Barbara Woodhouse BBC4

One of the most important commands to teach a young dog is ‘leave it’ said very loud and very firmly. There is no need to hit a dog if they’ve learned that one.

Undines - I occasionally slap our dogs too. Things like if they're biting electric cables or being territorial in the house with friends dogs. It does seem effective but I hate to see dogs cringe from a lifted hand or a newspaper - or smacked for something like chewing due to absence anxiety or when they've failed to come back, these are counter-productive. I'm a fan of harnesses, aren't about not having to train dogs not to pull, they're about protecting trachea in small /medium breeds which not infrequently suffer tracheal collapse or more mildly, chronic cough, due to walking with a collar / lead. My present dog is very disobedient from babyhood & smacks just don't work, (he seems to like them although it's obvious he knows they're meant as punishment) but with lots of training & time & training treats he will now consistently do the things he needs to do.On the plus side he avoids dogs he doesn't know, plays with those he does & will let the vet / groomer do anything to him without complaint. Don't agree with Barbara's training methods but it's always refreshing to see a character like her on TV.

Some of her methods worked on children too. My DS , born in 1976 , had ADHD and was quite a handful despite me not giving him e numbers. Remember them? 😃 . When he was being out of order one day I said very firmly in the way of Barbara Woodhouse , SIT . It worked ! He immediately sat on the sofa . Made me laugh . He’s 48 now and not as uncontrollable anymore.

She was born in Ireland where her English father was headmaster of a prestigious boarding school. He died while still in his 30's in 1919 and the family moved to Brighton. I see she only became well known in her 70's and died at the age of 78 in 1988.

Well I just wonder about the best way to train dogs. Everything is all sweetness and light these days but maybe a bit of deterrent also has its place. A few years ago my dear Goldie Dora came in from the garden into a kitchen I'd just scrubbed to sparkling. She settled to chew something and to my horror I realised she'd brought in a huge lump of poo! I screeched and slapped her on the back. She ran out (with the poo) and never did anything like that again. I'd never hit her before, or since, and I know I didn't physically hurt her, but boy! did she know she'd transgressed! I shamefacedly told my dog trainer I'd done this and she said actually it was okay. If you have a good, loving relationship with your dog the occasional show of anger and a slap can be effective in stopping something really unacceptable, and your dog will still know you love her/him. When you think about it, young wolves in the pack get a cautionary nip from Alpha Female if they overstep. So maybe BW didn't get it all wrong - although that letter was HORRIBLE, Mouse!

Mouse

I wrote to Barbara’s Woodhouse when I was a young girl. I had a rescue dog that wouldn’t come when called. BW wrote back and told me my dog didn’t love me and that’s why she wouldn’t come back. I cried snd cried.

In her training programmes she seemed to tell the dogs owners to be quite severe (even cruel?) with them but when she interacted with the dogs she was all over them, making them adore her. In retrospect I think that dogs,with the way they intuitively know what their owners are thinking and feeling, realised that this was a woman to be obeyed and this is why she seemed to have a ‘way’ with dogs. When our dog went to various training classes I was fascinated how the trainers could get the dogs to behave in a way their owners couldn’t. We arrived late to one class and had a one to one session in another room with one of the trainers and I learned so much in that time. How horrible to say your dog didn’t love you.

I always thought her training methods verged on cruelty and fear. I much prefer Graham on Dogs behaving very badly.

I wrote to Barbara’s Woodhouse when I was a young girl. I had a rescue dog that wouldn’t come when called. BW wrote back and told me my dog didn’t love me and that’s why she wouldn’t come back. I cried snd cried.

merlotgran I'm with you - all my dogs walk with a slip lead and they don't pull. Easy enough to train when they are young but most people are far too soft with their dogs asking them to do things rather than telling them! I never hit mine but No has to mean No.

I don't know what the programme is called, but the "dog man" is called Graeme.

Dogs behaving very badly...?

I love it!

I haven’t seen the beginning yet as I turned on half way through. I wonder if she always wore a skirt? Trousers would have been far more practical! I loved the bit where her dog knew when she was just rehearsing and upped her game when they were doing it for real! She really was a force of nature, wasn’t she.

Thank you, MayBee70. I’ve just watched it. Barbara Woodhouse was a favourite in our house. Living on a farm our life was full of kids, dogs and ponies….Happy days!

One big, relatively recent, improvement is that dog owners are now expected to pick up dog poo. Years ago I took my daughter to a public playground and there was a sandpit full of poo and cigarette ends. The rest of the playground was littered with same. The playground I take the GCs to does not have this problem, it doesn't have a sandpit either.

It’s interesting to see the breeds of dog in the programme. No bull breeds at all.

Unfortunately there are more breeds, or types of dogs that are specifically bred to be aggressive. Plus more dogs are allowed off lead in public areas and not properly disciplined. Dogs jumping up at you, which I hate, and the owner saying oh he won’t hurt you when I don’t want some dog I’ve never seen before jumping up at me, however ^friendly ^he might be.

I’ll see if I can find this on iPlayer. Her training methods seem harsh and outdated nowadays but there were far fewer incidents of dogs attacking each other on walks even on leads.

I’ve never been a fan of harnesses. All our dogs were walked with a collar and lead. Our Labrador’s wore choke chains when not working. Discipline and control was the order of the day and I believe it still should be.

We certainly love these eccentric nanny-like characters..

She really was a celebrity, maybe one of the first for her eccentric ways and manner. Others were Magnus Pike and Hannah Hauxwell.
Everyone watched her show, even me who has never owned a dog!

During the war she bought a cow to provide milk for her family and ended up providing milk for the whole village. She worked as a horse breaker in Argentina. The dog training came towards the end of what had been a pretty amazing and eventful life. Someone told me her son does dog training, too, but doesn’t associate himself with his mother because of her outdated training techniques. I hadn’t realised that she’d been such a celebrity back then; she appeared on all sorts of programmes.

That’s so interesting! Barbara Woodhouse was such a character. Yeah, her dog training methods are pretty outdated now—positive reinforcement is the way to go these days. That bit about sniffing a horse’s nostril is classic Woodhouse, though! I remember trying it once and the horse looked at me like I was crazy. And Juno being a film star? That’s a fun fact! It's funny how someone pops into your mind out of nowhere like that. Maybe it’s a sign to watch more of her old shows!