In my search for trainers, I have contacted one that leaves me feeling uneasy as to thier practices.

For obedience, they stated that they "let the environment discipline" the dog. I asked them what that means and as an example, they told me about "long distance recalls"

They have the attendees line up across from each other to form a path. They have the handler remove themselves from the dogs sight at a 50+ yard distance. The handler then calls to the dog. The dog is supposed to ignore all distractions and run to the handler. If the dog is distracted, the attendees (the people on each side of the path) are to throw things at the dog, yell at the dog and basically use any means short of kicking the dog to get it back on track.

Now, as some may know, I am not a trainer, FAR from it, just trying to find one. This, however seems to be a way to teach your dog that if your handler is out of sight, bad things happen or make it associate people / strangers with harm. Would that not be the case?

In my search for a trainer, my gut says to steer clear of ones that use physical harm / tactics to "teach" a dog.

Correct / Wrong?

Thanks!
Cynthia

I personally like to stick with totally motivational training. Corrections, IMO should only be given when the dog KNOWS the command and chooses to ignore it.

I have to say RUN do not walk away from people like this...

There are better ways to train a dog than that.

Cynthia - without a doubt this is the dumbest idea I haveheard in a long time - just another example for DUMB and DUMBER (righjt Doyle?)

Cynthia - go ahead and name these people in this thread. Its fine with me. They deserve a little free advertiising.

Mr. Frayley,

I was tempted to post the name here, however, after researching more, this trainer is highly recognized in Michigan for her protection training, and come to find out, the person that runs the ob is not her.

I will say the ob is located in Lansing, and while I will not be attending the ob classes there, maybe eventually the protection may be an option.

I have not checked in lately, been spending lots of time with Cain, no great improvements yet, but I can see them.

When people knock on the door, the first thing I do is leash him and make him sit/stay. When he settles down, I have them move closer to me. If he stays calm and in a sit/stay, I tell him ok and he goes to investigate. If he remains calm and "off" then he allowed to remain on the "control line" (leash w/o me attached to it). If he gets hyper or jumps, I take the "control" back and down/stay him. He is getting better. No bites. No growling. Just still a little hyper.

Thanks, so far.
Cynthia