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The dog trainer's trainer

While Cesar Millan is dazzling TV audiences, Ian Dunbar has been quietly gaining the respect of dog experts and dog lovers everywhere.

258 comments | Leave your own comment

<p>Kelly and Ian Dunbar with Casey,<br />one of DogTime's <a href="/about-dogtime.html">office dogs</a>.</p>

Kelly and Ian Dunbar with Casey,
one of DogTime's office dogs.

Chances are you've heard of Cesar Millan, Hollywood's famous dog whisperer. In recent years, he's taken the world by storm, starring in National Geographic Channel's Dog Whisperer and putting out a variety of training books and DVDs. Millan's philosophy? We, as humans, must act as dominant pack leaders; our dogs should behave as submissive followers.

Chances are you haven't heard of Ian Dunbar, soft-spoken Northern California behaviorist. Rather than physical corrections and alpha rollovers, Dunbar advocates a trusting, less subservient relationship, treating dogs as companions and family members. Dunbar's training methods don't make for dramatic television, but watching him quietly train--without so much as wagging a finger--is riveting to anyone who has ever tried to teach their dog anything.

A different approach


Ian Dunbar has been winning over dogs, dog owners, and dog trainers for years with his accessible, effective positive-reinforcement approach. Talk with the most respected names in the dog training world and you discover Dunbar's impact is unparalleled.

"His contribution to this field is immeasurable," says Patricia McConnell, author of The Other End of the Leash, co-host of NPR's Calling All Pets, and founder of Dog's Best Friend Training. "Ian Dunbar created an entirely new perspective about dog training. He deserves tremendous credit for teaching us to be loving with our dogs and to have fun with the training."

Let's not get physical


Dunbar's hands-off, reward-based approach stands in contrast to Millan's dominance-based philosophy and physical corrections. He emphasizes that communicating with your dog is far more satisfying than dominating your dog and stresses that even children can use his positive reinforcement methods to become able trainers.

"Ian carried the torch for lure-and-reward training," says Sue Sternberg, founder and owner of Rondout Valley Animals for Adoption in upstate New York and author of Great Dog Adoptions: A Guide for Shelters and Successful Dog Adoptions. "He converted an entire generation of yank 'em, crank 'em dog trainers into better communicators."

Doctor, teacher, trainer


Raised on a farm in England, Dunbar's connection with animals formed early and undeniably. After attending the Royal Veterinary School in London, he earned his Ph.D. in animal behavior at the University of California, Berkeley, merging--what at the time were--two very discrete aspects of animal study: medicine and behavior.

For him the pairing was natural--and long overdue. "People don't bite their hairdressers or the ob-gyns," says Dunbar. "But biting's an issue for vets, so it's in our best interest to know a bit about behavior."

He moved to Berkeley in 1971 and later taught a dog behavior course, which was the first time he realized how hungry dog owners were to understand their own pets. Discouraged that he couldn't find a training course for his own young puppy, he started a school, Sirius Dog Training in 1981. (With 19 locations, it's become one of the country's biggest training centers.) Dog training was changed forever.

Groundbreaking ideas


He didn't know it at the time, but Dunbar introduced a concept so revolutionary he's credited with launching what is now commonly regarded as the modern era in dog training: Train puppies before six months of age--off leash (the way they live at home)--and use rewards rather than punishment to teach proper behavior.

Today, the notion that very young puppies can not only be trained, socialized, and handled, but that doing so actually prevents most problem behaviors from developing, is a founding truth of modern dog training.

"Ian Dunbar understood that problems up front lead to problems down the road and he pounded the podium talking about early socialization and enrichment," days Nicholas Dodman, author of The Well-Adjusted Dog: Dr. Dodman's Seven Steps to Lifelong Health and Happiness for Your Best Friend (Houghton Mifflin, 2008) and Professor, Section Head, and Program Director of Animal Behavior Department of Clinical Sciences at Tufts' Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine.

