Followers

Thursday 27 January 2011

Training dogs the Woodhouse Way

When members of my family get nostalgic I just lie down, close my eyes and pretend to be asleep until they've finished reminiscing about something that happened long before I was here (which kind of means it can't be THAT important, doesn't it?)

Anyway, today it was this thought-provoking post by Kristine at her Rescued Insanity blog that brought that faraway look into the Lady Of The Loth's eyes.

Kristine was making some very good points about dog training techniques. We agree with what Kristine says and it seems to us that there are some people who get dog trainers a bad name. Anyway, before I knew what happened I'd been unceremoniously booted off the computer so the LOTH could look for clips of someone called Barbara Woodhouse.

You see these days there are all sorts of TV shows about dog trainers - most of them seem to make the fatal mistake of thinking it's the owner who should train the dog when any fool knows any decent dog trains its owner - but back in the UK of the 1970s and 1980s there was just Barbara Woodhouse, so the LOTH says.

She was a very scary lady who was famous for encouraging owners to give the command "Sitttttttttt" with a really clicky "T" on the end. Her training methods (like some of today's so-called celebrity dog trainers) were unpopular and controversial with many but she had a huge personality and got her first TV show at the age of 70.

You should be able to see a short video montage of clips about her - including the famous "Sitttttttt" command - on this BBC cult TV website

And on YouTube we found this parody song about her by a group called the Barron Knights called The Sit Song.


We are in no way advocating the Woodhouse way of training dogs, but it reminded the LOTH of her childhood so we thought we'd share it.

11 comments:

♥♥ The OP Pack ♥♥ said...

Winnie - you have certainly gotten our attention with your post and that cute song. We are going to look for more about this Barbara Woodhouse.

Thanks for sharing.

Woos ~ Phantom, Thunder, and Ciara

Two Pitties in the City said...

So Winnie, how are you training your humans?

Wyatt said...

Haha love the song. I remember Barbara's show. It was on public television here in the US. She always called the humans by their dogs breed...Mr. Dalmation, Ms. Airedale, Mr. Pointer!

Wyatt's Mom

Sue said...

Thanks for taking me back. I remember watching Barbara Woodhouse.

♥I am Holly♥ said...

Winnie, love that video!! That's funny!! We are not familiar with Barbara Woodhouse but the video is great!! Lots of love, Holly and mom

houndstooth said...

How is your human training going, Winnie? I find that I have to repeat some lessons over and over! Mom says she remembers Barbara Woodhouse a little bit, but mostly her name more than her methods!

Bunny

Kristine said...

Agreed totally. Thanks for the link! I am so glad I could inspire the posting of this video. It made my night. :-)

Walkies!

Bella Roxy & Macdui said...

Oh my dog. SHE hates to admit it, BUT SHE remembers Barbara.....in fact, some of the hand signals SHE uses with us are definitely Barbara-ish. How funny.

XXXOOO Daisy, Kendra & Bella

Busy Buttons said...

Hello! Thanks for commenting on my blog. It's nice to meet you! Mom says I used to have a cousin who was an adopted greyhound, saved from the racing track. He went to the Rainbow Bridge long before I was adopted last fall, though.

Oh -- and I've totally got my Mom trained. She was soooo easy to wrap around my little paws!

Anonymous said...

Heehee...that movie was SO funny! But I'm not sure I would liked being trained by that lady at ALL. She most definitely sounds skeery.

Oh, and I also wanted to come over and tell you thank you for coming to my Commentathon pawty. Did you hear that we had 421 comments??? Can you believe it? And it's all cuz of Most Wonderful furends like you!

Wiggles & Wags,
Mayzie

Brandon - The dog with a blog said...

Hey Winnie, furry thanks for stopping by our blog (and following) - we always love new visitors!
I'm looking forward to following & reading your blog :)
Furry kisses,

Rudy