The Dog Whisperer

Okay, I have been very polite and very politically correct in regards to Cesar Millan. I have had advice from close friends and mentors not to take too hard of a stance against The Dog Whisperer for various reasons. As I've been holding my tongue, my stomach turns every time I hear of another violent and demeaning "technique" someone learned form watching the show. I was just forwarded a link to this op ed piece from the New York Times that was actually written in 2006. These are not my words but they echo my thoughts and feelings better than anything else I have read thus far. Here's the link for those of you that are interested; http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/31/opinion/31derr.html

Zamba

I finally got a chance to read the book I mentioned in my last post, it's fantastic. Great real life story of Ralph Helfer and a lion called Zamba. In a nutshell, Ralph raised Zamba from a little cub and proved to Hollywood and the world that you don't have to beat an animal to get it to cooperate. The book is a fast, entertaining read and what Ralph calls his "affection training" mirrors our Dogological training method. What a life he has lived, I believe he's living in California, I'm going to try and reach him. I love connecting with people that share the same philosophy and passion about animals. 

Welcome

Thanks for visiting and checking out our blog. If you've read "Conversations With Courtney" already, we thank you and hope you enjoyed it as much as we loved writing it. This has been a story in the making for quite a long time. Courtney wanted to set the record straight on how we should be communicating with our beloved dogs. This is just the beginning, as we are on a mission to create a world wide change to a compassionate approach in interacting with and teaching our dogs. Day after day I am hearing how confused and frustrated people are with training advice they are receiving that entails some sort of force. Whether it be choke chains, prong collars or shock collars most people want another way but have trouble finding it. There is no reason to resort to force with any animal. If 10,000lb killer whales can be trained without force or intimidation so can our 5lb, 20lb, our 100lb dogs.

My wife Tamara needed to get something at the bookstore today so I went along for the ride. While she was searching for what she came for I was just walking around to waste some time and this book just seemed to draw me right in. I didn't even know what section I was in, I just picked it up and after reading the back cover and a couple of pages I realized that the book picked me. It's about an animal behaviorist that trained and lived with a lion. He was so sick and tired of the abusive techniques he witnessed every day in his industry (animal training for the entertainment industry) he decided to prove to everyone that abuse was not needed. From the few pages I read it seems he raised and trained a lion cub without an ounce of force, using only love and compassion. The lion lived until 18 and there are amazing photos of this lion with children, and many actors and actresses. I will let you know more about it as soon as I get a chance to read it, but I already feel like he is a kindred spirit. Again thank you for visiting and if you have not read the book and would like to check it out you can visit www.conversationwithcourtney.com or www.teamcanine.com. Talk to you soon..... Brad & Courtney