women vs. men dog training

I don't know if this is true, but I seem to notice that many or most of the dog experts are women. To name a few: Karen Pryor, Patricia McConnell, Jan Fennell, Sophia Yin, Tamar Geller. I just name those because I have or read their books.

And there's also the experts at dogbehaviorscience: Kayce Cover, Sandy Case (Sandy in OK), Terry Pride. Though they seem to be bickering against each other now since Kayce is not strictly a clicker proponent.

Anyway, they all seem to be against the [harsher] techniques used by Cesar. (Well, I don't know about Jan Fennell since she's not really new school and kind of came up with her own system). And if that's true, they'd definitely be against Brad Pattison.

[And just look at all the commenters at beyondcesarmillan and see how many are women]

Of course there are exceptions. Ian Dunbar and Nicolas Dodman are against Cesar too.

[But then again, most of the experts/commenters at dogwhispererfans are women: e.g. Lori Reynolds, Meg Francoeur, Mary Nellum not to mention the founder CJ Anderson. Hey, they're all women. NTTAWWT]

So I wonder if it's kind of a man vs. woman thing. That man is just naturally more aggressive thinking than women? Both Cesar and Brad know martial arts. Cesar was a judo champion in his youth and I believe Brad is a karate guy (not sure where I read or saw this).

And even Cesar himself is quoted, "Women are the worst offenders in his world. In one of the outtakes included in the four-DVD set of the first season of “Dog Whisperer,” Mr. Millan explains that a woman is “the only species that is wired different from the rest.” And a “woman always applies affection before discipline,” he says. “Man applies discipline then affection, so we’re more psychological than emotional. All animals follow dominant leaders; they don’t follow lovable leaders.”

Here's the first thing I found on the internet written by the spiritdog:

The differences between men and women dog trainers are vast. By in large, men dog trainers tend to be a little to rough in their training methods. And women dog trainers tend to rely a little to much on, clicker and / or treat training.

Which kind of corroborates what I was thinking (which doesn't make it right, but it seems like it).

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I remember the dog training class I took Kimo to when he was young. The guy would have you put a choke chain on and "pop" the leash so the dog would sit down. When it didn't work, they would say you didn't pop it hard it enough (or probably more accurately crisp enough). That made many in the class squeamish, doing that to their poor innocent dog. [It seems like the dark ages now.]

However it did seem to work after getting the hang of it. Kimo would automatically sit when we stopped walking. That did wear off though when my house-sitting stint was over. Another scene that stands out in my mind was one of the trainers dragging/fighting/yanking a big aggressive dog around separate from the class. I don't seem to remember him getting any great results.

Anyway, that's the kind of old school training that still goes on here. I remember Doreen telling me (a few years back) that that's the kind of class Hershey went to also. And of course these trainers were all men.

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I found these articles interesting for some perspective. The second one is by clicker proponent Gail Fisher.

A Short History of Dog Training

History of Dog Training