After watching the first couple of shows I am so positive about it as it conveys some great messages on adoption and getting professional help when adopting. I hope production companies in other countries get inspired by the concept.
Dog trainer Jan Vestergaard in new Danish TV-show |
Each show is about a family. The children's greatest wish is to have their very own dog, while the parents do not think their children can take on the responsibility to care for a dog. They say No.
Together with Jan Vestergaard - the newbie TV host and a dog trainer/behaviorist in normal life - the children meet with three dogs. Each dog has been preselected from the local shelter by Jan Vestergaard. He helps them to choose one of the dogs, and the kids are allowed to take the dog home with them for a couple of days.
Jan Vestergaard visits the family and teaches the kids how to walk with a leash and other basic routines using positive reinforcement. You can almost hear the kids think "that's easy we are home-free!" Of course, during the days the dog stays at the family, issues turn up. Jumping on guests, barking at the door bell, not being house-broken, etc.
Unfortunately for the kids the parents discover this also and point it out to be not acceptable. "Bummer! not so easy after all!". Jan Vestergaard shows the family what they can do and works with the kids to chance the behavior, of course with success. He succeeds very well in explaining it as not being something bad about the dog, and turns disappointment into success. Positive reinforcement for the whole family.
The show closes with the "moment supreme", asking the parents for permission to keep the dog. You know how that turns out, as we are still watching television.
Popularity driving change
I would say nice things about any TV-show that is not about the usual pack leader blabla. But I especially like this show because it promotes not only adoption, but also getting professional help when adopting. When the show increased in popularity, you could see dog trainers in Denmark doing more to promote their services to help families adopt a dog. And clearly the show has contributed to people's interest in this service.
Why is that a good idea? Kevin Myers wrote a very good post on his DogLoversDigest blog: Keeping It Real When Adopting a Dog – Step Two: Find a Trainer. I say no more.
Excuse my Danish
The name of the show itself is "Så er der hund", which is impossible to translate to English. What it tries to convey would be something like "And now we have a dog / are a dog family / gone to the dogs". All at once.
Unfortunately I have not much else to show for because all is in Danish, but for the not-so-faint-hearted here is a link to episode 10 from the show: Clara from Østerbro, Copenhagen