Brad Pattison is a well-known dog trainer in Canada. He has his own dog training television show, called At The End of My Leash which airs in Canada and Europe.
Brad Pattison’s show just started airing in the United States, under the name In The Doghouse, on Saturdays, at the Animal Planet.
Brad Pattison also runs a CET (Certified Educator Trainers) dog training program. Presumably, after attending one of these programs, you will get to put the CET stamp after your name. However, before enrolling in one of these classes, and fulfilling your lifelong dreams of becoming a CET, please watch this short video of Brad Pattison in action in one of his classes.
[Sadly, this last video has also gotten yanked from rutube.]
It is often difficult to find videos of Brad Pattison in true action because these videos keep getting yanked from their online sites. However, the fact that Pattison and gang feels the need to yank short ‘training’ class videos, says a lot about Pattison’s “training techniques”.
In the dog training arena, there is a fair amount of debate between the people who mostly support reward training and the people who mostly support aversive training.
Victoria Stilwell is a popular television dog trainer that uses reward training (It’s Me Or The Dog, which airs on Animal Planet) and Cesar Millan is a popular television dog trainer that has a greater emphasis on aversive training (The Dog Whisperer, which airs on the National Geographic Channel) .
So where does Brad Pattison fit in?
Bad Pattison seems to be a standard traditional dog trainer. He uses aversive dog training techniques and relies very heavily, almost exclusively, on leash jerks or leash corrections.
However, to differentiate himself from Cesar Millan, Brad Pattison further ups the aversive ante and not only applies physical aversive methods on the dogs, but also verbal aversive methods on the dog owners. This is in contrast to Victoria Stilwell who applies some aversive methods on the dog owners, and Cesar Millan who applies some aversive methods on the dogs.
Even the people who support aversive methods generally agree, that what was shown in the Brad Pattison video clip is not good ‘dog training‘. Anyone who trains dogs, owns dogs, or even just watches Cesar Millan occasionally, knows that the energy you use to interact with a dog is extremely important, and can greatly affect the dog’s behavior.
Performing leash jerks using angry or frustrated energy only teaches the dog one thing, and that is to blindly fear you. There will be little respect or trust involved. When angry, annoyed, or frustrated, your erratic behavior will only confuse the dog, and set back his learning process. It will also increase his stress levels, lower his quality of life, and weaken your human-canine bond.
In fact, such energy is also counter-productive for teaching humans.
Which teachers do you respect most? The ones who communicate with calm authority, or the ones who shout and act in an erratic fashion? The ones that positively encourage you or the ones that quickly lose their temper and publicly denigrate you?
Here is an eye-witness opinion of Brad Pattison’s dog training techniques –
I saw him first hand this past Sat., he was in Woodbridge and all I can say is this – “I don’t understand why anyone would follow his methods”. Someone once told me, “don’t judge a book by its cover”. So I had to see things for myself, and what a wake up call it was.
What he does to train dogs is not nice at all. In fact, he makes the dogs fear him. One even got away from him as it was tied to his leg. Now, that’s got to give you some insight or idea of what your dog is trying to say to you. Another dog got away from one of his CET trainers. Go figure, they don’t want to be abused or yanked all over the place.
Sorry, but this is not training at all. I have trained dogs for 5 years now and not one has tried to get away from me. They stay close to me and watch everything I do. I use positive methods without food just praise. …
~~[ Shadow – full comment can be found in the comments section below ]
I also caught the first episode of Brad Pattison’s In The Doghouse program and I must say that it was less than impressive.
On the positive side, there was no crazy, angry, frustrated leash jerking. Brad Pattison also briefly talked about the force of the leash correction and being careful not to over-correct the dog, which are both good points.
However, these brief interludes of semi-saneness were insufficient to combat the general negativity and lack of focus that characterized the rest of the show.
If there was to be a silver lining to this dark cloud, it is perhaps that more people will realize that aversive methods are not generally effective for teaching humans OR dogs.
As for Brad Pattison and his CET trainers, I will keep my dogs far, far away from them all. I will also keep myself safe and stay away from this particular cloud of nastiness.
