History Series / ItsMeOrTheDog

* TreatedWorseThanThePet: Self-inflicted; the Chubb family gives their Great Dane/Lab mixes Toadie and Smartie gourmet meals while they themselves eat frozen dinners.

* TheMeanBrit:
** Victoria can come off as this, but she only invokes the mean part when anvils need to be dropped.
** In the original UK series, it was more like the [[UsefulNotes/BritishAccents Mean RP-speaking girl]].

* SeldomSeenSpecies: Victoria has worked with some more obscure dog breeds, such as a Gordon Setter and a Patterdale Terrier.

** This was taken UpToEleven in 6/23/2012 episode "He Has to Go." There was a group of four dogs and the husband had hearing loss because of the continuous barking. Victoria actually brought in a decibel meter and showed that the levels were well over 100 with one dog and over 110 with another. According to the [[http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/hearing/pages/noise.aspx National Institute on Deafness]], constant exposure to sounds even above ''85'' decibels is enough to cause hearing loss. 110 decibels is about equivalent to a power saw at close range.

* UnfortunateNames: One dog Victoria had to deal with was a Pit Bull named Digweed. Spoken out loud, it sounds a lot like ''Dickweed''.

** Victoria can come off as this, but she only invokes the mean part when [[SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped anvils need to be dropped]].

The series has its own [[https://www.youtube.com/user/ItsMeOrTheDogTV channel]] on Website/YouTube, where it uploads snippets from previously aired episodes and, starting in 2019, full episodes of the U.K. series (many of which previously suffered from NoExportForYou) every Saturday. Starting in September 2019, the channel also provides "Updated" versions of previously-uploaded episodes in which Victoria Stillwell talks about her experiences training the dog, what she could've done better, and answers some frequently asked questions.

** Likewise, failing to understand the type of breed they have. One couple wanted to train a ''Presa'' as an attack-dog, not realising that they can grow to a ''massive'' size, have a high prey-drive, and require a ''lot'' of obedience training. Add to that having young children running around, Victoria calls them out on how utterly foolish that would be.

* AllAnimalsAreDogs: In a twist on the original trope, Victoria once worked with a woman who had only ever owned cats before. When she got her first dog Niles, she treated him more like a cat, which significantly contributed to his aggression. Victoria had to firmly explain that Niles was a dog, and how he should therefore be approached/treated.

See ''Series/MyCatFromHell'' for the feline equivalent, and ''Series/{{Supernanny}} for the child equivalent.

See ''Series/MyCatFromHell'' for the feline equivalent.

* AscendedFanboy: As revealed in the [[https://youtu.be/EX9z5J9ijuk commentary video]] for "Humping Labradors: Jimi & Duke", Victoria Stillwell is one herself. When she was a new mom, she watched ''Series/{{Supernanny}}'' a lot, and wanted to make a version of that but with dogs instead of kids. She was later signed by Ricochet, ''Supernanny'''s production company to produce ''It's Me or the Dog''.

* BerserkButton: For Victoria, any sort of harsh training method, particularly choke collars or shock collars. There's also "de-barking," a practice in which the dog's vocal cords are actually cut to stop it from barking.

* AbusiveParents: Some, such as the owners of Roxy, an aggressive bulldog. Sometimes it's on purpose, and sometimes it's because the owners have been given bad advice. For example, Roxy's owners were told to put a shock collar on her ''[[CrossesTheLineTwice as a puppy]]'', and spray her in the face with citronella spray, as part of "training."
* AllAnimalsAreDogs: In a twist on the original trope, Victoria once worked with a woman who had only ever owned cats before. When she got her first dog Niles, she treated him more like a cat, which significantly contributed to his aggression. Victoria had to firmly explain that Niles was a dog, and how he should therefore be approached/treated.

* [[ArtisticLicenseAnimalCare You Fail Animal Care Forever]]: Victoria frequently ends up chewing out owners for feeding their dogs things they should not be eating or engaging in patently unsafe practices.
** Likewise, failing to understand the type of breed they have. One couple wanted to train a ''Presa'' as an attack-dog, not realising that they can grow to a ''massive'' size, have a high prey-drive, and require a ''lot'' of obedience training. Add to that having young children running around, Victoria calls them out on how utterly foolish that would be.

