Watching this because someone asked me for an opinion on this "behaviourist"/dog trainer, who according to the PR is the UK's top dog trainer.

Must admit I have never heard of him & having watched the first few minutes, he views growling as aggression, instead of being a defensive warning behaviour. Totally unreward based training other than saying good boy/girl. Using the Cesar Millan style blocking too.

All the dogs had TBH useless owners, who have failed, to do any training not even very basic stuff.

He generalises way too much & when he allowed the Sibe to jump all over him whilst sitting down, he didn't even do the basic standing up to prevent the behaviour continuing. ALL sibes are stubborn apparently. Allowing him to jump up & pushing him off. & saying off is the long way round. Finally a bit of poorly timed reward training.

<sigh>If this man is really the UK's top man, god help the dogs in the UK

His fees start at £750 !!

Much prefer real reward based training using a knowledge of canine behaviour

I too watched his programme, last series....... he had to correct a Basset.  I could have wept!   So I too have serious doubts about this man and his methods!   I'd never heard of him before.

He charges WHAT???    I should get out there if that's the kind of income available.

He's made over £3,500,000 in the last 8 years & has wait for it 12 years of experience !! He fees are £745 not £750 oops misread his blurp. Still over 3.5 GBP is good going

I've watched it too and not looked how he does things .never  heard of him and as for his charges .totally ridiculous! I be used a couple of behaviourist and although it's a pretty unregulated industry nothing like.that for all.the time they worked with us.

>He's made over £3,500,000 in the last 8 years & has wait for it 12 years of experience !!

I'm in the wrong job

Haven't watched it, but it does strike me with so called behaviourists, that the more 'hands' on they are the more people are prepared to pay!!!!!!

Yesterday's episode was the worst one of all so far I'd say. This bloke had the TV people touting around for people on FB groups to be on the programme and once people looked up his website everyone said the same thing -not a chance that he'd be allowed near any of our dogs.

What beats me is how he can get such basics so wrong. Pushing the Husky off -great way to encourage more jumping etc. In several episodes he was chasing dogs that would not come when called. (!!)

He always seem to do all he can to make the basic problems appear very serious. That Husky was young, over excited and super friendly - very similar to what my own breed is like at that age. Yet he stated that he could end up being put to sleep after having bitten a stranger. Technically possible, yes, but the dog was playful, not aggressive.

As for his charges, the amounts are ridiculous. More fool the people who pay him, BUT what bothers me is the competition run alongside the programme. "Win £5000 to pay for some dog training if your dog needs it." That gives people the impression that getting help from a trainer costs thousands, so many might decide not to bother and rather dump their dog on rescue. When in reality there are many good training classes able to help with basic problems for a tenner a week, or one to one sessions for a couple of hundred max. Who has ever heard of a well off GOOD trainer? Not many of them about. The good ones don't charge OTT, they don't shout about how good they are, they just get on with their job having the dogs' best interest at heart.

This bloke reminds me of the people who breed CNR French Bulldogs/Bulldogs and charge silly amounts for them. IMO he's doing exactly the same with training -over charging for doing things the wrong way just to make money.

Sounds a bit like someone who thinks that if they charge the most they must be the best.

And idiot punters are falling for it.

The classes I’m taking with River cost around £60-70 for a 6 week course, and it’s run by people with bags of treats and stacks of qualifications to back them up.

There’s a young vizsla on the KC Good Citizen Bronze course we’re doing now who was in our puppy class as well, and the husky sounds a lot like him. He jumped, he bayed constantly, couldn’t sit still, couldn’t focus, couldn’t control himself, bounced around all the time and pulled his poor owners all over the place. He’s still hard work at times, but with patience and a lot of rewards he’s a million times better and now has the best stay in the class, easily sitting still for the required 60 seconds.

It’s a good job I’m not watching this program, it would just infuriate me.

It's awful.... but I can't help but watch it.  I wouldn't use any trainer who had to take the lead from me to show me what to do.  The dog is then in an uncertain environment with someone they don't know and will not behave normally and will not react normally.  In fairness there have been a few good tips that anyone could have got from videos/research off the internet.  I thought his advice on the resource guarding spaniel was dangerous particularly asking the young girl to sit on the end of the sofa with a very anxious dog and a very anxious young girl and better advice would have been for them to join the resource guarding facebook group, could have saved them some money but I suspect the ones on the TV get the "training" for free.  The other major problem with programmes like this is that it looks like there is a quick and easy fix for engrained behaviour.  If it was that simple there wouldn't be any reactive dogs in existence.

I couldn't believe the episode with the French Bulldog that kept running off then at the end they showed how good the dog was now by having it sat in the open doorway with the gates to the road wide open as cars sped past!

I only watched part of one episode because I didn't like or agree with this so-called trainer.  However a couple of nights ago I got a message from an ex-neighbour who told me to watch the programme as they were on it.  The couple in question had a Romanian rescue who was causing them some difficulties.  The programme seemed to help a little with, as I saw it, no inappropriate methods.  However, as this was filmed some while ago I asked said neighbour how things were now and was told it is still very much a work in progress which led me to believe that the couple are still having serious difficulties with this dog (they have about 3 others, all rescues).  They didn't have to pay for the "training" so I suppose they felt anything was worth trying.

I saw that episode and there were a few things I was unhappy about . One  being that it gave the impression that everything was solved within an extremely short time span.  A near impossibility in my experience.
I dont like his methods at all far to much pushing the dogs to accept things and not enough rewards. Doubt many of the dogs are permanently retrained so not surprised at your neighbour's findings

Again I only had to watch this once (with a Basset involved) and NEVER AGAIN!   I value my BP too much.

I would just say he's impressing some - there was a letter in the TV Guide we use, praising him and his achievements!!

Words fail.