Just posting this to try and make sure anyone searching for a trainer sees the true nature of this sick individual. Warning, the video in the news article is very upsetting.
Ed Erickson
Edward Erickson
Autumn Breeze Kennel
I do hope that NAVHDA responds? If they have, I haven’t seen it. I would hope they would revoke him just based on the video alone. Disgusting.
Jesus, I didn’t watch the video, the description was bad enough. What the hell was he training the dog to do?
Poor, poor dog.
I viewed the vid clip (thank you for the warning) and cannot imagine what he was training her for. Any ideas? (I’m serious).
This is barbaric. I’m sick to my stomach.
WHY dog owners send their dogs to “Boot Camp” I don’t know. 
Way too often they use cruelty methods as “shortcuts”, are impatient and in a hurry to get “results”, and the dog doesn’t actually get “trained” because the owner is not getting trained.
I hope they throw the book at this f***er.
Poor dog…
@BrownDerby and @swmorse I haven’t the slightest idea what he was “training” for. From what I could see, he had the dog half-hitched around her belly, tied her to the outside of a chain link kennel, and was shocking the ever loving crap out of her. At the start, she was also tied by her neck but appears to break whatever that restraint was in the struggle.
What he was “training” for? No idea. Why he would take the video and send it to the owner? No idea.
Ed Erickson
Edward Erickson
Autumn Breeze Kennel
I suppose if I were not doing dry January I could come up with some logic regarding this method. All I can guess is that perhaps Evie was tearing her cage apart, anxiety and trying to escape. “Teach her a lesson,” you know. Perhaps this was the “problem” that the owner wanted addressed. No one in their right mind would otherwise send that video to the owner.
He’s a hunting dog trainer, so I doubt that’s why she was sent there. But regardless… wtf.
It sounds like a bastardized version of whoa post training.
I’ve never seen whoa post/whoa barrel training where the dog was not feet on the ground.
ETA: And I’ve never really understood whoa post training, honestly. Encouraging an animal to flip their lid “so they can learn something” is just so… counterintuitive.
We put the dogs on a board balanced on a trash can or similar to encourage a super tight whoa, but they aren’t strapped to the thing, and this is after they know whoa basics.
Whoa posts are just the introduction to flank E-collars, which are absolutely asinine to me start to finish.
That’s why I said it sounds like the video was of a bastardized version of it.
I’ve never seen a good trainer encourage a dog to “flip their lid” during whoa post training. The way I was taught was to simply heel the dog and overlay “whoa” when they get to the end. The neck or the flank can be the point of contact. A dog should already understand how to give to pressure so it shouldn’t take more than a short session or two for them to understand “whoa”. Then you slowly add more enticing things, if they blow through the whoa command they get self corrected.
I agree that flank e-collars are unnecessary, but lots of people use the whoa post without ever going to an e-collar of any kind. Use birds and launchers or wild birds to teach the dog that if the break and bump the bird than buh bye reward. Of course the dog that finds reward in the chase can be trickier.
Lots of different ways to teach “whoa”. Similar to horses, if you don’t understand the why behind a certain method and can’t read the dog than you’re apt to make mistakes and confuse the dog. I personally have never really seen the need for the whoa barrel.
Lots of hunting dogs here, plus a mutt - no whoa post training - can stop the dogs anywhere.
The way I’ve seen whoa post, especially for a first timer pup, is that they need to “resist” the flank strap in order to learn (ie, flip their lid, bite at it, alligator roll) that they can’t escape the command and that it’s not negotiable.
… but what also works is just picking the dog up and putting them back where you said whoa the first time. Do it on walks, do it in the house before they eat, do it when they’re running around the yard. A smart dog is going to learn what’s going on when you’ve arrived at the post, and a smart dog will also learn they have to listen when the flank strap is on. When it’s off, meh, make me.
I have never in my life wanted to hurt a person; but I watched the video and now I want to E-zap that guy’s nuts off!!! as well as other really bad things that I am not going to type.
hmm ya I’ve never seen the whoa post done like that. I’ve only ever seen it used on dogs who already understood pressure and who already knew “whoa” from heeling, so it was essentially just a reminder to the dog when you introduce more and more enticing things, ie throwing a bumper or launching a pigeon.
I used it to teach my 9yo aussie x bernese. She already knew “whoa” because we use it skijoring, but her squirrel drive was too overpowering. I never cared before if she chased squirrels, but she injured her stifle in the fall so now squirrels are off limits. One session and she now understands that she can’t blow off whoa even to chase a ball or a squirrel.
I’ve seen the adding more enticing things (for our dogs, birds - for the mutt, the tennis ball), but still have never needed a whoa post. The whoa is so ingrained in them at that point that they make take a step or two, might even a lunge step, but do stop and are easily picked up and put back where they were whoaed at.
I’m glad the method worked for your dog, though! How did you employ the squirrel to provide the distraction, though? 
I used the bird feeders 
A couple throws of her jolly ball with a whoa and then waited a few minutes for the squirrels to get brave enough to come close to the bird feeders again. Squirrels and cats are the two things that make her eyes glaze over. She knew what the lesson was but squirrels were just oh so tempting. One self correction and she realized it was better to just listen when I say whoa. She’s very food motivated so I don’t think we’ll have to use the whoa post again, just lots of treats and praise when the squirrels get brave.
Edited to add that she is collar conditioned, but she absolutely knows when the collar is on and when it isn’t.
That’s one of the reasons we don’t use collars - once they’re collar smart it’s useless to us!
I’m not sure I could whoa our youngest one off of fur right now, the other three yes. It’s always a work in progress.
Ed Erickson
Edward Erickson
Autumn Breeze Kennel
Poor dog. Poor lady. WTF? I hope they throw the book at him as well.
With you 100%. That guy is f-ing lucky he lives in Minnesota, not Kansas. That poor dog.
TBH, if it had been my dog, this wouldn’t be on the news, because the guy would have already disappeared.
I wouldn’t have waited to get my dog out of there, even being out of town. I would have called ANYone to come pick her up.
Seriously!!
The dog’s owner was out of town when the video was sent to her. I don’t care where I was, I would have either left and got the dog myself, called animal control to get the dog, a friend//family member, I would have called the vet to send a tech… there is no reason why that dog should have NOT been picked up within hours of that video being sent to the owner. I feel bad for her, but she played a small role in her dog’s fate.
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