"Dogs in the City": A Trainer Review

From my remarks at Life with Dogs and other media about this terrible program, hosted by an unqualified, certified amateur who hasn't a clue as to what he's talking about, much less doing, and who misrepresents himself as a behaviorist when he is nothing of the kind. This program is just another sham for big bucks that diminishes the seriousness of dog training, a profession that requires a great deal of research, study, and experience, and which is, what's more, a matter of public safety. Tonight marked the debut of Justin Silver's "Dogs in the City". A routine search revealed that Mr Sillver, whose principal line of work is that of a stand up comic and a dog walker, has neither certification or formal education as a trainer, nor credentials, experience or degrees in any of the animal sciences. His website offers only a single, affectionate recommendation from a dog shelter employee, but not a single one from a client. That struck me as unusual, insofar as Mr Silver claims to have been in business as a trainer for ten years. While this information alone would have stopped any savvy and responsible dog owner from engaging him, it certainly didn't stop Julie Chen of "The Talk" from introducing him as a "behaviorist” a puerile fantasy that Mr Silver could not be bothered to correct. While many of us here are exceptionally well informed and savvy dog devotees, few if any of us would dare proffer advice, absent long experience and proper accreditation, on national television. That doesn't stop Mr Silver, who offers a handsome, charismatic presence, reminiscent of John Garfield, in place of substance. That said, the show, which turned out to be a bare-bones entertainment and puff piece, was not exactly benign, either. Mr Silver offered little if any real dog training as he put up with either naive or arrogant clients. Aside from offering a fashion executive advice about what to do with her beagle mix, an insecure dog that he naively -- and incorrectly -- evaluated as "aggressive", his principal concern was to assuage the egos of the owners. But then, something went terribly wrong, and anyone with even a modicum of knowledge about canine behavior and responsible dog training must have seen it. That it was disturbing is an understatement. A little more than halfway into the program, Mr Silver accompanied a young daughter of a client, a former police officer, to a park. along with her Swiss Mountain dog. The girl was probably no more than 12. Taking a seat, Mr Silver pulled out a few treats, which was a welcome relief as nowhere else in the show (save for a walk with a bulldog) did he use food as either lures or rewards. Evidently at least one principal of behavioral training, namely reinforcement, hasn't yet entered his vocabulary. In an effort to teach the dog a simple "leave it" cue -- that is, getting the dog to voluntarily refrain from approaching food when put in front of him -- he hit the dog rather firmly, even hard, from underneath the chin while the dog still had his mouth open. This he did to prevent him from taking the treat on the ground in front of him. As the child looked on, Mr Silver then hit the dog, again rather forcefully, on the chest, pushing him away vigorously as he glared angrily at the dog, his brow knit, his face only inches away from the dog's face. Now that one bit of "training" pretty much summed up the essential poverty of Mr Silver's training regime as it sent up a huge red flag. But it got worse. Cut to a close-up of the young girl for her reaction to Mr Silver's teaching. Said she words to the effect of " Oh, all you have to do is hit the dog in the chest and he'll do what you want!" Brilliant, Mr Silver! Now, in addition to having advised folks, on his CBS website, that any dog can be taught to swim (which bogus advice is at once wrong and dangerous; brachycephalic dogs, which are not physically engineered for swimming, should not only NOT be taught to swim, but will more often than not sink to the bottom like a rock) , Mr Silver now proffers a wholly incompetent, unnecessary, and cruel method to gain the dog's compliance for one of the simplest cues. And this he does while giving a child - A CHILD! -- information so utterly uninformed as to potentially put her in danger should she ever emulate what she saw. Dogs do not respond well in general to kids putting their faces inches from their muzzles, while bopping them on the chin and hitting them in the chest. That's a GREAT way, Mr Silver, to insure that a child -- perhaps one or more who watched you this evening as you extolled as a virtue such blatantly cruel, irresponsible and frankly unprofessional behavior --- will most certainly be bitten, and bitten badly. The entire incident left me stunned, and even physically ill. Had I been irrational, I likely would have taken out my frustration on the television set. Thus, this program was hardly an auspicious debut, but just another sham designed to generate a false consciousness as it demeans the seriousness of dog training and the behavioral sciences. Nowadays, anyone an hold forth on anything on television, no matter their background, so long as it makes money and attracts advertisers. Perhaps next week I'll don a white coat and pitch a reality show that would put me in an operating theater as I perform open heart surgery on a geriatric. Why not? After all, by television network standards, I'm eminently qualified, precisely because I'm not qualified in the least. Given what I witnessed this evening, I can only wonder how the network executives responsible for this travesty can sleep at night. Thus I urge each and every one of you, as a matter of conscience and also public responsibility, to keep a very close eye on this show henceforth. After all, who knows what might be next?

Hi Victoria - I am a dog care professional and I hate this show so much that I'm writing a blog debunking it. In fact, through this blog I was contacted by Ellie/Charlotte (the aggressive dog of the first episode) who I put in contact with a REAL trainer. The aggression displayed on the show was 100% provoked and editing. Awful. I'm interested in your opinion of my debunk: http://www.laurensleash.com/the-dog-blog/

Ugh. Can't watch the whole thing. Many aspects of Cesar Milan: "dominant", "pack", yanking on collars...just needs to add tsch!tsch!tsch! Sigh.

Another idiot ! Cesar Millan is an idiot and so is is this dude with no knowledge!Im not wasting my time watching this