#159 Dog Daddy Training Failure: Dog Training Today will Will Bangura, M.S., CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA, FFCP

Are forceful dog training techniques really effective, or do they simply instill fear? In this episode, we scrutinize the controversial methods of Dog Daddy Augusto de Oliveira through the lens of an eye-opening article by Angel Willis. After spending $1,500 on a 90-minute session, Angel initially saw improvements in her pit bull's aggressive behavior, only to face disappointment when the aggression returned. Discover how her journey took a positive turn with Adrienne Farricelli's dog brain training method, which successfully transformed her dog's behavior through engaging mental exercises and practical games.

We also delve into the broader debate of aggressive versus humane training techniques. By comparing Dog Daddy's forceful methods with Adrienne Farricelli's compassionate approach, we highlight expert opinions from prominent trainers like Zach George and Per Ramirez, who champion trust and emotional well-being over fear-based obedience. Finally, we break down the costs and benefits of various dog training options, sharing insights from online forums to help you make informed decisions. Join us for a balanced and enlightening discussion on finding the best training approach for your canine companion.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

So we see it all over the internet. We see it on Instagram, we see it on TikTok, we see it on Facebook, we see it on X and that's the dog daddy, and he's showing you that he has this incredible success working with aggressive dogs. And I've said that it's just smoke and mirrors. All that and more in 60 seconds.

Speaker 2: 0:26

Raised by wolves with canine DNA in his blood. Having trained more than 24,000 pets, helping you and your fur babies thrive, live in studio with Will Bangura answering your pet behavior and training questions. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome your host and favorite pet behavior expert, will Bangura.

Speaker 1: 1:06

Good day dog lovers. It's Will Bangura and you're listening to another episode of Dog Training Today. Well, it's, you know, I did the search and I, to be honest with you, I haven't spent much time I really haven't done a search looking for people that have used the dog daddy because they've had a dog that is aggressive, they've had a dog that is completely out of control and they were at their wit's end and they were looking for help and nothing worked for their dog, so they resorted to going to Dog Daddy. Now anybody can find this article. Article is dog daddy Augusto de la Vera positive slash abusive training techniques dog daddy training costs. Now here's the. Here's the article. I'm just going to read it word for word. And this is from a female by the name of Angel Willis Angel Angel Willis and she wrote this September 17th 2023. And it starts by saying I took our pit bull to dog daddy and here's the aftermath after a one hour, 30 minute training session, okay, and underneath there's a picture of the dog Daddy has got two puppies, two very tiny puppies, maybe six, eight weeks, if that in his hands and below the picture is this statement it says in this brief write up about dog daddy Augusta de la Vera, you will find out what impact his training had on our pit bull and whether his technique is legitimate or not. And here's the article. If you own a dog that you truly want to bond with and be of absolute good behavior, you will need to engage such dog on a mental level and develop his or her intelligence and develop his or her intelligence. It is utmost essential that the dog gets adequate mental stimulation so you both enjoy a sustainable relationship, and addressing the root cause of your dog's behavior is therefore paramount. And here's the article. Does Dog Daddy Augusta de Oliveira's training method meet such criteria or is it just some cookie-cutter technique with short-term results? Is Dog Daddy Augusta de Oliveira's training method an outdated force and dominance technique? Here we go.

Speaker 1: 4:05

My husband and I love our dogs. We own a German Shepherd and a Pit Bull. The German Shepherd has a rather too cool and calm and yet reactive nature, whilst the Pit Bull is wild and most of the time uncontrollably aggressive. Because of this, we hardly take it out for a walk in the public because we fear it may attack other dogs or people. We've seen it do that once and it's not a scenario we pray to see happen ever again. So our neighbor, who also had a dog with an attitude, engaged with Dog Daddy, augusta De La Vera, to help correct it. And yes, just as we see in Dog Daddy's videos online, his training technique worked on our neighbor's Rottweiler. This motivated us to engage our lovely, naughty and aggressive pit bull to Dog Daddy's in-house private training. As usual, and just like magic, augusta De La Vera spent around one hour 30 minutes to retrain our dog, making it totally submissive and obedient. Dog Daddy's one hour 30 minute training cost us $1,500, his official charge for private training. Dog Daddy's group class training, just like you see on his popular YouTube videos, cost $400 for a few minutes. I really have huge respect for dog daddy's Augusto de la Vera's ability to handle just any dog, and that respect grew more when I saw him handle our pit bull.

Speaker 1: 5:56

Uh-oh, is this the article I want to read? But what's the aftermath? This is in the article. She says this, but what's the aftermath? After dog daddy left us to continue from where he stopped. And here we go.

