INTERVIEW: For Victoria Stilwell, problem dogs need positive reinforcement
Victoria Stilwell, star of Animal Planet’s It’s Me or the Dog, is about as positive as they come. The professional dog trainer, who travels around the world offering guidance to pet owners, keeps busy with live appearances, a TV show and multiple books. A staunch supporter of the positive reinforcement school of thought, Stilwell, born and raised in England, attempts to improve behaviors among both dogs and dog owners.
It might come as a surprise to viewers that It’s Me or the Dog had its origins in another reality series. “I came up with the idea having watched Supernanny on television,” Stilwell said recently on a phone call from her hotel room in Italy. “My work was very similar to her approach, firm but very kind. The way of approaching children is the way I approach dogs. So I pitched my idea to the producers of Supernanny, who were a British production company … They picked it up and then we pitched it to Channel Four in Britain, which is a network there. And it ran for four seasons in Britain. And then Animal Planet ran the British seasons, and then it did so well for them that they then commissioned the American series.”
It didn’t take long for Stilwell and her crew to find problem dogs in England and the United States. “After the first episode aired on British television, the production company told me that overnight they got 500 calls from people who had watched the show wanting me to come to their house,” she said. “Since then, it has been really easy to find people. We’ve had thousands and thousands of people wanting to be on the show, but, of course, we pick the ones that are the most extreme, both dog and human.”
The TV star makes no apologies for her dedication to the positive reinforcement method of changing a dog’s behavior. Her web site is even coined positively.com. The word seems to sum up her professional life over the past decade. “This whole dominance idea, it’s not what dogs need,” she said. “They are not trying to be dominant over us. It’s a complete misreading of true canine language. It’s been a totally flawed human perception of what they think dogs are doing. I follow modern behavioral science, which has proven, and has proven time and time again, that a) dominance is not the right way to train dogs, but b) shows that the kind of training that I do, which is humane, it’s learning theory, it really encourages the dog to learn.”
Stilwell‘s approach “eases anxiety” and “calms aggression,” and that goes for the dog owner as well. “I realized very quickly that actually I would be working mostly with the humans in order to train their dogs,” she said. “Training is 80 percent human, 20 percent dogs. Sometimes the humans can be harder than the dog.”
There have been a couple times in her 15-year career when the obstacles have proved insurmountable. These problem dogs, she said, tend to have an underlying neurological disorder, such as epilepsy. Still, with these dogs, she recommended being stern, but positive.
“Positive reinforcement is the safest and most effective behavioral modification or method to turn around a red-zone dog,” she said. “Positive reinforcement changes behavior. It changes the way the dog feels inside. I could work with a really, really aggressive dog, a big red-zone aggressive mastiff, let’s say. Now I’m 110 pounds; there’s no way I’m going to be able to wrestle that mastiff onto the ground, hold it down and get it to submit. Not that I would want to anyway. … How can I turn that mastiff around from being severely aggressive to having to be much more comfortable and much more confident? That’s when positive reinforcement really wins the day over dominance training.”
On the Animal Planet show, which airs new episodes on Saturdays at 7 p.m., Stilwell works with each dog for approximately four days. “I work very hard to ensure that (the dog owners) have the tools with which to carry on the training and be successful,” she said. “That one session is not going to do it. The quick fix is psychologically unachievable when it’s an anxiety case like that or major aggression. … We are a nation of quick fixes. We want it yesterday. We want it done yesterday. It’s really hard sometimes for people to understand that, hey, changing my dog’s emotional behavior and aggression … it’s going to take time.”
The reality is that many dog owners give up on their pets too early. Dogs are often cast aside and sent to shelters, where their fate remains questionable. One pressing issue for people with difficult dogs is the sense of embarrassment around the neighborhood. “When someone’s dog is badly behaved, it could be really embarrassing for the owner,” Stilwell said. “That makes the owner angry, and then the owner takes out that anger on the dog. … They might be very kind people, but they feel ashamed. And the embarrassment of their dog’s behavior causes them to use punishment and devices that suppress their dog’s behavior so they don’t look so bad.”
When she’s not training other people’s dogs, Stilwell enjoys the company of her husband, 8-year-old daughter and two pets, a chocolate Labrador and Chihuahua mix. Her third book is complete and will be released in March 2013. Stilwell has also created a network of formally licensed dog trainers who practice her positive reinforcement methods. All of her projects, including a partnership with eHow.com, can be found at positively.com.
“I work very, very hard,” she said. “It’s a labor of love, and it’s a passion.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
