Crufts 2014

[Nettle]

Surrounded by gorgeous young men in that top pic *envy*


Fundog I never noticed the pink thing until you mentioned it.....I can never meet Victoria now.

[minkee]

Get you Emma, looks like you had an ace time I might have to go myself next year!

Some of you might be interested to know - in the 'Emmabeth and her admirers' photo, you have Nando Brown on the right, but on the left is Jordan Shelley who you might remember from that little One Show debacle, where he went to solve one 'problem dogs' food aggression by letting it chew on his foot and shhhting at it. Outrage followed, tons of complaints, he got fired from the spot. BUT THEN instead of forever defending his position and saying that those silly trainers who base their work on science are no good, he seems to have immersed himself in the world of positive training, and made friends with some of the best, learning all he can and crossing over. I think it's a pretty great story and shows real strength of character in the face of such angry vehemence.

[ClareMarsh]

Oh I hate having my photo taken too, well I hate posed photos Everyone looks like they're having a great time.

I think my preference would be to meet you Emmabeth because I can honestly say I have learnt a lot more from you than the 3 celeb dog trainers put together

[Nettle]

Jordan Shelley who you might remember from that little One Show debacle, where he went to solve one 'problem dogs' food aggression by letting it chew on his foot and shhhting at it. Outrage followed, tons of complaints, he got fired from the spot. BUT THEN instead of forever defending his position and saying that those silly trainers who base their work on science are no good, he seems to have immersed himself in the world of positive training, and made friends with some of the best, learning all he can and crossing over. I think it's a pretty great story and shows real strength of character in the face of such angry vehemence.

Yes, I agree. That was a very mature response to a rather unpleasant situation.

[emmabeth]

Oh Clare thats so sweet of you to say that!

Jordan is such a nice lad, and has really thrown himself into learning as much as he possibly can - the other thing about that whole situation is just how amazing the positive training community has been and continues to be - whilst people were loud and numerous in their protests against what he'd done, they were also fast to say, and mean it 'come with us and we will teach you' and welcomed him, in some cases into their homes, with open arms.

I've thought, and said, for a long time, that one of the major problems in getting the message that positive training, kindness in training, using humane methods etc is the ONLY way, across to the public at large is that for the most part, we just can't reach 'Joe Public'.

They don't pick up scary looking books about dog behaviour, they don't HEAR about, let alone attend dog behaviour or training seminars, most of them will never even join a puppy class let alone a local Dog Training Club - we are almost always either, preaching to the choir, or trying to change the minds of people who have already thrown their hat in someone elses ring.

I think these guys, Nando, Steve (who I didn't get a pic of as he was whizzing about like a mad thing doing his Luvvie bit), Jordan and Victoria ARE the way that the message will filter through - they are fun, attractive, hilarious (Nando!), passionate (all of them!), knowledgeable, AND absolutely bloody brilliant 'faces' for positive training, I think they do all make it so much more user friendly and accessible to dog owners.

I can't speak for the other days but certainly on Saturday, the Positively stand was buzzing with activity, everyone was super busy as well doing interviews, filming telly bits etc etc - so its all really happening, positive, force free training IS becoming seriously COOL!