Speaker 1: 6:15

Our pit bull played nice and calm for about eight hours and then slept off, but when it woke up we saw the old pit bull in his eyes. He seemed to have forgotten dog daddy's training and was back to his old self, same naughty, aggressive dog. We watched it for days and applied some of the methods Augusta de Oliveira asked us to use, hoping our dog would reconsider. But nothing worked. Our pit bull was back to square one and our time and effort and that of Dog Daddy and our $1,500 gone down the drain. It was saddening and there was nothing we could do about it. Dog Daddy's policy doesn't provide any refund or retraining for free. This happened about eight months ago.

Speaker 1: 7:09

However, in July of this year, 2023, our new veterinarian asked that we try dog brain training, a method by Adrian Ferricelli, I think is or Ferricelli, sorry if I got that wrong a professional, certified professional dog trainer knowledge assessed. This person has the certification CPDT-KA, a certified dog trainer and that it would help develop our dog's hidden intelligence and eliminate bad behavior and create the obedient, well-behaved pet of our dreams. The Dog Brain Training Method offers over 21 games and training videos that deals with every dog's behavior. Here it goes Root cause and provides easy, practical ways for improving obedience and behavior. Did Adrian Ferricelli, did Adrian Ferricelli's dog brain training self-help method work for our pit bull training? The article is not written that well, sorry. Yes, it helped us to recondition our pit bull and also our German Shepherd, just by having them engage in simple practical games and activities. It involved a day-to-day personal training with our dogs and over a period of one week our Pit Bull was beginning to adjust its behavior. Today our Pit Bull is aggression-free and our two dogs are the most loyal, obedient and adorable dogs anyone could ever wish for. And we only spent $67 to acquire Adrian Ferricelli's dog brain training materials online. This training method is adequate enough to train any dog for an Oscar award.

Speaker 1: 9:09

What's the difference between dog daddy Augusta de la Vera's training method and Adrian Ferricelli's dog brain training method? In my opinion, this is part of the article. In my opinion, augusta de la Vera's method is much more like a quick fix. Though it didn't work for our pit bull, it may work for others. That of Adrian Ferricelli's dog brain training method, as can be accessed here and there's a link to the website, is more sustainable, approved by other professionals and long-term beneficial, and it's cost effective.

Speaker 1: 9:46

Some other dog training experts say Dog Daddy Augusta de Oliveira's training method can be regarded as daddy. Augusta de la Vera's training method can be regarded as overtly using force and inflicting pain on dogs and that his method is only a means of petrifying them into short-term obedience. Recently, a celebrity dog trainer, zach George Zach George is the most followed dog trainer on YouTube with his show Dog Training Revolution noted on Instagram that Augusta de la Vera primarily utilizes a severely outdated method known as yank and crank, which involves no effort to connect or understand the animal, while giving little consideration to their emotional well-being at any step during the training process. It merely focuses on controlling dogs through violent tugs to ultimately choking them into submission. Some group of expert dog trainers say that dog daddy's approach is just abuse. Per Ramirez, who is another popular dog expert, also says that the dog daddy Augusta de Oliveira's method only offers the illusion of quick and dramatic behavioral shifts in dogs and that in reality, the poor dogs are just terrified of being hurt again, something that's not only immoral but ineffective in the long term. Ramirez shares horror stories that he's heard from vet doctors over the years about the real effects of leash yanking and to temper I'm sorry, leash yanking to temper a dog's reactivity. Ramirez notes that some dogs have experienced serious injuries to the level of cracked bones in their neck. In per Ramirez own words. Successful dog training is about developing trust and creating a good relationship with your pet. Fear and triggering intimidation do not help in any way to build any of those. When a dog acts aggressive or reactive, it usually is out of fear. Thus, when a trainer utilizes aversive strategies to temper this response, it only confirms the dog's distress.

Speaker 1: 12:07

In conclusion, I would like to say that though dog daddy Augusta de la Vera's dog training method didn't work for me, it may be working for others. While some have positive praises for him, some others have negative feelings about his method. For more reference on recent Dog Daddy issues here. And then she's got a link to some magazine that has an article about protest against the dog daddy. I've done several shows. I've done several podcasts on the dog daddy. I've written several articles. You can read my article at dogbehavioristcom. Go to dogbehavioristcom, find in the menu articles, click on that and then scroll down to find my article on Augusta de la Vera.

