On Sun, 23 Nov 2003 16:37:16 GMT, wrote:

there is a big difference between "expert" and "on the radio and especially on the
TV". As I live in Wisconsin and catch the show every now and then I can say I am not
impressed
snip
Marilyn was doing exactly what was necessary to get the big lug to stay outta her
gardens.

We had a Cocker Spaniel when I was a kid that dug holes every time he
was left alone in the yard. And every time, my father would drag him
to the hole, rub his nose in it, and whack him with a newspaper. We
probably had that dog for 5 years, and he *never* quit digging holes.
Either the dog or my father was a slow learner.

McConnell impresses the hell out of me. She *does* do animal training
for a living, and while I don't have a disobedient dog to practice on
she certainly seems to promote very sound methods. A *lot* of animal
training takes time and dreary repetition. She claims, and I have no
reason to doubt, to have trained her dogs to go *around* her
flowerbeds. [The trick involves having a clearly defined border,
body-blocking the animal as it approaches, and rewarding it when it
turns away.]

As for "knowing he's guilty," I do have doubts about that. When you
approach an animal with heavy breathing and fire in your eye, he
probably expects *something's* wrong and he's in for a bad time, even
if he has absolutely no memory of the cause.