Creator/AnimalPlanet's show about owners of problem pets seeking the advice of expert trainer Victoria Stilwell. It's like ''Series/SuperNanny'' for dogs, which is no surprise seeing as it's produced by the same company.

* [[AbusiveParents Abusive Owners]]: Some, such as the owners of Roxy, an aggressive bulldog. Sometimes it's on purpose, and sometimes it's because the owners have been given bad advice. For example, Roxy's owners were told to put a shock collar on her ''[[CrossesTheLineTwice as a puppy]]'', and spray her in the face with citronella spray, as part of "training."
* [[AllAnimalsAreDogs All Animals Are Cats]]: In a twist on the original trope, Victoria once worked with a woman who had only ever owned cats before. When she got her first dog Niles, she treated him more like a cat, which significantly contributed to his aggression. Victoria had to firmly explain that Niles was a dog, and how he should therefore be approached/treated.

* BewareOfViciousDog: Victoria feels that a dog being overly aggressive towards harmless strangers is detrimental to its owners (nobody wants to come over, neighbors complain, and the mailman gets super stressed), and thus trains them to associate guests who are welcome at The House with good things happening (i.e. delicious treats).

The show's official webpage can be found [[http://animal.discovery.com/tv/its-me-or-dog/ here.]]

[[AnimalPlanet Animal Planet's]] show about owners of problem pets seeking the advice of expert trainer Victoria Stilwell. It's like ''Series/SuperNanny'' for dogs, which is no surprise seeing as it's produced by the same company.

* [[AbusiveParents Abusive Owners]]: Some, such as the owners of Roxy, an aggressive bulldog. Sometimes it's on purpose, and sometimes it's because the owners have been given bad advice. For example, Roxy's owners were told to put a shock collar on her [[CrossesTheLineTwice ''as a puppy'',]] and spray her in the face with citronella spray, as part of "training."

** She also trains Big Friendly Dogs to ''not'' jump up and slobber on people because that can scare the dog-phobic and/or cause injury.
* CuteButCacophonic: Some of the dogs she works with are ''extremely'' loud, to the point of driving their owners (and their families, and neighbors) bonkers. More often than not the dog makes so much noise due to insecurity and nerves.

** Many of the troublesome dogs have, however, caused wider social relationships of their owners to deteriorate because friends won't come to the house or are afraid for their children to visit (in one case, the owners' adult daughter found her family home intolerable thanks to the Great Dane that now lived there)
* EyeTake: Victoria tends to be pretty deadpan, but when some things go beyond even her ability to comprehend she will frequently give these to the audience.

** In the original UK series it was more like the [[UsefulNotes/BritishAccents Mean RP-speaking girl]].

** Taken to new levels in the 7/3/2012 episode "This Dog is Ready to Implode." Not surprising with a situation that was seemingly pushing all of Victoria's [[BerserkButton buttons]] at once - a dog that was being subjected to a shock collar (and scent collars and other such nonsense in the past), a brother of one of the owners that was coming in and teasing the dog, a family that didn't seem entirely serious with the training and to top things off, the family bringing in another reactive dog that they were babysitting without informing Victoria in advance. Things were so bad that Victoria almost seemed ready for a RageQuit.

* [[ArtisticLicenseAnimalCare You Fail Animal Care Forever]]:[[invoked]] Victoria frequently ends up chewing out owners for feeding their dogs things they should not be eating or engaging in patently unsafe practices.
** Likewise failing to understand the type of breed they have. One couple wanted to train a ''Presa'' as an attack-dog, not realising that they can grow to a ''massive'' size, have a high prey-drive and require a ''lot'' of obedience training. Add to that having young children running around, Victoria calls them out on how utterly foolish that would be.

* TheMeanBrit: Victoria can come off as this, but she only invokes the mean part when [[SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped anvils need to be dropped]].
** In the original UK series it was more like the [[BritishAccents Mean RP-speaking girl]].

* [[AbusiveParents Abusive Owners]]: Some, such as the owners of Roxy, an aggressive bulldog. Sometimes it's on purpose, and sometimes it's because the owners have been given bad advice. For example, Roxy's owners were told to put a shock collar on her [[CrossesTheLineTwice ''as a puppy,'']] and spray her in the face with citronella spray, as part of "training."