Manydogz - it is interesting to read about your 40 years of breeding and training dogs. Would be more interesting to hear about what things you do differently now or what methods you used to use and have since abandoned in light of more up to date thinking and research.

However you speak as if nothing changed at all during all that time where you are concerned regarding how you train or indeed breed.

Having lived the past 40 years owning dogs - I've seen enormous changes in attitude and application where training dogs is concerned.

If you bred all these dogs at your home and were not a 'registered' breeder you would, I believe, be what is known as a 'backyard breeder' here in the UK.

Now attitudes towards them have definitely changed over the past 40 years in my experience. Never bred any dogs but just talking about public awareness etc.

LOL Azz many years ago Mrs W was making a personal appearance at a local show & for weeks beforehand I trained my Beardie dog to cock his right hind leg on the command walkies. Came the day, Mrs W choose my dog to show her method of heelwork training, so plonking a choker on him & "forcing"him to sit next to her(he was actually already sat when she showed the sit !)she slapped her hand on her leg & bellowed"Walkies"he promptly stood up & peed up her skirt ! I now I shouldn't have , but even back then I wasn't using her compulsion force methods & couldn't stand the woman & it did make everyone except her laugh !

On a more serious note, does anyone remember the Yorkshire terrier she put a choker on & when she pulled hard on the lead the dog flew into the air & was never seen on the program again ? I did worry that she may have decapitated the poor thing

I have never used the traditional methods of dog training. My dogs respond to my tone of voice and their reward is huge pets and cuddles. I spend a lot of time with them. Usually several 15 minute sessions a day. Each one is different and you have to work around that. At this point a sit and stay is not so important. because of where I live its more important that they learn the commands in my previous post. The training methods I saw being used I felt where too harsh in one way or another. So I began following my own instincts and got good results. My method takes longer but its worth it. Dogs crave human attention so I use that as their reward. My Chihuahua's don't bite or snap at people. They are all friendly and loving dogs so I must be doing something right. I was registered as a home business, a common thing in the states. I think the main thing I do is work around their various personalities as dogs learn at different rates in different ways. Once you figure that out training is a breeze. One thing I have noticed is that a dog in
training will often learn a lot from following the other dogs. I don't train much any more unless I take in a rescue. In that case I have to first gain the dogs love and trust and get it past whatever abuse or neglect it may have endured. that can take a lot of time but I believe that every dog deserves saving and a chance at a good life.

The dog is taught a "touch" command (to touch the hand with the nose), usually done with clicker and high value rewards. Doing it this way, means the dog will follow the hand wherever it goes And yes, even if you teach with a treat on their nose to start with, you eventually reduce the treat, so the dog is doing the desired behaviour without the need for the treat. However, the hand touch method, i have found is much better
I only train with reward based methods, and have clickers coming out of my ears! I want my dogs to want to be around me because it is fun and rewarding for them, not because they are scared of nasty consequences if they don't do as i ask