Training or torture?

It seems the Heenglish are getting very worried because a man from America is going to visit their country to tell them about how to train us dogs.

As always, I like to find out all the information before I speak on my blog. Which is why I don't write very often. So I looked on le Google for some information on this man. He is called César Millan, and calls himself the Dog Whisperer.

I'm a dog, so I watched it from a dog's point of view. I saw dogs being dragged along by chains round their necks. I saw dogs running together in a big group, starting to fight, fighting until they were bleeding, then having to be pulled apart. I saw many things I did not like.

Before I came to live with ma maitresse, I was put into kennels of l'Association Protectrice des Animaux because my old owners said I was too lively. I'm a bordaire collee - we are lively dogs. But I try to learn and to be a good dog because I love my new home and I want to stay here. So I try to follow the rules.

Ma maitresse tries hard, too. She first took me to the local French dog training club and we tried that for a few weeks. Almost all the dogs there, even very young ones, wore chain collars, some with spikes in, but ma maitresse has bought me a special harness, called a Halti harness. It doesn't choke me at all, but it holds me firmly and that makes me feel safer.

Since I was in the rescue kennels, I am very afraid of other dogs, especially big ones, and of people I don't know, especially men. And when I'm afraid I bark and growl and try to look very fierce so they won't come near me. The trainers at the club all used to shout at me when I did that and that made me more afraid and much worse, so ma maitresse said we wouldn't go any more.

Now she tries to show me the right way to do things by something that's called positive reinforcement. I like that. When I get something right, she gives me a piece of sausage or cheese. And when I don't get it right, I don't get the treat. So I spend most of my time trying to get it right. It's taking a long time, but we both feel we are making progress. I feel happier, I'm starting to understand what I'm meant to do and not meant to do.

Ma maitresse talks to people on Twitter, like the nice lady @WildPaw, who gives help and advice, and she took me to see a very nice French man, who helped us both a lot and never shouted or used a chain or anything like that.

So I would like to say to all you people out there who think this M. Millan is such a good person. Which would you prefer? Someone who explained things carefully to you and gave you a reward when you got it right? Or someone who put a chain round your neck to slowly choke you when you got it wrong?

I'm only a dog - but I know which one I prefer.