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We have since discovered the Victoria Stilwell, world renowed British dog trainer has indeed set up shop right here in Atlanta .. and has been filming her spectacular efforts to help families train the dogs.  In this episode called The Not So Great Dane, we see her zipping around the streets of Atlanta in her Corvette convertible letting the audience come along for the ride.

Owners Jodi and Rick have a six-foot tall, 150 pound great dane named Harley, plus another dog Abby.  It turns out that Harley is a replacement for the dearly departed Apollo .. and Abby has been depressed ever since.

Oh No! Not only does Harley have a bad habit of stealing people’s food right off of the counters and tables, he has taken to the pool room as his own personal outhouse on occassion.  No wonder these folks aren’t inviting the friends to dinner!

It’s definitely a touchy situation around the house because hubby is letting the dog get away with everything while the wife is getting more and more upset.  And when Victoria says she’s never met anyone with “instincts with a dog are so wrong”, Jodi gives him a see I told you so look that would make every husband cringe.

Step one for training is keeping Harley off of the carpeted areas of the house so he isn’t comfortable relieving himself in the house.

Victoria works on the overpowering greeting that typically greets the family at the door, by waiting him out and only rewarding as Harley backs away from the door.

It’s amazing that she has to deal with this, but the husband wouldn’t bother to fill up the water bowls and lazily encourages the dogs to drink out of the toilet instead. It’s a simple solution here .. train the husband to fill the bowls.

For the marketers in the group, Animal Planet has sold a nice ad package to Volkswagen called “Behind the Breed”. Each episode there is a question about that particular show’s breed with prominent branding for VW.

They’ve got to get away from the unbranded laptop fake video shots though .. It’s so stupid looking that it’s distracting.  Victoria should just view a video screen.

The owners have done a good job of implementing the training that Victoria provided for them.  Harley has really changed his ways, and even the depressed Abby has decided that he’s fun to be around and has started to respond properly.

This is a Great Dane after all.

She’s come thousands of miles from England to save American families from their unruly dogs, one owner at a time …. That’s right, it’s Victoria Stillwell!

In this episode called Triplets of Terror, Samson the three year old boxer is causing mayhem in the family of episode two.  The family owns two other dogs, Delia the BIG beagle and Iggy the Italian Greyhound.

Apparently Delia has been eating because of the stress of having Samson around the house, and nice little Iggy is showing the signs of battling for alpha dog supremacy.

Are these people it Atlanta too? … Oh, sure enough, Dekalb County Dog park!

Victoria tells the mom that Delia is the fattest beagle she has ever seen in her whole life, “and I’ve seen some fat beagles!”

She’s no fan of electric fences.  Apparently they can cause heart and lung issues, seizures, emotional issues … and for the most part they aren’t completely successful in keeping dogs in the yard.

Grandpa Kal comes back to the house after already stating that it’s He or the Dog! .. Funny, he’s wearing the same clothes LOL.

Great moment at the Dog Park when the owner is trying to tell Victoria that Delia doesn’t have very much self esteem because of how fat she is .. “I don’t think she knows she’s fat per se, but I think people make fun of her” .. Victoria gives her a great sideways glance.

Victoria introduces a special walking harness that discourages the boxer Samson from lunging during a walk by slightly lifting his front legs whenever he starts to pull away.

As a side project they decide to weigh Delia and find out that she is pushing 50 lbs., instead of the normal 20 – 30 pounds for a beagle.

The exercise of these pets becomes a major component of the training that Victoria is demonstrating, and takes them all to a pool! .. “Let’s go swimming!” Ava the Aqua Therapist comes to be the personal trainer for the dogs once a week. What no Victoria in the pool? Come on .. throw us a bone here.

For whatever reason, Victoria loves putting cutouts on each owner’s refrigerators .. she did it in the first episode too.  We’ve got pictures of the dogs, the mom, the daughter, mom’s dad and even some kind of scales of justice thing trying to demonstrate a point.  Jeez.

Que the fake video of the family on Victoria’s laptop computer again … and she comes up with a good idea to get Samson his exercise by taking him to a tennis court where he can run around without getting over the fence!

Well, well, well … here we are with our old dear friend Victoria Stilwell, world renowned dog trainer!  You may remember her from the fabulous Season One of The Greatest American Dog. It was reality TV programming at it’s best with a house full of dogs and owners competing to win the coveted title.

Victoria and her judging companions Wendy Diamond and David Reznik were the weekly authorities overseeing the Best in Show Challenges.

Now we have Victoria starring in her very own show on the Animal Planet called It’s Me or the Dog in which she performs acts of heroism similar to the well know Dog Whisperer Cesar Milan.

