3:40PM, Sep 29, 2009
We had a chat with Victoria Stilwell, one of the world's most recognised and respected dog trainers. If you like dogs you'll love this!
What inspired you to become a Dog Trainer and how did you go about it?
It all began when I was a dog walker for about a year and I became fascinated by the way we, as humans, have such an amazing relationship with dogs and how our two different species can get on so well together. I went to a lot of seminars from the top people in the field and my career started to develop from there.
Were you excited about bringing these skills to TV?
I was really excited about bringing these skills to TV. It took a lot to learn how to train in front of cameras as training relies a lot on timing and catching behaviours which was difficult to do in front of a camera, so I wouldn’t say it was a smooth transition, but now it’s almost strange when there isn’t a camera around because I’m so used to it! The biggest challenge is when I’m working with a very aggressive dog; then it’s difficult because you don’t want to stress the dog out even more.
Have there been any Dogs / Families that have been too difficult to help?
Once you get into the mind of the dog, it’s always willing to learn. The biggest challenge has been some of the owners. We had one case in America; the dog was a peanut butter, which is a bit bull mix. The owners were totally wrong to have this dog; it was just suffering with them. It was being neglected; that kind of thing is really quite tough to see.My job is to motivate a family to work with their dog. There’s no point with a family that just want to be on TV. Sometimes they just don’t realise how much work it is when you’ve got a major problem with a dog, it’s not going to just be a quick fix, you’ve got to work at it and be dedicated. If you’ve got a dog that’s got a psychological problem then you’ve got to work on that problem. It’s like if a human’s got a psychological problem, you don’t just go to a psychiatrist one day and it’s all fabulous! When people realise that they’ve got to work at it then the freak out a bit! I work really hard to make sure that the dog and the work has been successful.
What has been your most satisfying success story?
I just find the work so satisfying, for example whenever I have a dog that has nervous aggression towards people and then we’ve completely turned them around. In the beginning you’ve got a dog that’s terrified and then after the training you’ve got a dog that will accept and be like ‘you know what – that’s not so bad’. All my training is about giving the dogs a choice. Because they live in our domestic environment, they don’t automatically make the right choices, they can make socially unacceptable choices and we have to teach them to make the right choice. There are other TV programmes where trainers are training in a very dominant way with Animal Submission Methodology where the dog learns through fear. That’s not what I do, if there is a choice it changes the way a dog feels.
Sky Real Lives has also shown a series about overweight pets – what do you think is the best way to keep pets in good shape?
Dogs don’t get fat by themselves; they get fat because people feed them. I always say obesity is a human problem and shouldn’t be a canine one. Unless a dog has a medical condition, which is very rare, it’s usually down to the owner. You need to get the dog on a good nutritious diet and exercise it appropriately; building that exercise up as the dog’s stamina goes up accordingly. When I got my dog Sadie, she was 20lbs overweight. She belonged to a lady who was very old and unwell, so she couldn’t walk her, but would just feed her. Sadie is a Labrador; she came to me weighing 93 lbs. A good diet and exercise over eight months has got her down to 73 lbs, which is her ideal weight. Losing the weight wasn’t done fast, you should never do it fast. Don’t buy food from the supermarket, go and get a good organic food that will provide all the nutrition and calories the dog needs. Then it’s just down to exercise, but you have to be careful if you’ve got a very fat dog as there is so much pressure on the internal organs. I see so many differences now see in Sadie; she now runs for her ball, she jumps for her Frisbee, she’s just got so much more energy and she looks so much happier!
