Calls to halt dog trainer’s visit

Waikato dog trainer Darran Rowe believes people should consider what best aligns with their ethics before choosing how to train your pet.

There is currently an online petition which has gathered over 17,000 signatures to stop controversial American dog trainer Jeff Gellman coming to New Zealand.

Gellman owns Solid K-P9 training and is scheduled to do a two-day seminar with dog owners in Auckland in July.

He has come under attack after videos show Gellman using extensive force to train dogs, from pronged collars to throwing a rolled-up towel at a dog’s head.

Rowe owns Mindfulness4Dogs and believes in teaching the owner to visualise the end result they want, and then the dog has a chance of understanding and getting to the end result.

‘‘If we don’t understand what we want from the dog then they’ve got no chance.’’

Rowe isn’t prepared to say if Gellman should be let into the country but urges people to consider how they want their dog trained.

‘‘I am a trained teacher and when I was training there was a lot of psychology about how early children’s brains work and when I started to do animal behaviour I noticed it was the same about dog behaviour.’’

Rowe said it is rather old school using negative punishment to train your dog.

He said that while child-raising has moved on from 20 to 30 years ago it hasn’t quite happened for dogs yet.

There is currently no universal qualification to be a dog trainer.

‘‘If you have a dog and you think you are really good with the dog you could become a dog trainer’’.

Companion Animals New Zealand said that they along with other animal groups have been working through how to start an accreditation scheme to protect animals who are being trained from physical and psychological harm.