Barbara Kathleen Vera Woodhouse (née Blackburn; May 9, 1910 – 9 July 9, 1988)
was an Irish-born British
dog trainer
Dog training is the application of behavior analysis which uses the environmental events of antecedents (trigger for a behavior) and consequences to modify the dog behavior, either for it to assist in specific activities or undertake particular ...
, author,
horse trainer
A horse trainer is a person who tends to horses and teaches them different disciplines. Some of the responsibilities trainers have are caring for the animals' physical needs, as well as teaching them submissive behaviors and/or coaching them for e ...
and
television personality
Celebrity is a condition of fame and broad public recognition of a person or group as a result of the attention given to them by mass media. An individual may attain a celebrity status from having great wealth, their participation in sports ...
. Her 1980 television series ''
Training Dogs the Woodhouse Way'' made her a household name. Among her catch phrases were "
walkies" and "sit!" She was also known for her "no bad dogs" philosophy.
[Crazy for Critters](_blank)
"In 1996, I interviewed Brian Kilcommons, dog trainer to the stars and the American protégé of the late British trainer Barbara Woodhouse, known for her "no bad dogs" philosophy and "Walkies!" rallying cry." The Woodhouse references to "no bad dogs" meant they had nothing wrong with them but incompetent owners.
Life
Woodhouse was born on 9 May 1910 at
St Columba's College in
Rathfarnham
Rathfarnham () is a Southside suburb of Dublin, Ireland. It is south of Terenure, east of Templeogue, and is in the postal districts of Dublin 14 and 16. It is within the administrative areas of both Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Counci ...
,
County Dublin
"Action to match our speech"
, image_map = Island_of_Ireland_location_map_Dublin.svg
, map_alt = map showing County Dublin as a small area of darker green on the east coast within the lighter green background of ...
, Ireland. She grew up there until her father, the warden (headmaster) of the school, died suddenly in 1919. As described in her autobiography, the family moved to
Brighton, England, a few weeks later, and afterwards to
Headington
Headington is an eastern suburb of Oxford, England. It is at the top of Headington Hill overlooking the city in the Thames valley below, and bordering Marston to the north-west, Cowley to the south, and Barton and Risinghurst to the east. Th ...
in
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, where Woodhouse attended
Headington School
Headington School is an independent girls' school in Headington, Oxford, England, founded by a group of evangelical Christians in 1915. The ''Good Schools Guide'' called Headington "A delightful school, hichnurtures and entertains its pupils wh ...
. She later became the only female student at the
Harper Adams Agricultural College in
Shropshire
Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...
.
After returning to Oxford to start Headington
Riding School An equestrian facility is created and maintained for the purpose of accommodating, training or competing equids, especially horses. Based on their use, they may be known as a barn, stables, or riding hall and may include commercial operations descr ...
and Boarding
Kennel
A kennel is a structure or shelter for dogs. Used in the plural, ''the kennels'', the term means any building, collection of buildings or a property in which dogs are housed, maintained, and (though not in all cases) bred. A kennel can be made ...
s, she married her first husband, Allan George Mill, in August 1934 and moved with him to spend more than three years in
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
training horses. The marriage ended in divorce and she returned to Headington.
In the 1930s, Barbara became a
dog breeder
Dog breeding is the practice of mating selected dogs with the intention of maintaining or producing specific qualities and characteristics. When dogs reproduce without such human intervention, their offspring's characteristics are determined by ...
and ran
kennel
A kennel is a structure or shelter for dogs. Used in the plural, ''the kennels'', the term means any building, collection of buildings or a property in which dogs are housed, maintained, and (though not in all cases) bred. A kennel can be made ...
s until about 1960. Meanwhile she married a second husband, Michael Woodhouse, in 1940 and moved to
Wiltshire
Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...
and had three children, Pamela, Patrick and Judith. She first appeared on television as a contestant on ''
What's My Line
''What's My Line?'' is a panel game show that originally ran in the United States on the CBS Television Network from 1950 to 1967, originally in black and white and later in color, with subsequent U.S. revivals. The game uses celebrity panelis ...
'', where panellists failed to guess her occupation. She also appeared on
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
''
60 Minutes''. Her 1980 BBC series made her a television personality at the age of 70. She continued to appear on television regularly until she died on 9 July 1988 at the age of 78.
Woodhouse's autobiographical books include ''Talking to Animals'' and ''No Bad Dogs''. She firmly believed there were "no bad dogs", just bad owners and defined it to mean dogs without any genetic problems:
Woodhouse died in July 1988 after suffering from a stroke.
Television series
*''
Training Dogs the Woodhouse Way''
*''Barbara Woodhouse's World of Horses and Ponies''
*''Barbara's Problem Dogs''
Publications
*''Almost Human'' (1976)
*''Barbara's World of Horses and Ponies: Their Care and Training the Woodhouse Way'' (1984)
*''Barbara Woodhouse on How to Train Your Puppy''
*''Barbara Woodhouse on How Your Dog Thinks''
*''Barbara Woodhouse on Training Your Dog''
*''Book of Ponies'' (1981)
*''Difficult Dogs'' (1957)
*''Dog Training My Way'' (1954)
*''Encyclopedia of Dogs and Puppies'' (1978)
*''Just Barbara: My Story'' (1986)
*''No Bad Dogs: The Woodhouse Way'' (1982)
*''No bad dogs and know your dog'' (1978)
*''Talking to Animals'' (autobiography, 1954)
[Stephen Follows, "Woodhouse , Barbara Kathleen Vera (1910–1988)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (Oxford, UK: OUP, 2004]
Retrieved 9 May 2017.
/ref>
*''The A-To-Z of Dogs and Puppies'' (1972)
*''Walkies: Dog Training and Care the Woodhouse Way'' (1983)
*''The Complete Woodhouse Guide to Dog Training'' (1990)
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Woodhouse, Barbara
1910 births
1988 deaths
People educated at Headington School
People from Rathfarnham
British television presenters
Dog trainers
British horse trainers
Alumni of Harper Adams University
20th-century British zoologists