Are you actually joking me. This infuriates me! I have two rescues who have been scarred for life by unknowledgable people. One has seperation anxiety which you are promoting with your theory. The other is a nervous fearful dog. Everything was terrifying for her, I now after 7 months have got her to what i would say is a confident inquisitive happy little dog purely through positive reinforcement. She has learnt to trust people. The thought of after everything she had been through to punish her for not being near me when she didnt want to be is just horrendous. How could she learn to trust. She has chose to build a relationship with humans.

nervous dogs tend to bond with their human companions strongly.....improving a dogs confidence in you is about trust and understanding .... and believe me that'true' bond is hard to break when achieved....i truly hope you never have children adam .

I think this is a truly irresponsible post and I hope to God that it doesn't inspire anyone to run off and try this on their fearful, nervous dog.

In fact I don't think any genuine, repected trainer would go on an internet forum and come out with such a statement.

News flash! Dogs find the process rewarding too and the added bonus (rather than frustration) is the treat/toy/praise they receive as they go.

I don't actually think that even you believe what you write about reward training being frustrating - otherwise why would you incorporate reward within your own training regime? It's just another 'blind alley' in an attempt to justify the methods that you use by trying to cast doubt on those used by others

Adam,

Could you actually train a dog using positive reinforcement?

I cannot believe some of the rubbish you spout Adam!

How on earth can it be good to zap a nervous dog with an electric shock? Why on earth do you find it so difficult to accept that by treating a dog with kindness, providing for its needs & teaching it appropriate behaviour in a kind way, cannot achieve trust & confidence? Surely, if you care for dogs with any compassion, you cannot seriously think that giving them electric shocks is a nice thing tondo to them?

Ugh. Sounds like mental abuse to me

And one of the reasons why I detest electric shock collars. I'm glad Wales is showing the rest of the world that we're no longer living in the dark ages - and banned them!

I know - this is what worries me....I have worked flipping hard with Zeff to build up a bond of trust between us, to the point he will use me as a security blanket if he needs to.

He was so fearful of the outside world, that I cannot imagine adding to that fear by associating it with pain if he happens to move away from me....poor sod - would just re-affirm what he was already feeling

i would never of got kaos back ..the one person in the world he trusts..... i couldnt do it i find it abhorrent

Can you not see the contradiction in this, Adam? The only reason the dog is more comfortable by your side is the fear that being away from you is going to bring pain so you're actually adding another fear/anxiety into the nervous/fearful dog rather than working to help the dog overcome his present fears/anxieties and become more confident

It seems to me that a lot of your views on training are based around what, at surface level, placates the owners rather than actually working on the root cause and helping the dog