Yes, I understand what you're saying. Both arguments are still valid though. You can either try harder in the same manner and possibly get nowhere or find something different that does work. I'm glad things worked out well for the dog in the end and she is happy, that's the main thing.

Took me a good 6 months to tap in to what worked for Roxy (a rescue with a few hiccups). It wasn't easy but when I did it was amazing and very rewarding. 7 years later and she is (mostly!) well behaved and very happy.

Yes, you could argue that, , but "walking in my shoes" comes to mind with that argument, as its not always seen by those involved, hindsight is a wonderful thing, if we all had it , we would not get make mistakes

There are many things I tried with Millie some through desperation, and even when you know its sits badly, sometimes the need to fix sometime can outweigh judgement, when in the moment we sometimes don`t see the wood for the trees.

Hi Reading all the posts,my take on training is that at theend of the day all training cannot be all things to every dog as every dog is an individual,and his/her training should reflect this.

Gone are the days when you felt that a Dog Trainer knew it all and you allowed them to carry out training on your dog,because there were no points of reference,and very few trainers out there, I think in today market,you should attend dog training classes initially on your own,and see how a class goes,what the trainer will expect from your dog,if you feel your dog for whatever reason cant fulfill the expectations,then go to another training class until you know which one is suitable for your dog.crystalgirl

Although there is not a one size fits all approach, force free, positive reinforcement based training works for every animal, every time, the skill and the differences are figuring out what motivates that dog and what can be used as reinforcement for behaviours you want.

In learning theory, punishment is defined as anything which serves to reduce a behaviour. If it doesn't reduce a behaviour, then it's not punishment. Likewise, positive doesn;t mean good and negative doesn't mean bad, they mean + and - respectively. Using a prong collar, for example, is positive punishment if it serves to reduce behaviour as you are adding something (the prong collar correction) to the dog's environment.

All of the results Jan Fennell or Cesar Milan achieve, can be explained according to the rules of learning, rather than some mythical notion of pack theory.

I'm lucky in that I was able to learn massive amounts about dog training before I owned a dog at a very early age & I was allowed to handled trained dogs(GSDs)from age 6 onwards Those dogs & their owners gave me an excellent insight on how to train my dogs when they finally arrived.

JF was on our local radio station long before she was famous & her replies were always to use only"her"methods that she had discovered including the use of treats-funnily enough I learnt about treat training before JF was born !!!! way back in the very early 1960s when I was taught the "hands off"method of training dogs which I have used for a long long time

No "one size fits all"works with all dogs, my Rjj as a puppy had no interest in treats of any kind regardless of whether he had been fed before or not but replacing the treat with a toy worked brilliantly You cannot train all dogs exactly the same way & have to be open to looking for alternative ways

There is only one wrong way of training dogs & that is any method which includes force & pain/fear for the dog

I found the article mentioned to be mean and critically haughty

Was referring to the Kate Connick article as "mean" and "critically righteous"