Building on success


The soundness of Dunbar's methods garnered worldwide attention and his techniques were embraced by trainers everywhere. In 1993 he founded the Association of Pet Dog Trainers, an international organization devoted to promoting human-canine relationships based on trust and respect. Along the way, he's written six dog training books and hosted the popular British television series Dogs with Dunbar.

In 1999, Dunbar met fellow trainer (and future wife) Kelly Gorman, cofounder and president of Open Paw, a nonprofit dedicated to keeping cats and dogs out of shelters and in loving homes. Though their techniques differ slightly, the Dunbars' philosophies towards dogs meshed perfectly. By 2000, they were living together in Berkeley, California as a family and married in 2004. Dogstar Daily, the online arm of Open Paw, was born shortly thereafter in February 2006.

Different methods for different dogs


At this point it's worth asking: With so much experience, and the respect and veneration of so many of the field's most renowned figures, why is Dunbar still relatively unknown and Cesar Millan a household name?

"Cesar works with aggressive dogs, and that's sexy these days," says Patricia McConnell. "But Ian's methods are successful for the average dog owner. What's more, they have been used by professionals for years to successfully treat serious aggression problems. And, they're fun."

With more families than ever bringing dogs into their homes, and more dog trainers embracing Dunbar's accessible, family-friendly techniques, 2008 may well mark the year that the "dominance mentality" takes a back seat to the reward-based training, which promotes understanding and living peacefully with one's pets.

"The biggest development in the world of dog training is that people are actually training their dogs, and the popularity of Cesar may be responsible for that," says Claudia Kawczynska, editor of Bark magazine. "But the fact is, people are enjoying training more and the amazing bond that develops through training, and that move toward positive reinforcement started with Ian Dunbar."

Visit the Dunbar Training Center: Everything you need to know to raise a well-behaved dog


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Comments

Katiekatcar_thumbnailI just came here to read about Ian Dunbar, whose books were recommended by my dog's trainer. I seem to have stumbled into a flame war with lots of name-calling. Could the moderator please remove the confusing and insulting posts, so those of us who want to learn about dog training don't have to slog through the vitriole? Most sites have a "Report this" option, but I can't find it. Thanks!” — Wendy, Jun 03 2009

Avatar “'The liar's punishment is not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else.'
-George Bernard

That's why everyone thinks you are a giant wanker and nobody believes a word you write.

Aside from being a giant scumbag, you haven't explained why you took my handle from Youtube instead of using your own. Too many defeats under your own name?

Come on lying dolt, we all know you tried to distort Dr. Dunbar's quote. You must be a colossal fool to think you would have gotten away with such dishonesty. Specially in regards to a factual pro Dunbar article.

You must be quite the dunce to think anyone is going to buy into your lies about Stan Rawlinson. If the administration has any integrity they will not tolerate your defamatory lies about Mr. Rawlinson for long. So my dear liar, do you have a degree? Just how stupid are you to make diagnoses based on your delusional fantasies about Stan Rawlinson.

BTW, Why don't you call Dr. Dunbar a “purely positive Nazi”, like you did in Youtube under your original handle?

And no lie you can tell about Rawlinson, Dunbar, Leuscher, Dodman, or any other person will change the fact that you uses abusive, backward methods. What you do is not much better than Michael Vick but at least he was honest in what he was doing and as we know there is nothing honest about anything you write.

“Dr. Nicholas Dodman - Professor and Head, Section of Animal Behavior
Director of Behavior Clinic, Tufts University - Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine
“Cesar Millan's methods are based on flooding and punishment. The results, though immediate, will be only transitory. His methods are misguided, outmoded, in some cases dangerous, and often inhumane. You would not want to be a dog under his sphere of influence. The sad thing is that the public does not recognize the error of his ways. My college thinks it is a travesty. We’ve written to National Geographic Channel and told them they have put dog training back 20 years.”

To the detriment and suffering of dogs everywhere, Millan has revived a jerk and choke approach to training that had been rightly abandoned by all thinking people.