In the season premiere called The Prince of Chaos we meet Prince, an eleven month old Neapolitan Mastiff who is ripping the house apart, drives away the kids friends and loves to hump any leg that moves.  Mom really thinks he’s the cat’s meow and wants to breed him.

Victoria cruises in looking hot in her black Corvette to get Prince in line, and fires off the best line to get the season started – “It’s a ninety pound humping dog, and soon it’s going to be a 150 or 180 pound humping dog!”

She feigns shock and horror at the destruction that Prince has caused when left out on the porch of the house .. which is nothing more than any other puppy would have done.  The problem is that he is a very large puppy.

When Angela the dog owner has to leave the house she has been putting Prince in a crate.  Victoria asks to see the process, which is a laughingly hilarious wrestling match.

Oh .. Victoria comes down hard on Angela’s plans to breed Prince with the drippingly sarcastic statement, “Right, Great, so you are going to contribute to the pet overpopulation problem in the United States” .. staring Angela down with her piercing pretty brown eyes.

A nice training that she demonstrated was the use of better / warm food to make Prince eat better and get over his anxiety about eating alone.  Warming the food releases the scents of the food and made him much more willing to devour the entire meal.
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Reality programming greatness again!  CBS brings us another edition of Greatest American Dog Show with housemates bickering, private confessionals, even some budding romance in this week’s episode.  Nothing sucks the audience in like all the drama you can muster.

In typical “reality” fashion the post production work tries to lead you to think in one direction and then pop a bit of a surprise on you in the end.  This week they are setting up a moment in the Best in Show Arena, which is the G.A.D.S version of Survivor’s Tribal Council.

Early in the show they focus on the fact that Laurie and her white Maltese Andrew perform very well. She demonstrates that she has no problem with Andrew playing with the house pariah Elvis, as she council’s Elvis’s owner David on how to handle a dog. Laurie’s approach is consistent with a child / parent relationship .. strict but not cruel, demonstrating who is the boss and to be firm with expectations.

Challenge one is an obstacle course of tangled leashes with teams attempting to lead their pet through the course in tandem. Laurie is teamed with last week’s Best in Show Bill & Star and come very close to winning the competition.  A neck and neck race versus owner’s Travis & Brandy, who take the challenge and end up banishing Laurie to the doghouse.  She had not expected that at all and demanded to know why.  She eventually determines that since she performs so well, she is considered a threat to the other participants.

David befriends Laurie with platitudes and comfort as she moves into the doghouse.

Finally after the second house challenge in which Laurie ends up with David on the losing team, we get to the Best in Show Arena. In the big plot twist for this episode, Laurie throws David and Elvis under the bus! She reveals to the judges that there have been issues in the house with Elvis all along …….. Probably a bad decision on her part, since she is considered a threat due to her ability to control Andrew, and now having shown a win at all cost mentality, she is going to be kept at bay by the other contestants.

Look for her to have a hard time in the house from here on out. I predict that she will not make it to the finals.

BTW, I have to admit that the editing and post-production on this show have given us some very funny one liners that have made me laugh out loud. During the obstacle course David comments about the “4 pounds of meat in my pocket” and Elvis not paying attention.  David also got off the other funny line in reference to the “Golden Boy” Travis continuing to win the challenges.

Also, keep an eye on the budding romantic tension starting to form among Travis and Laura .. with some jealousy demonstrated by Brandy.

This week, somewhat predictably, David and Elvis are expelled from the Canine Academy. “Elvis has left the Building!”

This week’s Judge Profile is:

Victoria Stilwell

Resume

• Host of “It’s Me or the Dog“
• Co-founder of Dog Trainers of New York
• Co-founder Dog Trainers of New Jersey
• Co-founder Dog Trainers of Georgia

Author

• It’s Me or the Dog: How to Have the Perfect Pet
• Fat Dog Slim: How to Have a Healthy, Happy Pet.

Groups

• Paws Atlanta
• Stray from the Heart (New York)
• Hong Kong Dog Rescue
• Greyhound Rescue of West England
• Wisconsin Puppy Mill Project
• Waterside Action Group

Certifications

• Animal Behavior and Training Associates
• Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT).

Final thought for the week, Are we rooting for the dog or the owner?  Can we differentiate? .. possibly as we get towards the finals we will start to lean towards the best dogs.

Yes that’s the correct job title on the business card of Jaqueline Sowell.  Based upon her bio, she left the world of software development and Microsoft in 2001 to take up the challenge of assisting pet owners in communicating with their beloved animals.

It’s called telepathic animal communication and it’s intention is to determine cause of stress and discomfort so that owners can modify behavior, enhance quality of life and determine if any health issues exist.

To schedule a phone call or appointment you can visit the site at http://www.jsowell.com/index.html