Documentary Unit: It's Me or the Dog Research

It's Me or the Dog is a popular tv show in the UK and America about badly behaved dogs.

"Dog behaviour expert Victoria Stilwell calls upon all her canine training skills to bring the country's most mischievous mutts and headstrong hounds to heel" - from Channel Website

Format:

Most episodes begin with a brief interview with the dog owners on when they first met their dog(s) and how their ordeals began. Victoria observes the dog and owners in their home and in a range of situations. Once there's sufficient evidence of the bad behavior, she then spends two or more days teaching the owners how to create a better atmosphere for both dog and owner, and how to train specific behaviors. On occasion owners are taken to shelters or training centers to provide them with additional information. Victoria then leaves them to implement her training regimen on their own. After some time (usually several weeks), Victoria returns to evaluate how the dog and owner are progressing, and, when necessary, dispenses more training advice. This format mirrors the format of Super Nanny.

US Season 3, filmed in New York, took a looser documentary format. Stilwell sometimes implements a technique as soon as she sees a behavior rather than waiting until after the Confrontation.

Here is an episode from the show that also includes go pro type shots and has a similar opening to what we are thinking of for our documentary with the sound effect.



This research has been interesting to see how dog shows work at the moment and has given us some good ideas for shots.

Stay safe,

Helen