‘Me or the Dog’ helps people get over ruff spots

How could five cute, bug-eyed, snorting little dogs cause such chaos?

Their southwest Atlanta home was under siege. Furniture was moved, pictures were missing, belongings hidden, lights installed, strangers all about. The owners of the five pugs, Deena Minner and Scott Russell, had worn the same clothes for three straight days.

Enlarge this image

Elissa Eubanks/ELISSA EUBANKS / eeubanks@ajc.com

Victoria Stilwell plays with Deena Minner and Scott Russell’s dogs. Stilwell’s show, ‘It’s Me or the Dog,’ helps people deal with their dogs’ behavior.

• Photos: More from the filming of "It's Me or the Dog".

Pets stories

• 2 Georgia canines earn shot at Dogs of Valor Award 
• Vinings water dog rockets to fame 
• Cobb man left 35 cats home alone, police say 
• Agility class wins over dog, owner 
• Gwinnett clears the way for supervised tethering of dogs 

• Back to AJCPETS
• Find Atlanta volunteer opportunities for pet lovers.

“They said we could wash it at night, but when they don’t leave until 9 p.m., who feels like washing after that?” Minner said.

“They” were members of a film crew for the show “It’s Me or the Dog,” starring Victoria Stilwell, a British dog trainer. After filming her show for three years in Britain, Stilwell moved to Atlanta last year, and she’s now doing the program in the United States for the Animal Planet network.

Filming in the Atlanta area started in July. At the end of August, Stilwell and her crew were at a home near the Lakewood Amphitheatre trying to fix the problems of the Minner/Russell brood.

There was foster dog Joey’s food aggression and doggie diva Huggies’ aggression toward anyone who got between her and her favorite person, Minner. And there was the disgusting habit the dogs had developed — Joey, Milag, Lily and especially Huggie and Apple — known as coprophagia.

“They eat each other’s poo. It’s just gross,” Minner said, wrinkling her nose.

For Stilwell, who’s been training dogs since her college days, it’s just another day at work. Her style is all positive reinforcement, which means getting the dogs to do something because they want to do it, not because you’re making them do it.

Stilwell doesn’t believe dog problems happen in a vacuum. Unlike other trainers, who focus just on the dog’s problems, Stilwell also looks at the problems dogs can cause in relationships. Think “The Dog Whisperer” meets “Suppernanny.”

In this case, the human couple, who are speech pathologists, admitted they’ve had arguments over the dogs, from their bad behavior — Huggie, Minner’s dog, keeps attacking Milag, Russell’s dog — to the sheer number of them — Russell was happy at three, but Minner got a fourth dog, then took in a foster for No. 5.

For the humans, Stilwell proposed a road trip. Neither Russell nor Minner seemed too enthused.

“It’s probably some team-building exercise,” Minner groused while waiting for the van that would take them away. “I hope it’s not a stupid rock wall. I’m afraid of heights.”

Two hours later, the couple pulled into the parking lot of the Atlanta Rocks! rock-climbing facility. Not only did Minner climb a rock wall, she did it blindfolded and tied by one wrist to Russell. Next came Russell’s turn with the blindfold.

“I want you to have to depend on each other, to work together without yelling,” Stilwell explained.

Stilwell said she wanted to teach Minner to trust Russell more and let him do more to care for the dogs. And by reversing the roles, Russell was to learn that he could trust Minner and that if he did more, she wouldn’t take that as a signal that she could bring more dogs into the home.

Back at the house, it was the fifth day of the invasion.

The first day the film crew scoped out the house and dogs. The second day, Stilwell came in and met everyone. Then it was three days of filming, during which the couple and Stilwell had to wear the same clothes (she has doubles of every outfit) to make it seem like it was all taking place over one day.

A week later Stilwell would return to see how the training was going. The “It’s Me or the Dog” Animal Planet premiere is scheduled for 9 p.m. Oct. 11.

Russell and Minner both said the process was interesting, but frustrating.

“They were here for 12 hours yesterday, and I don’t think they filmed more than two or three hours,” Russell said.

Stilwell said she sympathized. “It’s a lot to be on this TV show, and I don’t think people realize how long it takes to film or how intrusive it is,” she said.

As for the dogs, Stilwell showed Minner how to ignore Huggie and how to teach the demanding pooch she had to behave to get the attention she craved. Minner said after only a few days, that was already working.

As for the other problem, Stilwell implemented an elaborate aversion system of flags and oral commands to stop what had become a stubborn habit.

“Poop eating is very difficult,” she said. “It’s very hard to break a dog of it, especially dogs like pugs. They just love to eat, and they’ll eat anything.”

But the problem, like many others, can’t be fixed in a week.

“All I can do is give [dog owners] the tools to correct the problems,” Stilwell said. “It’s up to them to use them.”