When a world class researcher LD Mech writes about the alpha concept:
“The issue is not merely one of semantics or political correctness. It is one of biological correctness such that the term we use for breeding wolves accurately captures the biological and solcial role of the animals rather than perpetuate a faulty view”

Another world renowned expert debunking the BS promoted by the TV dog groomer. Who has more credibility and better credentials. The Director at a university or the TV guy schlepping a product to an unsuspecting audience with a 42 minute infomercial. Other than his fanatical zealots, no one else questions whose opinion carries greater authority.

Millan's message appeals to ignorant, lazy dog owners who want the illusion of control that such methods given them. They find it easier to bully, threaten and abuse a dog into helplessness rather than take the time to train them and really communicate with them. As Dr. Dunbar says, people like Millan and his followers can beat dogs because they are “beatable” and will forgive such transgressions the way other animals would not.

You are deluded paranoid pathetic individual who is afraid of the truth and in your sick twisted mind everyone who calls you out on the garbage you post is the same person. Why don't you actually try to find real evidence. Your sad attempts to poison the well aren't working.

Erich Klinghammer, PhD, Ethologist and professor emeritus at Purdue University and the president
of the North American Wildlife Federation. : “the so-called alpha roll overpracticed by some is nonsense.”


“…if it’s how you want to live with your dog I have news that is going to disappoint a lot of people who have striven to reach Alpha status – it all means diddly squat to your dog.” -- John Fisher





— PrometheansFire, May 04 2009

1_apple_thumbnail'The liar's punishment is not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else.'
-George Bernard

What a Plonker!

You are kidding me? That was Hilarious!
What you try to do?
That you gonna get the attention of the APDT Members if You Put your name next to Dunbar and Friends... and they gonna think you are an Intelligent and respectable trainer?... and they gonna contact you?
LOL! Always trying to boost your profile don't you?

If I confuse you, was with somebody who got a Severe brain Trauma!

Please, you are unable even of handle your 2 accounts here and now you try to Defuse and Bury your mistake posting other
Clap-Trap-quote... Too late!
Besides I was aware of that alias too.

Apart from the fact that Stan Rawlinson clearly displays himself as seriously unbalanced his multiple names and the
different characters he uses to live through his fantasies indicates a disturbances deep within the psych of this erratic individual.
One thing is known about Stan Rawlinson and is easily established, his behaviour does not conform to what most people perceive as as mentally healthy, in fact his behaviour all over the Internet is quite Bizarre and conforms more to the behaviour of a Deranged Urangutan than a respectable, responsible business person.

But maybe some one here thinks I made all of this, lets see the last news about this Ignoranus... From the K9 Magazine:

UPDATE: Stan Rawlinson Self Called 'Doglistener' has been caught up in yet another row about his Self Created ‘credentials’.
Stan Rawlinson, the man who refers to himself as ‘Doglistener’ amongst several other (not always male) identities, has been caught up in yet another row about his Self Created ‘credentials’.
Rawlinson, well known to K9 Magazine readers for previous serious indiscretions, was, as recently as last week, claiming to be a ’spokesperson’ for a number of high profile organisations, including the BBC and Disney. A claim which is emphatically a lie. A claim which he has now had to retract.
This is Not the First Time Rawlinson has attempted to publicly Mislead people about his Identity and Credentials.
In December of 2006 Geoff Paulsen of The Walt Disney Company contacted us to demand the removal of any implied link between the “Disney” name and “specifically Stanley Rawlinson” after the self-titled ‘Doglistener’ claimed to have been a ‘behavioural spokesperson’ for the famous US organisation.
Rawlinson was made aware of Disney’s position but, it would appear, he’s been back up to his old tricks only this time he’s dragged the good names of the BBC, ITV and Sky News in to his fantasy world.
As the screen capture below shows, the ‘Doglistener’ was again Misrepresenting the nature of his relationship with those organisations in order to Boost his Credentials on his website claiming himself to be a ’spokesman’ for the aforementioned corporations, in reality - he’s Not, nor ever has been anything of the sort.

So, Again, Who is the Liar?

'Some cause happiness wherever they go;
Others, whenever they go' -Oscar Wilde
— PrometheansFire, May 04 2009

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