Get Your Puppy Training Juste Right: What We Can Learn from Channel 4’s Puppy School About Training, Love, Family and Ourselves

Presenters of Channel 4’s Puppy School: Katie Patmore, Oli Juste, Hannah Molloy

The choice of three of the country’s top dog trainers, Oli Juste, Hannah Molloy, Katie Patmore, ensures that Channel 4’s Puppy School (now streaming online) is ideal viewing for any prospective puppy parent. However, it’s also a handy resource for any dog owner who hasn’t entirely ironed out their pet’s training (and who has?). 

There’s always the risk with a prime-time viewing spot such as this that the back-story element will overrule the actual factual content, but in fact the human dynamics involved in this show actually work to demonstrate the holistic approach of the trainers. 

“To be a good dog trainer you have to be a detective”

Dog trainer, Turid Rugaas

Norwegian dog trainer, Turid Rugaas, says: “To be a good dog trainer you have to be a detective.” She refers to the unfolding layers of the story behind the ‘problem’ behaviour, and that standing back to listen and observe the dog owners will reveal the clues you need to offer a useful training solution.  

 In the first episode of Puppy School both Oli and Katie are faced with less than ideal family situations. A Newfoundland puppy, Athena, has become the focus for her owner’s fear of claiming her own post-divorce independence, and Reuben, a golden Lab is confused by the two conflicting approaches to discipline and boundaries used by his owners.  

Taking account of the human factor

Taking the problems simply at face value, in this case separation anxiety and disobedience, lends itself to disaster. Ignoring the role of the humans puts all the responsibility for change on the dog, which is never going to work – the training becomes an imposition that treats the dog as an object that must be moulded and altered to meet our needs, without bothering to examine theirs.  

As these programmes go far to demonstrate, a dog’s role in the family is varied and multi-faceted, from providing moral support through illness, tragedy and transition to being a ‘practice baby’ for a young couple. They are never ‘just a dog’. They aren’t part of a pack. (Since when do people live in a pack?) We are family. So are they.  

Supervet, Noel Fitzpatrick

It is finally becoming acceptable to acknowledge this without blushes, although Noel Fitzpatrick, the most well-known Channel 4 ambassador for animals, still faces a continuing bombardment of criticism from those who lambast him for – as they see it, wastefully - lavishing his expertise on people’s pets. His answer? That his work is not about who deserves what. It’s about love.   

Puppy School is a further examination of the love that exists between humans and animals; how it informs our behaviour and boundaries and how, above all, it is not mutually exclusive from training.

 The truth is that animal training is never a one-size-fits-all solution. Tempting as it is to turn exclusively to books and popular theories, this can shield us from the uncomfortable task of examining ourselves, owning our weaknesses and moving on to a more creative and effective approach to partnering our dogs for a happy life together