It's me or the dog!

My wonderful husband picked up tickets at the Lowell Auditorium for us to see Victoria Stilwel of the "it's me or the dog" fame featured on "animal planet".

Mind you , I don't even have cable TV. But when I travel, I load up on the cable network's "animal planet" at every place I stay at that has cable TV. Bonaire has cable TV so between dives we veg out and watch "animal planet" for hours.

Victoria Stilwel is a professional dog trainer.

I like her non-confrontational approach to training dogs by rewarding good (desired) behavior with treats and praise. She doesn't buy the "pack leader" domination approach of training dogs. That pack leader approach of getting dogs to do what you want them to may work with some dogs and if it is done by certain alpha-type personalities.

I've seen how certain animals (in my experience with dogs and birds) will favor a certain person over another and that they will segregate who they 'like" (by picking male over female and vise versa) as well.

Since Victoria is a female, about my age and weight, I realistically follow her approach of training.

And it it works.

So long as you are consistent and it is constainly reinforced.

You need to pay close attention to body language (non verbal communication)

And by NOT forcing your will.

Patience and calmness is key.

Ms Stilwel's presentation was interesting and entertaining.

She featured dogs that had not been trained from the local rescue by demonstrating simple commands. Again, it was patience and they were given a "reward" (treats or praise) for the desired behavior.

I was hoping to get my book signed "it's me or the dog" but after the show I was too exhausted to wait in the long line. As much as I enjoyed her presentation I was a bit aggravated with some of the obnoxious people in the audience.

It never ceases to amaze me how many ignorant assholes just have to keep their cell phones on during a presentation.

I mean, really.

This one woman seated next to me had her cell phone ringer go off. I just looked at her, giving her the benefit of doubt thinking maybe she just forgot to shut it off and then, the f*&^ing thing went off again! I then said, "what is up with these jerks and their cell phones!?".

My husband elbowed me.

And it wasn't just this person either with the ringing cell phone.

At the end of the presentation there was a "question and answer" period.

Some people just looooove to hear themselves talk

This one very obese woman kept talking and talking until Victoria had to cut her off because she was taking up so much time with her 'saga". This blabber mouth hogged so much time that other folks didn't get a chance to ask questions.

Maybe the next time Victoria does a presention, she should start the presention by telling the audience to :

"sit"

"shut off your cell phones"

"Speak, OK, now stop"

"gooood people!"