TV & Film 22 Dogs Will Get Lucky on New CBS Television Show "Lucky Dog"

Amy SF

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22 dogs will get lucky on new CBS television show
Animal trainer will rescue, train and place 22 dogs in 22 weeks for new CBS show 'Lucky Dog'
By Sue Manning, Associated Press | Associated Press – 20 hours ago

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Brandon McMillan has trained as many as 10,000 dogs for television, movies, commercials, videos and people. Then he started saving dogs from animal shelters, training them and finding homes for them.

When Litton Entertainment needed a dog trainer who would rescue, train and place 22 dogs in 22 weeks for a show called "Lucky Dog" for CBS, they didn't have to look far.

He will start each week spending several hours at a shelter, evaluating dogs. That may be the hardest part, especially given that at least 9,000 dogs and cats are euthanized each day because homes can't be found for them.

"I can only take one out. That means I have to walk by 99 I can't take. All 100 are very trainable, very place-able and just as smart as the next dog. Often the one I choose just comes down to one I make a connection with," McMillan said.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/22-dogs-lucky-cbs-television-141933465.html

I found this article via Care2, and this is what I posted in the comments section on Care2:

While I have no problem with a TV show that features dogs being trained and placed in loving homes, the fact that none of the dogs that Brandon will train and place have abuse in their past concerns me. There are a lot of dogs languishing in shelters with abuse in their past, and given a chance, they can turn out to be wonderful, loving family pets. To bypass those for a TV show means that a lot of viewers will think those dogs can't be placed because of potential aggression, which certainly isn't true for all dogs but perpetuates the stereotype that all abused dogs are inherently violent. This means they may be bypassed by potential adopters once they see this show, and will end up being euthanized because people may not realize what good pets they could be, all because they have abuse in their past.

The section of the article I was referring to is this:

Abuse will not be part of their past. McMillan can tell which dogs have been abused in the first 30 seconds he spends with them. "And I can tell you how they were abused in the first few minutes," he said.

Those dogs are a passion for McMillan off-camera, but they will not appear on "Lucky Dog." ''The viewers that watch this show are not going to want to see a dog that's been in a fight. This is a family show," he explained.

So even though these dogs are his "passion", he's okay with viewers thinking that good family dogs will not have been in a fight, regardless of the circumstances of their abuse. No wonder people freaked out at the idea that Michael Vick's dogs could actually be retrained and rehomed instead of simply euthanized.
 
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What else would you expect Brandon to do? It wasn't his decision. He's probably bound by ridiculous decisions made by network tv execs. And I have doubt about a blanket statement "people freaked out"...(MV's former dogs being retrained/rehomed) I certainly didn't. Maybe a member of media posed a question? I could be wrong, seriously...I really could be, I kept up with the MV story but I'm sure I missed plenty...I don't remember any arguments that said they should all just be killed.
I don't like the idea either...excluding abused dogs. Ridiculous decision made by tv execs? Drives me crazy too, so I'm not disagreeing with you. Also, there are many levels of "abuse", it's a gray area. I'm single, most days I leave my dogs alone while I go to work for 9 hours. Is that abuse? I don't like doing it. Some people might say yes. I monitor their wellbeing very closely when I get home, and make sure they are happy and there are no signs of distress.