http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00pj6dw

A warm and intriguing miscellany about the dog-human bond, spiced up by archive clips from past BBC programmes which have the capacity to amuse and cringe at the same time. Moustachioed 60's and 70's professors - even one with a monocle! - spouting forth with plummy voices about domestication, history, anatomy, behaviour and training. Some clips from PDE2 including the pop-eyed evangelist vet, but don't switch off there, the best is yet to come.

Second half starts looking at behaviour in detail - from the Belyaev foxes through to work studying village scavenger dogs. This essay is not afraid to show clips from days past when we got it all wrong; in fact it goes into quite some detail about how domestic dogs are not wolves, and supports modern methods of positive training. We see Barbara Woodhouse with a very stressed GSD, and Jan Fennel, plus snips of Dog Borstal as we are advised that this style of training does not really work, and positive methods are the way to go.

I don't think there has been anything on TV before that has encapsulated modern thinking to this degree; John Bradshaw is a voice of [good] reason, and through him we learn that military dogs are only trained with kind methods - because human lives depend on it.

Meeee.. very good. So good that my sister saw it and phoned me to make sure I was watching :)

It was excellent.  Had me in tears in places - the old training things, that awful clip with BW and the poor GSD :-( And Laika - 'sadly she did not make it back' my backside, it was known from the start that she would not be coming back.  That was a bit too rose-tinted for my liking.

But the rest of it was very good - especially the end, with the segment about the study on sanctuary dogs and how they don't form a pack even in that mostly  human-free environment.  Good stuff :-)

I just wish it had been on something more mainstream than BBC4 - this is the sort of thing that needs to be shown to the masses and sharpish!

I only caught the last half but it was very good.
I used to love watching The Woodhouse Way when I was wee, thank god I didn't have a dog at the time !. One of my friends found a BW book in a charity shop and surprisingly some of her ideas were very good ( I know I know, i can't believe I'm saying it either ) I can't remember specifics but she did have some modern idea's.
I do remember there was a letters section and some poor soul had written asking what she could do to pep up her " dull and uninteresting " dog, Bab's reply was " You yourself must be dull and uninteresting " ! LOL.

was decnt programe- pointing out how army uses reward based methods for bomb detection dogs not out of any sentiment or kindness but purely because it is the most effective way of training their dogs- ie beating them for not finding the bomb doesn't work!!

Me too, thought it was good especially the last section re training and 'wolf-pack' mistaken theories. shame they had to put the clip off 'poisonous productions' and the R£PCA ex chief car mechanic........but it was the Beeb so I suppose its not surprising really :-(
Chris
ps loved the plummy profs with the suits and the monacle!

Just watching it now on I player. Am interested to see that the first doodles created were not actually from the guide dogs association as first thought  but were in fact  Wolf cross poodles! or is that Woodles!!!

> plus snips of Dog Borstal as we are advised that this style of training does not really work, and positive methods are the way to go.

Ah, but did you notice that clips of the DB trainers were used in the footage about dominance and then in the clips when discussing reward and positive methods, the same two trainers! ;-)

I always like Horizon programes, and really enjoyed this for the clips from the 50's 60's 70's 80's... to present day.
I have read a lot about the Poodle x Wolf case study but had never actually 'seen' them so it was great to see that footage of the F1's and the litter mate differences!!

Really enjoyable for archive dog footage, highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it!

Great programme! I had heard of the foxes, but not the wolf/poodles, that was very interesting. I wonder whether Barbara Woodhouse is still around? I hope some of the trainers at the Barking Mad club in Risby near Bury St Edmunds saw it, I posted on here when I went searching for a dog club after moving here and their club is EXACTLY like those clips from the 70s and 80s! :-(

I wonder whether Barbara Woodhouse is still around?

No she died in 1988 I believe.