# Anybody Use the Tony McCallum Video/Method?



## David Ruby (Jul 21, 2009)

In case none of you know what I'm talking about:
http://mccallumk9.com/tape.html

Short version, there's an Australian cattle dog foundation/training video from Tony McCallum (who actually is or used to be a member here). On another forum, others have started using that style to train their personal protection dogs, or just dogs in general whatever the purpose. In essence it teaches you to train the dog off-lead from day one without ever using a leash, collar, treats, etc. Which all certainly sounds great, and hey it's been used by Tony for ~50 years so I am doubting it works for him.

I'm curious if any of you have seen the video or used that style of training for your dogs. Or even some variant, like using it to train off-lead from the get go. I know it's been making the rounds, and I know there's a wide range of working dog folk who do everything from sport, protection, herding, S&R, etc. and thought some of you might have seen it a/o formed an opinion about it.

-Cheers


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## Thomas Barriano (Mar 27, 2006)

David Ruby said:


> In case none of you know what I'm talking about:
> http://mccallumk9.com/tape.html
> 
> Short version, there's an Australian cattle dog foundation/training video from Tony McCallum (who actually is or used to be a member here). On another forum, others have started using that style to train their personal protection dogs, or just dogs in general whatever the purpose. In essence it teaches you to train the dog off-lead from day one without ever using a leash, collar, treats, etc. Which all certainly sounds great, and hey it's been used by Tony for ~50 years so I am doubting it works for him.
> ...


I've got a copy. Butch Cappel was hyping the hell out out of it a few years ago. It's got some good ideas for bonding with a dog, but it is more cattle dog focused then anything else
and its application for protection work is over rated IMO.
Some real old poor quality VHS tapes transferred to DVD.
The Aussie accent takes a bit of getting used to also.
Some good ideas but nowhere near my top ten.


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## David Ruby (Jul 21, 2009)

Hey Thomas.



Thomas Barriano said:


> I've got a copy. Butch Cappel was hyping the hell out out of it a few years ago. It's got some good ideas for bonding with a dog, but it is more cattle dog focused then anything else


I'm more interested in the bonding and the idea of starting off-lead from the very beginning. That seems like it might have potential for most any avenue. I could care less about the hype.



> and its application for protection work is over rated IMO.


Don't know. All I've seen of that has been allusion to video.



> Some real old poor quality VHS tapes transferred to DVD.
> The Aussie accent takes a bit of getting used to also.


Yeah, it's got a few audio lapses. I find the Aussie accent kind of cool, but I'm a dork who finds that stuff interesting. My trip to Scotland was fun, the accents were neat. It's not the best AV-quality out there. It won't give your big HDTV flatscreen the best workout, I'll give you that. I can overlook that if the info's good. Anybody else remember the TV's with knobs that you had to adjust the stations to get clear reception? I suspect I'm relatively forgiving about that stuff.



> Some good ideas but nowhere near my top ten.


As an aside, you should list your top ten. Anyway, I did find it pretty interesting though. I don't have a pup so it's not like I can go out and give it the old college try. It seemed like it should work as a foundation or style of training though. Admittedly, that is all speculation on my part.

-Cheers


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## maggie fraser (May 30, 2008)

I haven't seen the video as yet, but I've trained pretty much off leash from the get go with two gsds and two jrts. My current gsd has been mainly off leash but not quite as much as the others on account of moving home which hasn't the same degree of space. I trained in agility with the two gsds, they learned the sport very very quickly, I could/would also take three dogs to enjoy the town park on occasion and whilst it was stressful for me, usually passed without incident. I had excellent voice control, but I did spend a lot of time with those dogs as a group, and we were all very strongly bonded.


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

My present two dogs (GSDs) were 95% off lead other then some of the bite work. 
For everyday training at home it's all off lead.


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