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Hi,
ich hab leider konkret nur einen englischen Link gefunden von jmd, der mit den Methoden nicht zufrieden war. Bei yorkies.ch muss darüber mal diskutiert worden sein, leider kann ich es nicht finden.
Es gibt wohl wie bei jeder Ausbildungsart positives und negatives. Würgehalsbänder, Leinenruck etc sind bei mir aber tabu.
Liebe Grüße
Steffi
http://www.dog-play.com/dikeman.htm
From: algreen@panix.com (Twzl + Sligo heh heh heh)
Newsgroups: rec.pets.dogs.activities
Subject: Review Of David Dikeman's Command Performance Tapes
Date: 21 Jun 1996 10:01:57 -0400
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Over and over, people ask on rpd.whatever about "David Dikeman's Command Performance Dog Training System". I had never heard of it: maybe I don't watch enough television. But I was curious about it, as I had heard some very mixed reviews. I sent for the tapes, and here is my review.
First of all, if you have no time to read this entire post, and you want to know if you should buy these tapes, don't. They are a waste of time and money.
The first tape starts out by decrying the use of praise or food. I doubt Mr.Dikeman knows about the use of toys in training, as he doesn't mention them at all. But he makes fun of people who use food while training their dogs, asking what will happen if there is no cookie, and their dog won't come. This is a favorite argument of non-food users, and one that just doesn't make sense.
Properly used, food is never a bribe for your dog. Instead, it lets him know that yes, he made the right choice, or is doing the right thing. No one who seriously uses food while training would wave cookies around in an attempt to get an untrained dog to come back to them. I use food for training things such as fronts, go-outs, and the start of heeling. I would never use food to bribe a dog away from something...for that I use training and a long line.
Mr. Dikeman seems to have confused some terms. He talks about reinforcing things such as a sit stay. To him, reinforcing the sit stay means that if a dog breaks the stay, you drag the dog by a metal choke collar, off the ground if need be,back to the place where you left him. That is NOT reinforcement. That is beating up the dog. Reinforcement is showing the dog what to do, and rewarding him when he does it correctly.
In the beginning of tape one, Mr. Dikeman shows how he teaches a dog to heel. No one that is currently training dogs for obedience trials would ever consider using his methods. He puts the dog on a long line, and lets it wander around. When it goes too far, he hauls it in, ass over teakettle if need be. At one point, he shows a Borzoi being "trained". This Borzoi is dragged on its back, screaming, as Mr. Dikeman teaches it to "heel". If he was doing this in a public place, people would be correct in calling the police. He is clearly brutalizing the dog. Mr. Dikeman has set this scene to music, making a joke out of it. If the dog doesn't know how to heel, which is the assumption here, then dragging it on its back teaches it nothing other than that he is helpless to do anything but be attacked.
Further on in this section of tape, he shows dogs who can now "heel". In most cases, the dog is cowering in heel position. In some, the dog is staring out into space, not wanting to make eye contact with Mr. Dikeman, or any sort of connection with the man.
Mr. Dikeman puts great faith in containing and segregating dogs before training sessions. There is a small, small grain of truth to this: I crate my dogs before we compete, but this is mostly to keep them from getting silly and tired before we actually get to do anything, as well as to keep them safe and out of the way. Most people are not in a position where they can crate their dogs for the two hours that Mr. Dikeman says they should, before a training session. Perhaps kennel dogs could be so confined: house dogs really can not. Yes, you could crate them. But what will this do? Unless the crate is in the basement or attic of a large house, the dog is just going to have to learn to be trained even while living under your feet. Deal with it, you know? :) Besides, if your training methods are so boring that your dog doesn't want to work, you have a problem.
Mr. Dikeman doesn't acknowledge the existence of puppies in his tapes. Or at least none of the dogs shown are puppies. All are adults. I would be curious to see what his course of action with puppies is...they really have no business being on a chain choke, being yanked into the sky for infractions.
Mr. Dikeman talks about teaching the sit stay in his first video. He teaches this strictly via compulsion, even while talking about reinforcing the sit stay. The dog is placed in a sit, physically placed, and the owner stands in front of the dog. The leash is kept tight, raised over the dog's head, and constant jiggling nudges are applied to the leash. This is NOT a good way to train a soft dog at all!! But Mr. Dikeman has one way and only one way to teach a sit stay. Some dogs I know would be traumatized by being basically hung in place.
The down is taught in the first video. Again, compulsion is used from the get go. The dog is told down, and before he can even think about it, he is tossed down in a wrestling maneuver. Again, because Mr. Dikeman refuses to use any common sense, learning the down is a rough process for the dog. Mr. Dikeman trains dogs to stay close on right and left turns via the use of poles or trees. He is shown heeling a dog past a small tree, and letting the tree come between him and the dog, He then does a turn so that the dog gets clotheslined by the tree and the leash. This is just a horrible, horrible thing to do to an animal. It teaches him that at any moment, the leash can come up and almost asphyxiate him.
