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.