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Oprah turned to dog trainer Tamar Geller for help. Born and raised in Israel, Tamar caught a glimpse of dog training while serving a mandatory tour in the Israeli army. During her downtime, Tamar says she watched the special forces train their dogs. "In order to break the spirit of a dog, they would let a dog stand on his back feet for hours on hours," she says. "When they finally let him down, he would collapse. And I was appalled. I did not believe that that's the way to build a relationship with a dog."
After her two years in the army, Tamar headed to the desert to think about her next step. It was there that she met a team of wolf researchers. "What was very striking to me when I was sitting there observing the wolves was to see how loving they are and how they teach their young," she says. "I was blown away. No aggression." Tamar then developed a plan to train dogs based on the wolf behavior she saw.
Today, Tamar uses The Loved Dog method—which emphasizes manners, not obedience. "The main difference between this method and other methods is that I look at dogs and I raise them as if they are a part of the family versus train them and I want them to be submissive and they have to obey," Tamar says. "I want them to be family members. I want them to be able to express who they are."
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