Speaker 1: 13:01

This has motivated me now to try to reach out and get in touch with more people that have used Augusta de la Vera, have used the dog daddy because they had an aggressive dog and, just like you see in the videos, hey, they thought everything was great. After an hour and a half and $1,500, they had a dog that was completely under control. And I've said it before no, they did not. They had a dog that was punished into submission and that dog was suppressing its outward behavior. Was punished into submission and that dog was suppressing its outward behavior. And I've said it over and over that within two hours to two months that behavior will come back and will come back worse.

Speaker 1: 13:41

Listen, folks, you can't get rid of those type of behaviors by just suppressing the outward behavior. It's the underlying emotional state. I say it all the time. You've got to deal with the root cause and that's where this woman finally found training that was out there that was able to help her deal with her dog's root cause, the root problem in the aggression. If you don't put out the fire and all you're doing is covering it up, it'll start to smolder and it'll start to burn again. Listen, punishment's like putting a lid on the top of a pot of boiling water. I say it all the time. The aggression doesn't go away, it just looks like it does, just like on his videos all smoke and mirrors.

Speaker 1: 14:31

Listen, I haven't always been a positive only trainer. I've trained with force. I've used prong collars, I've used electronic collars. I've done the things that dog daddy has done, and that's why I know I know how they work, I know that they're temporary and I know it's smoke and mirrors. I know that they're temporary and I know it's smoke and mirrors. And he's laughing all the way to the bank at $1,500 a session, at one hour and 30 minutes.

Speaker 1: 15:02

Listen, folks, I can do exactly what Augusta de la Vera does, and you know many of us older old school trainers that have been around for a long time, and I've been training since the mid 70s Well, well, well, decades before he's ever been born. What he's doing is not new. What he is doing is, I mean, old school, old school Stuff that was developed before world war two. Many of us old trainers know exactly how to do that, and many of us old trainers have done that. It's not difficult. What he does is not difficult. It's easy to do, but it's all BS. And so I'm going to find more people that have used the dog daddy and I'm going to do my best to interview them and get the word out to people that this is smoke and mirrors and it doesn't work long term and here you have it. You have it from so-called the horse's mouth. I just read you the article by Angel Willis and I've sent a message to her and I'm hoping that I hear back from her, and I'm also going to be contacting the trainer of this program that she enrolled in, because my guess is this program that this woman got involved with and the trainer that she was dealing with is Adrian Ferricelli Ferricelli I'm sorry, I'm butchering this name the certified professional dog trainer that's actually certified. I'm going to reach out to her, see if I can find her and see if she's gotten messages from people that have used the dog daddy and it didn't work and they and they went to her. Listen, folks, she did everything online. Listen folks, she did everything online.

Speaker 1: 17:07

You think, as a behaviorist who specializes and I do specialize in the most aggressive dogs, dogs with fears, phobias, reactivity, aggression, aggression towards their owners, aggression towards other dogs, aggression towards strangers, children, you name it Dogs within the same home that are fighting one another I work with people all over the globe. I do online virtual behavior consultations. I coach and train people how to rehabilitate their dogs that are severely aggressive or have severe fears. And no, it doesn't require me to be there. It's about teaching you and helping you understand the root cause of your dog's problems. And when you begin to address the underlying root cause the emotional state that your dog has that drives that behavior, the behavior goes away and we're extremely successful with this.

Speaker 1: 18:07

The last thing that you need to do is cause fear, pain, intimidation with your dog. The last thing you need to do is hurt your dog. The last thing you need to do is hang your dog with the leash, choke the dog out, yank and crank on that leash like Augusta de la Vera, like the dog daddy does. I know a lot of you are probably sick and tired of me talking about the dog daddy, but there are millions of people out there that think that he is the greatest thing that has ever ever happened in the dog training world and there's nothing magical about what he's doing. Like I said, I've done it and I know plenty of trainers back in the day that did the exact same thing and we got the exact same results and they were temporary. And he knows that the only way it's going to maintain is you got to continue to punish the dogs and typically you know, listen as somebody that is trying to emulate what the dog daddy does. If you're not a professional, you're going to get hurt. If you keep doing that to your dog, it's not a matter of if it's a matter of when that dog's going to get frustrated climb that leash and bite you Happens all the time. So I am so grateful that I found this article written by Angel Willis. It's called Dog Daddy Augusta de Oliveira Positive Slash Abusive Training Techniques Dog Daddy Training Costs Abusive training techniques dog daddy training costs.

Speaker 1: 19:54

Responding to a question that was in an online forum and people were asking about the dog daddy and costs and all that, and this was her response to that and I thought, hey, let me share that. Let me share that with you guys. Well, I'm out of time. That's all I wanted to talk about. Hopefully you got something out of that. Pass this on. Do me a favor If you love these podcasts, give us a five-star review. Share this with other people. I'm out of here.