Zak George

[Pleasetohi]

I’ll preface this by saying I don’t have a puppy or a dog … yet!

I can’t stop watching this chaps videos.

Is he well respected? I’m completely fascinated by how receptive the puppies are to him. Did anyone follow his training techniques with their puppy?

I did see a video that involved him removing a dogs bowl which I thought was frowned upon but then again I have also seen this advice given by others in the past too.

There is so much conflicting advice when it comes to dogs that it can be a real mind boggler!

I've not got any real view on Zak George, but yes, there is a lot of conflicting advice. There are all sorts of reasons for this. Some people take dog training like a religion and will only train a certain way (some people say it's wrong to ever punish or even reprimand a dog; others that you must never use treats). Others adjust their training according to what they want to get out of the dog (for example, someone who usually trains police or protection dogs will do some things differently if training a pet).

And really importantly, every dog is different. Some of it is breed traits, and some of it is personality, and you have to adjust accordingly. My two dogs share a lot of breed traits (they're not like the terriers I've owned and lived with previously - less bloody-minded, more human-focused), but are very different in personality. One has a high tolerance for repetition provided she's being paid with food; the other learns better if I switch activities about - which made nailing a long sit-stay very tiresome.

The best advice I've ever had is to build a really good bond with you dog through affection, shared fun and play, so that you want to be with your dog and your dog wants to be with you.

Zak George has no qualifications and is really a celebrity internet dog trainer.

He tries to stick to positive training but does get some thing extremely wrong.

His resource guarding one such example. Lets give a dog a bone filled with peanut butter and then take it off him! You can see by the dogs reaction that it is not effective training. Poor Corgi.

Yes different things work for different dogs!

I haven’t seen the Kong one but sounds similar to the one I did see. I definitely remember when we did last have a puppy my Mum sort of lifting up and down her bowl so I think that advice was definitely around at some point. I wonder what the correct way to train to prevent or deal with resource guarding is? It’s one of those things that you sort of need to prevent rather than cure hopefully!!!

Any recommended trainers to watch on YouTube? I’m loving watching all of these clever dogs learning!

Add food to the bowl when the dog is eating. So the dog is aware that good things appear when you come near not that things are taken away.

Kikopup all the way!

I like him and he is honest when he gets things wrong, I haven't watched many of his earlier clips but most of his stuff from the last 18 months and just before is pretty solid advice and he advocates using positive methods only which is important.

Kikopop is an excellent resource and very good too.

A close friend of mine is a dog behaviourist, specialising in seperation anxiety (as in she is a proper one with a degree in behaviour and a member of APBC, not one who has done a mickey mouse 4 week course and calls themselves a dog trainer/behaviourist) and recommends Kikopup to her new clients as well.

Most good dog training doesn't make good tv.

Chirag Patel is a good one to watch, also the new Victoria Stilwell series is good - they aired recently on REALLY and are also on Discovery+. She's evolved a lot since "It's Me or the Dog" first aired - you can see a huge difference between the original episodes and the newer ones. I think that's the sign of a good trainer - seeing the error of your ways and not being afraid to admit you've got it wrong.

I’ve watched a few of his videos. I like the fact that he shows times when his training goes wrong. It’s annoying and unhelpful when someone shows a perfectly behaved dog or one instance of tricky behaviour followed by instant success. Of course such videos are edited shrewdly, but I would much rather see the setbacks as well as the successes which Zak George does show (at least in the videos I’ve seen).

I’m also highly dubious of trainers (both online and IRL) who jump on the latest bandwagon and mouth the currently popular jargon, whatever it happens to be. ZG doesn’t seem to fall into this trap, though again I am basing that on a limited number of videos.

I would recommend Kikopup and Chirag Patel. Chirag being the better one for relationship based training. Grisha Stewart is another trainer I would recommend and Mutty Professor’s blog and FB pages are good as well.

I have watched some Zac George recently and he’s ok, but I’m not comfortable with some of his methods (specifically crate training and alone time which seemed to involve a fair bit of cry it out in the videos I watched) for puppies. Not that he is punitive, more that he’s not completely force free and relationship based, which I feels build more confidence and independence and ultimately a happier more secure dog.

There are far worse trainers online and on TV than him, but I would still recommend the above mentioned trainers’ videos than his.

I personally think some of his videos are good the basic ones.

Brilliant I’ll check out the others too although probably don’t need to be encouraging this habit!!

His videos have helped me realise (even though it should have been obvious) that we expect too much from puppies. For example with brushing or tooth brushing it’s so easy just to do it to them and then question why they hate it rather than like he did in a video work up to it over numerous sessions starting with really just letting them see/chew the brush or toothbrush.

Hopefully by the time we are lucky enough to have a puppy I will have some good plans and starting points.