** Special thanks for Calmassertiv for giving me the link to Brad Pattison’s video clip, and for alerting me to the airing for Brad Pattison’s show.
They must have taken down the vidoes again.I went to see if they were there, but they are not.
All i can say is this. Positive training methods for me is to get the dog to trust and respect you as a handler. By not using a positive method you will not be getting the dogs trust nor will you get the respect from your dog. I have a bond with my dogs like no other, and people around here are quit amazed by it. My dog always wants to be near and around me; even if i were to walk away from my dogs and have someone else watch them while i’m in a store a friend may come by and ask if they can give my dogs a treat, and of course i’ll say yes as i know them, but my dogs may know the people too, but yet will not take any kind of treat from them unless i’m there. This is what i mean by having a great bond with your dog, and a dog who’s not going to fear you but want to be with you no matter where you are.
As for the videos all i can say is this. Why would anyone want a dog to listen to you out of fear? Myself i much reither have a dog who isn’t going to fear me, but will respect, and trust me.
Thanks for the link Shadow. The videos were interesting – always good to watch hard-hitting reporters at work – chasing the untold story and challenging their viewers 😉
Strangely, even these prepared, positive videos did not come across as very positive to me. Maybe it is just me … what did you think of the videos?
The videos are of Brad Pattison, i was looking around for funny dog tricks/training and i came across those videos so i thought i would let you know the website that i saw them on.
Check out this website Metacafe.Videos.
I just wish people would open their eyes on puppy mills. There was a show way back on the market place about puppies bought from a pet store, and where the puppies came from. People are still buying puppies from pet stores and as long as people keep buying they will stay in business which is very sad. Dog’s locked up in wire cages no love or human contact makes me sad to see what it has been done which is nothing. Puppy mills need to be stopped and if people keep buying this will go on. It’s hard to watch what is being done to these helpless dogs and their puppies, i try to get out the word as much as i can even if i think it helps just one person to open their eyes that’s a start.
On a happier note i’m glad you enjoyed the videos it’s been a while since i updated that page other then just adding videos. My dogs love to play and Lulu is very loving Jack Russell she looks out for the little guy, where as the other one could care less as he bugs her too much so she just stays away up high where he can’t reach her. I’m trying to get more trick videos of them, but sometimes they are not in the mood; i think they can get just as moody as we can.LOL.
Hahaha – that is a great video! I watched many of the other videos as well – Lulu and Sweetie look like they have a whole lot of fun.
Love the one with Lulu walking on her hind legs. The chi-playing one was also a lot of fun. I like how she just played without overwhelming the little dog. Also liked the beach one. Such happy dogs 🙂
That animals should be loved video was really difficult to watch. I liked the ending though. I really don’t understand why puppy mills are still legal. Bad trainers are not great for dogdom, but the bad that they do is a mere trickle compared to puppy mills. Everyone who works with dogs hates them, and yet they are not only legal, but pervasive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZeWOMRSoUE
Here is the video my my girl the Jack Russell going down the slide, and sits then she barks, and sits pretty at the end. I hope you enjoy it.
Done. I wouldn’t worry about it – lots of people expressed similar opinions here, and it is fine to say what we think.
Depends on who has rights to the video, what the video distribution license is, who got permission, etc. Technically, a person has to own the rights to the video to put it up on youTube. If you don’t, then the original owners can get it removed – which is what Pattison and co. does. If I copy that same video and show it on my site, then they can demand that I remove it as well. They can also take legal action, although I am not sure what that entails.
Would love to see your dog on video. The best way is to load it up on youTube, and include a link here. I am not sure how to enable video embedding in the comments section. Knowing WordPress, there is probably a way to do it, so I will have to look into it. 🙂
This would be my own video. Not someone else’s as i love showing off my dog on what tricks she can do. That’s why i asked. So if the videos were on youtube and you copy them and then place them somewhere else who is the one to get in trouble with the copyright laws? Not that i’m going to put any videos of him, but my own like said above.