Shocked by dog training school

We stopped off to observe a local, popular dog training school today and have come away shocked. We saw one of the trainers forcefully yank on a young labrador's lead as though she were trying to start a petrol mower. Then I saw her and the owner each attach a separate lead to the dog and pull what looked to me in opposite directions at the same time. I've never seen this 'method' before and can't understand what it was supposed to achieve.

They then all went off to do agility training and there was loads of yanking of leads. I really believe in positive reinforcement, not this.

poor dogs

The breeder we got Jake from took one of her dogs to a school. The poor thing was so traumatised she had to be pretty much re-socialised! We're training Jake by making it up as we go along. So far so good.

These are the techniques, you never see on television.

I help at a training class, we train through kindness and reward.,there is no punishment of any kind.

no theses are what most trainers do at their classes old fashioned ways that they think will dominate the dog that is why a behaviourist is a much kinder teacher trainers and behaviourists i am afraid have a different outlook on teaching ,dogs schools idealily should be run by a behaviourist well thats my opinion i have seen trainers stand on a dogs ears to make it lie down mad or what

Maybe this is true where you are from, but the classes i have attended and observed near me are all based on positive reinforcement and all led by dedicated, experienced volunteer trainers.

Its so important to observe classes first; then you can see if the trainers are using humane, up-to-date methods before you take your dog

As part of a paper I was writing I recently visited and attended four training classes they ranged from clicker to police trainers.

2 of the classes were excellent and were based on positive reinforcement and that of course included the clicker class. The other two were either poorly run and the trainers were what I would call helpers rather than trainers, and should never have been allowed to run these classes. then there was one that thought it right to put check chains on puppies and yank them about.

One puppy actually screamed in pain and terror. I went up to trainer and had a private word then left before I put a chain on hime and dragged him round the hall.

What amazed me they knew why I was there and what I was doing and still acted like this, what were they like when I wasn't there doesn't bear thinking about.

Stan

the school i go to is all positive reinforcement and we treat as we train and its all good fun for the dogs but i did go to view one where the bloke who was running it was grabbing dogs and shouting actually bellowing in the ears of dogs who were not doing what was required of them. he had a go at a lot of the dogs of people who had gone to view and i was so glad i had left max at home

We went to look at this one because we have been considering further training they offer agility and are closer to our home. I think the trainers there were 'helpers' (sadistic ones at that) rather than real trainers - the main guy himself was nowhere to be seen. If this girl had yanked my dog's neck like that I would have throttled her.

We are going back to our first trainer, who is an obvious dog lover, only uses positive reinforcement and was very vocal about gentle treatment.