Inundated with advance ads here so by the premiere they had my (dubious)attention.
Everything indicated that it was "reality TV", not of favorite of mine when it's talent shows. I was also concerned because the lead who professes to "speak dog" & was once a stand-up comedian. Would we just get a occasional glimpses of dogs being silly, then him doing five minutes of shtick? Thank God, not even close!
In the 1st half hour, he set up 4 different issues that families or individuals were having with their dogs, by visiting each owner & pet in turn. He made the acquaintance of each dog & you could tell by that alone that he knows dogs and their "psychology". He tried to prepare the owners with what he saw as the difficulty in the relationship, which in every case was part human failing & part the dog doing half of what his instincts said & the other half what his owner seemed to want.
After talking with the owners/dogs in their homes or offices or at the park, he left and talked more directly to the audience about the roots of each problem in turn.
In the second half of the show, he returns to each owner/pet and tries to explain & implement the strategy that he's settled on. For the most part the dog "got it" when he was interacting with them. The problem was changing the attitude of the people or else getting them to do -precisely- the physical moves that he suggested. By show's end, all 4 situations had improved, though only one was really 100% settled.
Interspersed for a few seconds here & there are pix of NYC dogs being walked or carried thru the streets & in the parks. Some of the sights are ludicrous but there's no commentary--the sights speak for themselves.
I am intrigued by this show! The dog whisperer really knows what he's doing but he often has an uphill battle with any given owner. I would love a revisit in a few months to the owner of the model agency & to the couple where the dog from a former relationship has come between them. Did they listen? Did they follow through? Yeah, I'm hooked.
