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Famous dog trainers on tv3/20/2024 Her TV programmes, however, were not only famous for her definitive methods of training dogs but her no-nonsense strict personalty and old-fashioned persona. In the early 1980s, Woodhouse moved across to US television with a programme entitled ‘Barbara Woodhouse Goes to Beverly Hills.’ Woodhouse’s star rose and she soon became a household name across the nation, winning female TV personality of the year in 1980, and even reaching fame in the United States. I can say ‘You hateful horrible brute’ to a dog, in a loving tone, and its tail will wag furiously all the time or I can say ‘You adorable pet’, in a cross tone, and the dog will be miserable.” Woodhouse, Talking to Animals, p.124 The actual words used don’t matter a scrap. “Speak always in a very low voice, using endearing words, for animals love the human voice and its tone means everything to them. “One has to remember with animals that they work for praise, and one must never forget to tell them how clever they are all the time. She did also use a choke chain and lightly jerking the dog to gain its attention, which later resulted in her methods being criticised. Woodhouse’s methods mainly consisted of teaching the owners how to handle their dogs through the use of positive reinforcement and a low and comforting tone. Her definitive and ground-breaking methods of her earlier work with her own Great Danes come through her TV shows in the methods she taught people to use in training their dogs. It is simply an inexperienced owner.” Barbara Woodhouse, Training Dogs: The Woodhouse Way, Episode 1, 1980 “There’s no such thing as a bad dog, unless mental. The later 1970s and 80s brought Barbara Woodhouse truly into the homes of the wider nation through her own weekly television show in 1979: ‘ Training Dogs: the Woodhouse Way.’ In this programme, in a similar way to her clubs, Woodhouse taught members of the public how to train their animals, firmly underpinning her teaching with the idea that: In these clubs, Woodhouse would help each owner with their individual problems and received many letters from “desperate owners of disobedient dogs.” From there, she fundraised the money to produce a comprehensive film on how to train a dog, featuring members of her own clubs, called Love Me, Love My dog. This programme gained positive reviews from viewers and widened her reputation as a dog trainer. Her success developed from there, leading to the opening of clubs in the wider area of Watford and London, and going on to have over 500s dogs in training. In the early 1950s, Woodhouse started her first dog training club, inviting the press to come and see her work. Juno, in particular, came to star in a number of Hollywood films, such as Ivanhoe (1952) with Roger Moore. Her renown with dogs came with her Great Danes, Jyntee and Juno. Woodhouse’s success prompted her to write a report on her findings to farming papers resulting in a number of national reporters and TV broadcasters from across the world coming to her farm to view for themselves the method’s success. Her first bout of publicity came, not with dog training, but with her innovating method of rugging cows which resulted in the cows producing a higher yield of milk without the need for extra food. Her reputation for using ground-breaking methods at first began to develop among farming circles, particularly with breaking horses and cattle, and then started to reach into the film industry and public domain. After leaving school at sixteen, she attended Harper Adams Agricultural College and was the only female pupil on her course as “it was not thought proper in those days for girls to learn agriculture as they do today.” 1 Even at a young age, Woodhouse was surrounded by animals: in her biography, she reminisces about the interesting ‘pets’ that she and her siblings cared for and nurtured in the nursery as children, such as a lamb, a duck, rabbits, injured birds and a Pomeranian dog. She steadily broke ground for both women in farming and for new ways of training animals. Throughout her life, her methods and skill with animals developed and carved out her reputation as a dog and horse trainer. Her autobiography, Talking with Animals, ‘The Woodhouse Way,’ which was first published in 1954 and framed the first 40 years of her life, shows her to be someone who loved and was dedicated to all of her animals, particularly dogs and horses, but also her cattle. Born in 1910 in County Dublin, from a very young age, Barbara had an affinity with and deep love for all animals.
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