 2012)

HollowHeaven said:


> In what situation did she say this?


I remember one of the British episodes where she suggested this would be an option if they didn't turn the dog's behavior around. I think it was the one with the Chinese Crested that wasn't well socialized and was a biter. I'm not sure if her suggestion was to build drama for the show though.


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## lil_fuzzy (Aug 16, 2010)

I remember one with a dalmatian where she said something along those lines. But imo it was warranted. She'd been working with the dog for a while and he was doing well, then one day the people were sitting around the dining table, not interacting with the dog at all, there was no food on the table, and suddenly the dog ran up to one of the people sitting down and nipped her on the arm. The dog had bitten before too, and this was seemingly completely unprovoked.

But the family decided not to put to sleep, so VS told them the dog could never be around kids and they would have to stay on top of him every second around visitors.

And there was another one, I believe the clip is on youtube, where she advices to pts over the phone, but I can't remember the circumstances.


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## EdDTS (May 30, 2012)

She's annoying beyond all reason, more so than Cesar.
Her show is so light on training it's ridiculous. It's even more edited than the Dog Whisperer. I remember for some of her episodes we don't even see how the dogs are after she left, they just kind of leave the segment alone.
I recall she learned dog training in a school that taught "balanced" techniques, but for her it probably sold better if she dropped the older techniques and adopted softer "womanly" techniques.


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## lil_fuzzy (Aug 16, 2010)

EdDTS said:


> She's annoying beyond all reason, more so than Cesar.
> Her show is so light on training it's ridiculous. It's even more edited than the Dog Whisperer. I remember for some of her episodes we don't even see how the dogs are after she left, they just kind of leave the segment alone.
> I recall she learned dog training in a school that taught "balanced" techniques, but for her it probably sold better if she dropped the older techniques and adopted softer "womanly" techniques.


I haven't seen the more recent episodes, but the older ones used to have plenty of training in them, and people at home would be able to use the same techniques because it was explained how and why to do stuff. I haven't seen the new, American show, I used to watch it when she was working in UK.

So what if she learnt training at a place that uses balanced techniques? So did I, because the only place that has an accredited dog trainer course here in Australia, teaches you how to apply both reinforcement and punishment. I think any good dog trainer course should teach how to correctly use all quadrants. I'm a reward based trainer, but knowing the correct use of P+ and correct use of check chains, prong and e-collars has been nothing but useful to me. It adds more tools that I can use if needed (hasn't been needed yet), but it also means I can argue against traditional trainers who are overly harsh. No one can ever tell me "you don't know, you're a reward based trainer!", because I do know when someone is using punishment incorrectly and being overly harsh.

I would personally have limited trust in a trainer who knows nothing about P+, other than "you can never use P+, it's evil!"


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## Willowy (Dec 10, 2007)

bgmacaw said:


> I remember one of the British episodes where she suggested this would be an option if they didn't turn the dog's behavior around. I think it was the one with the Chinese Crested that wasn't well socialized and was a biter. I'm not sure if her suggestion was to build drama for the show though.


Probably partially for the drama, partially to scare the owners into taking action. I haven't seen the episode so I don't know if she was suggesting it as a good option or using it as a threat. . .IMO, some owners need to know that's what's going to happen if they don't manage things properly.


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## MimiAzura (Jan 5, 2013)

LOL I was going to post a thread asking opinions on her today XD

A friend lent me her "it's me or the dog" book a few days ago and I am slowly reading it lol


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## NicoleIsStoked (Aug 31, 2012)

this is the first i've heard of her. i like thats shes positive but dont agree with trainers who use/recommend puppy pads.


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## GrinningDog (Mar 26, 2010)

While I'm not absolutely fanatical about everything that she does, in general, I think she's great. A pretty good positive TV dog trainer. I've seen several episodes of her show, years ago, and enjoyed them.


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## Ratness (Jan 5, 2013)

> Her show is so light on training it's ridiculous. It's even more edited than the Dog Whisperer. I remember for some of her episodes we don't even see how the dogs are after she left, they just kind of leave the segment alone.


I have seen some of the american shows, and they had plenty of training in them. I don't remember if they did the going back and visiting.


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## Crantastic (Feb 3, 2010)

Willowy said:


> Probably partially for the drama, partially to scare the owners into taking action. I haven't seen the episode so I don't know if she was suggesting it as a good option or using it as a threat. . .IMO, some owners need to know that's what's going to happen if they don't manage things properly.


That one was to scare the owners. The owners were a couple of young girls, sisters, who were really into modeling and fashion and got the crestie as a fashion accessory. The dog bit, peed everywhere, was terrified to walk on a leash, and just looked generally miserable. I doubt Victoria would have let the girls have the dog put down... it really seemed to me that she was trying to scare them into action (because they were kind of balking at her training suggestions and she had to get them to listen). But that one is online (season two, episode seven), so you can judge for yourself!


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