What Training Method is best for YOUR dog?

[road kill]

The dog of Bora
Has a coat the color of
Boiled xylem sap
Of the Acer Saccharum
With a butter pat

I can do the math and I can count syllables (I think)... there's just no art to my poetry. Do they have to rhyme?

Perhaps it was phloem????

[BlaineT]

sounds like a convoluted mess. seems everyone new has a dog that's the "exception" to age old practices that have been proven to work. Yeah maybe there are some slight tweaks you have to make from time to time, but generally speaking they just work.
know a guy that did the same thing with his boykin. never trained a retriever, but didn't like anyone's full program so came up with own puppy program and ideas and mismatched stuff.

[Jerry Beil]

Ugh. I think it's 5-7-5 anyway...

for a Haiku that is.

Once upon a time
The sap rose up the Maple
Xylem not phloem

[road kill]

Ugh. I think it's 5-7-5 anyway...

for a Haiku that is.

Once upon a time
The sap rose up the Maple
Xylem not phloem

Though the phloem distributes the sugar..............

[Jerry Beil]

Xylem, phloem, phloem, xylem...

I'm designing my own process for making maple syrup. I've never made it before, but my pancakes are special and I don't think the way Ken does it will work for them.

Sorry, I kid - I couldn't resist though, no disrespect intended.

[road kill]

Xylem, phloem, phloem, xylem...

I'm designing my own process for making maple syrup. I've never made it before, but my pancakes are special and I don't think the way Ken does it will work for them.

Sorry, I kid - I couldn't resist though, no disrespect intended.

I am just teasing as well.
The confusion fits the thread well, does it not??

[DarrinGreene]

I've had the pleasure over the last few years to work with a large number of trainers in both retrievers and other sports. There's one thing in common with the best and most accomplished in those groups... They have their basic program (which may or may not look like the published material), but they are first and foremost problem solvers. These are people that just know dogs. They run into a problem and come up with a solution. They don't go look at the DVD for an answer, or come to an internet forum. They have enough understanding of dogs in general to dream up their own solution an create successful training.

You'll never hear me chastise anyone for experimenting. I do it every day with the dogs I train. Seeing a variety of breeds and backgrounds from puppies to 7 year old rescue dogs will open your eyes, make you think and when you add the owners to it, drive you to come up with some very creative solutions to every day problems.

I never thought I would ever clip a leash to the front of a harness to get a dog to walk right, but when the owner refuses to use a collar of any sort, you have to come up with a solution. I didn't dream that solution up, there's an actual harness designed that way, but the 65 year old lady with the willful 40 lb dog needed help, so I showed her where to clip the leash and how to use her hip to create leverage and turn the dog. One lesson, problem solved. Sure as heck not what I would have done if given unlimited choices, but I didn't have unlimited choices. I used to think those harnesses were bandaids on brain surgery, and I still do, but it helped my customer and that's my job.

There's really no single program that's going to fit every dog and every owner that choose to try it. Most of us know that, so... why ridicule a guy whose doing his own thing? Only he and his dog will be effected by the results.

[huntinman]

I've had the pleasure over the last few years to work with a large number of trainers in both retrievers and other sports. There's one thing in common with the best and most accomplished in those groups... They have their basic program (which may or may not look like the published material), but they are first and foremost problem solvers. These are people that just know dogs. They run into a problem and come up with a solution. They don't go look at the DVD for an answer, or come to an internet forum. They have enough understanding of dogs in general to dream up their own solution an create successful training.

You'll never hear me chastise anyone for experimenting. I do it every day with the dogs I train. Seeing a variety of breeds and backgrounds from puppies to 7 year old rescue dogs will open your eyes, make you think and when you add the owners to it, drive you to come up with some very creative solutions to every day problems.

I never thought I would ever clip a leash to the front of a harness to get a dog to walk right, but when the owner refuses to use a collar of any sort, you have to come up with a solution. I didn't dream that solution up, there's an actual harness designed that way, but the 65 year old lady with the willful 40 lb dog needed help, so I showed her where to clip the leash and how to use her hip to create leverage and turn the dog. One lesson, problem solved. Sure as heck not what I would have done if given unlimited choices, but I didn't have unlimited choices. I used to think those harnesses were bandaids on brain surgery, and I still do, but it helped my customer and that's my job.

There's really no single program that's going to fit every dog and every owner that choose to try it. Most of us know that, so... why ridicule a guy whose doing his own thing? Only he and his dog will be effected by the results.

Bingo... Good post.

[Jerry Beil]

Experience DarrinGreene is the key. The 65 year old lady wasn't able to figure out her own solution to controlling her dog. She felt that the standard program (using a collar) wasn't suitable for her dog. She apparently wasn't able to solve this problem on her own by coming up with a successful alternative, so she turned to you.

With your experience, you were able to creatively come up with a successful training solution.

It is unclear if the OP has that kind of experience - one of the first replies asked about that.

[DarrinGreene]

Experience DarrinGreene is the key. The 65 year old lady wasn't able to figure out her own solution to controlling her dog. She felt that the standard program (using a collar) wasn't suitable for her dog. She apparently wasn't able to solve this problem on her own by coming up with a successful alternative, so she turned to you.

With your experience, you were able to creatively come up with a successful training solution.

It is unclear if the OP has that kind of experience - one of the first replies asked about that.

Agreed. We get experience through our successes and also our failures, just like our dogs. I got into all this stuff, including a new career because I screwed up a retriever and turned to a field trial training group for help. Poor dog gets an extra hug every day because of what I did to her years ago. Can't believe she doesn't crap in my lap every day.

Let the man experiment. He'll screw up in some areas and succeed in others and he'll learn what works and doesn't. I've had the good fortune to handle and train a ton of dogs the last couple of years. It's an experience most amateur trainers will never have, and one that I wouldn't have had, if it were not for taking a massive pay cut and moving 500 miles from home to chase a dream.