John Richardson

[scottie]

Does anyone have feedback on John Richardson ? I've enjoyed his books which seem to make sense but haven't been overly impressed by the local "Dog Tech" franchisee ....

I know he sometimes runs training courses & wondered whether anyone had ever been to any &, if so, how they had found them ?

[Erny]

He wouldn't like what I've heard about him - and not third hand either.

Use the search engine under both his name and franchise name - you'll get a fair bit of reading on the topic.

[westielover]

I did the course. Didn't like it as it was totaly focussed on dominance ..... don't let your dog to this and don't let your dog do that!! :D

There wasn't much in the way of 'train the trainer' type training.

I was very dissappointed.

[Miranda]

I wouldn't recommend him.

[Kelpie-i]

I've spoken with his Melbourne off-sider (Haans, I think his name is) sometime ago and was not at all impressed by some of the things he was saying. There have been many people who have been very disappointed with the methods and advice given by his franchisees.

[jesomil]

I also had a chat with the melbourne franchisee a few years back after seeing him do a demo. He had just finished his short training course to become a fully qualified dog trainer!!!! He showed little understanding of dog training methods and little understanding of the methods he was teaching.

He also announced that the dog i had with me (an afghan) could only be taught a basic level of obedience and would never have a reliable recall .

[sas]

Nup, wouldn't touch them. To them every dog has a dominance issue and that's all their training seems to revolve around.

I used them years ago when I didn't know any better, my dog was less responsive after 2 sessions and $300 later.

[Sarah L]

Very much agree with what every one has said, Why he is still being recommended dumbfounds me and the franchises are even worse. It's a shame, to many people have to get another trainer out after going there.

[Rom]

According to his book, The Dog Whisperer, he is an Australian Standards Accredited Instructor, Canine Good Citizens Accredited Instructor and a lecturer of Canine Behaviour at Sydney Technical College (or was at the time of publishing in 2001) and also advises and assists local government and animal welfare shelters in dog behaviour problems.

Some John Richardson for dissection...have fun

Then we were given our homework, starting off with a few of the techniques outlined in this book-mainly relating to dominance. Leslye Sharon Cole, Introduction.

How often have you taken your dog for a walk and it has stopped at every tree? This behaviour with dominant dogs can go on and on until you start to wonder if it will ever run out of urine! If this sounds familiar and I'm sure for a lot of you it must, your dog is merely doing what has been naturally passed down from the wolf. Your dog is seeing itself as a high-ranking member of your pack and is marking its territory, letting the other dogs in your area know that this is its turf. High-ranking wolves spot trees with uring around the boundaries of their territory as a message to neighbouring wolves from other areas not to tresspass!. Pge 18.

Giving your dog permission to use your creature comforts will inadvertently encourage it to be dominant over you. Pge 30.

With just these two examples it is easy to see how giving mixed messages through our inconsistency could result in a neurotic dog. I have often called on clients whose dogs have enormous behavioural problems and this practice of changing command words has confused the dog so much that it has been the main cause of the dog developing displacement activities, such as digging up the garden, and chewing the house down. By having the family use one-syllable words only and the same word for each command, the behavioural problems diminish rapidly. Pge 37

What about the dog you have put outside because it has been naughty, and then it digs a hole in the garden? Its natural for you to think that this was done as a payback, when in fact this action is likely to be attention seeking. Your dog is working at trying to get your attention and knows this will be effective. Pge 50.

This is one of the main reasons that many of our dogs are stressed and why they totally ignore our attempts to communicate with them. They may have been continuously talking to us in their own way but because it is not a verbal language that we understand, we unintentionally ignore them, so in return, they ignore us. Pge 61