Has anyone seen this? Are you equally as appalled by the lack of knowledge on basic dog behavior the owner lady has??!

First of all, she wants to do a "small dog" test on two of their dogs ready for possible adoption. So the first dog they bring out is this out of control French Bulldog with no pack structure who charges both the dogs (luckily behind a fence, or he would have been dead), and then put him on a leash and let him drag the owner out to the pit bulls. Doesn't end well obviously.

Then they take the dogs to the family's house who wants to adopt them and their Miniature Pinscher, in a pink frilly shirt, is outside in the unfenced front hard by herself off leash. WTF. I would never adopt any animal to this family after seeing that. The Min Pin is barking like a mad dog and they have the family come out and get her on leash, and then let her drag one of the kids across the yard to meet the pit bulls. Then when the Min Pin lunges, and the pit bull lunges back, the pit bull rescue director says that it's not the Min Pin's fault because it's her yard and she's protecting it from strangers.

And this is on national television for people to see and "learn." I mean, am I missing something? Or is she full of crap like I think she is?

I watched last week.

It's a nice idea to have tough guys training tough dogs and both get something from it, but my reaction was the same as yours.
Last week they were trying to train a blue pit to walk on a leash. The dog looked like it had neurologic issues to me, either that or terrible arthritis.
I decided I didn't want any of those people in my living room and turned it off.

I love this forum....last discussion I saw about this show was on one of the cookie pusher forums where dogs do no bad and blah blah blah....the moderators were upset that the pitts were wearing pinch collars and how this is bad PR for the breed. That was when I left that forum....and VERY HAPPILY found this one!

The show to me is like so many...meant to get attention, therefore advertising money. Sensationalism. It is not meant to convey useful information. Sadly it is something that people think they are learning from. I, like Betty, don't want that in my living room.

What I hate about most of the animal channels is that most of the shows are geared to the knowledge level of an eight year old....and not one at the top of the class. It is a true insult to intelligence. People with no knowledge are scripting shows about something they know nothing about. Someone about a month ago wanted to interview me because I own more than 15 animals....not all dogs or cats or birds or herps...just that I have more than 15 things with faces living in my home. Therefore, according to this nitwit, I am a collector and must have some mental difficulty. Why that would be a show someone would want to watch is beyond me.

I'm glad I'm not the only one. I watched the last 15-20 minutes of it waiting for it to get better and it never did.

Sonya, that's insane!!! I can't believe they'd come to a responsible owner and think she's a hoarder. I'm wondering how this lady keeps these dogs. Pit Bulls especially. She has such a lack of education. I want to take them all away from her.

The heck of it with the show is that you have no real idea what is going on because the producers are only gonna show what sells. So the dogs that fight or don't work out are not gonna be on film. Gives a horridly squewed view and image.


What killed me was that the people doing the show on collectors/hoarders just figured that ANYONE with 15 or more animals must be one. Not that I don't know half a dozen people with more than that in birds and another whole group of folks with reptiles(some of the better producers in the field). And what really productive dog breeder doesn't own that many dogs anyway? I told them they were idiots and maybe they could make some shows actually educational and worth watching. She didn't contact me again. Guess Animal Planet likes crap.

DogTown usually puts a smile on my face

Dog town is ok but I stopped watching it when they were bragging about a rehab case ready to be rehomed. The male had been extremely aggressive and so they solved the problem - sound good? - but the rehab took them 12 years!!!!!!

As for pb and parolees - she's getting in several dogs a week and only rehoming 3/4 a month. How can she afford to do that? Where are the dogs going to go when she can't cope any more?

Wow!! 12 years? Was it a man eating dog or what??

I liked Dog Town too. Now I question them, haha. I know it's sad to see that so many dogs don't have people to re-train and rehabilitate them, but I feel that the wrong training (aka PB and Parolees lady) will do more harm for those dogs and the breed especially than good.

I don't know if anyone will bother to come back to this thread. Its an old topic but it caught my eye so I would like to throw in my two cents.

I agree with what you all said regarding the lack of real dog knowledge on the part of these people on the show. Especially the episode where the daughters and a few of the parolees dress up like pirates to see if the dog they wanted to adopt out can handle being around a pirate themed carnival environment. What a joke!!!

That being said I do see a positive side to all of this. I own two Pit mix shelter dogs that look much more like Pits than whatever they are mixed with. When I walk down the street with them people get out of the way. We all know the reputation Pit Blls have and that's because of the fools that use them for the wrong reasons.

What shows like this and Pit Boss (don't know if you've seen this one)does do is they they show that Pit Bulls are not these crazed killers that they are reputed to be. This woman has 2oo pit bulls all abandoned and in need of homes. None of them are vicious and attacking humans. It shows that Pit Bulls can be great family pets and with the right care they are wonderful dogs.

MY Pits are the best dogs I ever had and they are smart, obedient and the issues they do have have nothing to do with aggression toward people. One was being raised to be a fighter before I got him so I am working through some dog aggression issues but only us dog people would understand where that came from and how to handle it.

Just my two cents.

Unfortunately I tend to agree with most of what was said about the Pits and Parolees show. My wife and I volunteer at the Villalobos Rescue Center (VRC) on weekends walking many of the dogs you've seen on the show.

So far the show hasn't covered the volunteer side of VRC. It would be a real eye opener for people who think all pits are aggressive (dog or human). On any given Saturday there can be as many as 30 volunteers walking pits around the VRC property. In all the times we've been there I have never seen any dog fights or any aggression towards people.

I wish the show would focus more on good PR for the breed and show how wonderful these dogs can be with proper training. The sad fact is bad adoption stories and trips to the vet probably get better TV ratings. Dogtown is definitely better in that they highlight training the dogs to make them more adoptable.

We usually spend about 30 minutes hiking with each dog when we volunteer at VRC. In 30 minutes I can see that many of these dogs are easily trainable, just nobody has ever spent the time to work with them. It seems to me that if the message of these shows was "Train your Dog!" then perhaps many of these dogs would never end up in a shelter in the first place.

You can see some pictures of us walking a couple VRC dogs here:

http://blog.lifewithdakota.com/search/label/vrc

Here's my rescue pit playing her favorite game, "find it!"

Cheers!

Edited by Jerry Fernholz (07/21/2010 10:28 AM)
Edit reason: typo