Chapter 6 - Interviewed for Victoria Stilwell

We'd had a great day, my husband and I, out gallivanting in Marietta, Georgia. We'd been shopping and had a truck full of booty. Buying all that cool stuff had made us hungry so we stopped for a bite to eat. It was a small, simple, buffet style restaurant.

In the next booth was a man and woman talking about dogs. I heard the man talking about some folks they knew with a dog so awful they were planning to get rid of it, and the man was upset about their choice. Bear heard the woman talking about a dog who they couldn't get to be bad and she was frustrated that the dog wouldn't be bad. We don't know if it was the same dog as we only caught bits and pieces, but being smitten with our own saga with Dakota we couldn't help but eavesdrop.

Bad Dog to Best Friend:
The Transformation of Dakota
Paperback Book (26 Chapters)

We had finished our meal and Bear went off to the restroom. I'd been debating through most of the meal whether to butt in and offer up the link to my Dakota dog training articles. I jotted the url down on a slip of paper and handed it to the man, not expecting to talk to them, just giving him a brief explanation of the url as something that might help with this dog they were talking about.

By the time Bear came out of the restroom I was deep in conversation with this man and woman. They were connected to Victoria Stilwell's dog training show, "It's Me Or The Dog"! I was awed. What are the odds? Sitting in this little Chinese turned Country Cooking buffet, who could imagine meeting part of Victoria's team?

And what had I done? Offer them dog training tips. Talk about embarrassing! One of the most famous dog trainers, with her own dog training show on Animal Planet, and here I am giving advice? I was mortified. But I kept on talking...

Bad Dog to Best Friend:
The Transformation of Dakota
Paperback Book (26 Chapters)

Much to my surprise they were very interested in hearing about Dakota. I didn't realize at first that they were still actively looking for bad dogs for the show. If you exhibit the tiniest interest in hearing about Dakota I'll talk for hours without much prodding so I didn't really wonder about their many questions.

I regaled them with how awful she was when we adopted her, that previous owners had gotten rid of her for her awfulness, and that she'd peed on just about every square inch of our house. I started to tell them her rolling in the poop story but stopped myself, realizing these poor people were eating. They didn't seem to care, they wanted more and they wanted the dirty details.

Did she sleep in bed with us? Did we have any photos with us? Was she out in the truck right now? What breed was she? Did she have the beautiful blue eyes of the Husky? Did we ever argue about her? Did we know of anybody else with a bad dog?

Apparently the show had come to the United States and they were shooting a season here. They needed five or six more problem dogs to feature.

Bad Dog to Best Friend:
The Transformation of Dakota
Paperback Book (26 Chapters)

We know the show intimately. We've watched every episode our TIVO could find so we know what sort of dogs get featured on the show. I told them that one year ago Dakota would have been the perfect candidate but today, she's come so far in her training that she just isn't bad enough to meet Victoria. At that very moment Dakota was home alone, loose in the bedroom, and we didn't anticipate any problems. They were very disappointed. We had totally caught their interest with the stories of her first months with us.

I told them that I gave Victoria Stilwell a lot of credit for Dakota's progress because many of the techniques I used with Dakota were learned from "It's Me Or The Dog". Bear wanted to know what car she'd be driving. They weren't sure so they picked up their cell phone, made a phone call to find out, and said it would be a Corvette. I mentioned the MUX license plate. I've always remembered that tag number as MUX because it sort of makes you think of MUTT.

They asked if we'd ever seen Dog Whisperer and I said no, we didn't get that channel. But we had watched Good Dog U and that for us, Victoria blows it right out of the water. In a previous chapter of Dakota's story I mention all three shows but never mention our personal preference because everybody has their own way of doing things and somebody else might prefer the methods of the other dog trainers. Just like quitting smoking, the method that works for me might not work for you.

Bad Dog to Best Friend:
The Transformation of Dakota
Paperback Book (26 Chapters)

We would have loved to meet Victoria. She is one of our idols. Not only is she genuinely a talented dog trainer but she's also very entertaining and fun to watch. Unfortunately the show is taped in people's homes, not in a studio, so you can't be part of a studio audience.

We're both deflated to miss out on Victoria. But at the same time it makes me very proud to boast that Dakota has progressed so much that she simply isn't bad enough to meet Victoria Stilwell and be featured on "It's Me Or The Dog".

Dakota has made incredible progress on her journey and we are very proud of her.

Chapter 1 - Training Our Problem Dog
Chapter 2 - Potty Training An Adult Dog
Chapter 3 - Dealing With Dog Chewing Problems
Chapter 4 - Training Your Dog To Be Home Alone
Chapter 5 - Proof That Any Dog Can Be Trained
Chapter 6 - Interviewed for Victoria Stilwell
Chapter 7 - Motivating Your Dog To Honor And Obey You
Follow Dakota on Twitter
Bad Dog to Best Friend: Paperback Book (26 Chapters)

Article copyright 2007 gypsyware.com

After meeting the two folks who work with Victoria I looked her up on the internet. I was mostly interested in finding any reference to their seeking bad dogs for the show. What I found was much more interesting...

Victoria Stilwell's website

Her list of credentials is mind boggling. The number of organizations she has worked with on behalf of dogs is pretty incredible as well. She has written books, gives corporate seminars, and even worked with our very own Paws Atlanta rescue shelter! Who knew she was right around the corner from us helping dogs like Dakota?

Happy Doggies T-shirts

T-shirts and gifts for dog lovers. Dakota isn't on a shirt yet but give me time... :-)

Village T-shirts

Sports humor t-shirts, bears and dogs, Mom and Dad, patriotic red, white and blue, hearts and flowers, lucky shamrocks, penguins, sisterhood, classic cars and muscle cars, we've got 'em! You wear 'em!

Mac and Windows Shareware Games

Macintel, Macintosh OSX, Windows and Vista. Download a shareware game. (Gypsy Rose and Dakota will adore you for it!)