The left turn is taught by allowing the tree to hit the dog, if he doesn't stay right next to the owner.
Mr. Dikeman would be hit for tons of handler errors in any obedience ring. He can not keep his hands still on the leash, constantly nagging the dog with is and the chain choke. He reminds me of the children I used to teach at riding camp...too many of them had no business touching the reins of a pony. They were apt to teach it to avoid the bit or ignore it. Mr. Dikeman uses no body cues at all to tell the dog anything meaningful. Those of you who do compete in obedience know that a dog can be trained to cue off of subtle movements of your torso, feet, shoulders etc. Especially when teaching automatic sits while heeling, a dog needs reliable cues, so he learns to sit when you stop. Mr. Dikeman never talks about this. Instead he roughly positions the dog into a sit at each halt. This does NOT teach the dog anything.
Before I go on to the second tape and its review, I would just like to mention books that are worthwhile. Playtraining Your Dog by Patricia Burnham comes to mind, Terri Arnold's 3 volume series, and Diane Bauman's Beyond Basic Training are also great. All are for people who want to compete in trials. If you are NOT interested in competing, and just want a dog who doesn't haul you down the block, for the price of these videos, you could sign up at most dog training classes and give your dog a fun night out once a week. If you practice what you learn in class each week, your dog will learn to behave. And if you don't practice, well, these tapes won't help you there either!!
Much of Mr. Dikeman's point in training seems to be to allow dogs to be offleash while in situations where they should be ON A LEASH. Interspersed in the tape are scenes that show him and his dogs in Central Park or on the streets of Manhattan, with no leash. This is a terrible thing to be telling people who need him to train a dog. Perhaps HE is willing to take a chance that one of his dogs is able to handle a NYC crowd off a leash. But what about the person who spends a week training their dog, and then dispenses with the leash...hey Dave doesn't need one, so why do I?!?
Now Mr. Dikeman starts off the second tape with a mistake that is just so horrible, there is no way that this man has ever SEEN an obedience trial, let alone trained a dog for one. He starts off by talking about the figure eight. Now, the figure eight in the obedience ring shows that the dog can keep pace with the human, changing his pace to match yours. Mr. Dikeman says that in the figure eight, you should slow down on the right turn, and speed up on the left, so as to allow the dog to keep pace with YOU. Now, I could put my dog in a wagon and that would obviate the need for ANY pace changes, but then, it wouldn't serve to prove that he knew how to keep pace with me while heeling, would it.
I keep talking about obedience trials, and that is because the Novice exercises are a good test for an obedient, well trained pet dog. A dog with a CD (Companion Dog) title, is one who is usually capable of going out in public, and not getting into too much trouble. I would hope that if Mr. Dikeman is flogging his training system on television, he would have put some titles on his dogs, just to see if his training methods work in the ring. He obviously has not. His figure eight methods would NOT pass. What is odd about Mr. Dikeman is that he follows all of the exercises of the Companion Dog title...yet does them wrong.
Mr. Dikeman then goes on to teach the recall. His claim is that a dog can not learn a recall until he can hold a sit stay. This is absurd. A puppy can learn a good recall well before he can hold a sit stay for more than 3 seconds. In fact, puppy recalls are done by someone holding the puppy while the owner walks away and then calls it. This can be done by 10 week old puppies!!
Mr. Dikeman also talks about having the dog come in straight to sit in front of the owner. Who other than an obedience competitor would care about this? Mr. Dikeman introduces the sit as part of the recall right from the start. This is wrong, and will lead to a dog who will not do fast recalls. Better to do recalls where the dog comes to you at a gallop, flying in and between your legs for a tossed tennis ball, then coming down hard on him at the start, yanking his head up and his feet off the ground to sit him in front. Not thanks!
Mr. Dikeman also teaches the dog the finish, which is NOT something I have ever seen anyone other than an obedience person do. Again, it is done by hauling the dog around.
Now, there are two big problems I had with these tapes. The first is that although he frowns on the use of food, there are some instances on the tape, where I could freezeframe it, and see that he was slipping food to a dog. In particular, the best heeling dog he has, a Golden, is obviously being lured via food. In some cases you can see Mr. Dikeman holding his hand in an odd shape, and then the dog reaching up, licking his lips, and chewing. You tell me: is this dog being fed? Sure looks it. No problem, but don't come out with a video system telling people NOT to do this. It's not fair.
He also uses throw chains. In some parts of the video where he's doing his no hands no props etc bit, you can see that there is a throwchain in his hand. Oh, and he uses his to throw AT the dog, for things like lagging. I don't think that would work on many dogs, other than to teach them to hate working with you.
Both tapes close with a song written by Dikeman: "I found my best friend last fall, while shopping for dress shoes at a mall, he was sitting in a cage chewing on a ball"...does this send a good message about responsibly buying a dog???? Nope.
If anyone has any questions about these two videos, ask. I'm sending mine back on Monday. :)
Ann, Twzl + Sligo
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