If the real "experts" such as those that Vince mentioned were the ones who gave out the ratings, then we could all put more stock in to what they mean. As it stands now, all it takes is someone to disagree with you or perhaps misunderstand something as being "personal" and boom, down goes the rating. Overall though, I think that other than Ed and Vince dropping a star(ridiculous), the ratings seem pretty realistic.

All great comments. Another point worth mentioning is should the rating system rate your overall knowledge of dog training or your specialty? My knowledge is very tunnel. I train specifically for SchH. I know nothing about breeding, PSD or PPD after bite development work. In my case the rating system does not work as well as a Richard whose knowledge from what I can tell is more evenly distributed. The way I compensate is to always preface any non sport or puppy(young dog) rearing questions with a disclaimer as such.

Richard..Renee..Pete..ect. Throw your two cents in.

I agree that the rating system as it stands now doesn't make much sense. In order for it to have some value you have to take into consideration how many people voted. For example: a friend can give you 5 stars and as long as you don't say anything controversial or hurt anyone's feelings (far be it from me :rolleyes <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> this rating will remain with you for as long as this forum lasts (hopefully for a long time). Does it mean anything? No.

Vince,

I don't have much of a problem with the rating system now. There are very few really contentious people on the board. After a while you can take the hit if you irrtate someone anyway. I think having less knowledgable people vote is a good thing. If advise you get from someone helps then your rating of them is valuable information. I do think the fact that you can't (or I can't figure out how) change a rating that you have made is a problem. There are some I would go back and change.

I don't think having limited info on a shubject is necessarily a bad thing. If you arre willing to admit that you are guessing so people know where you are comming from. A couple of my mistakes have solicited correct answers from other quarters. I don't know if the real answer would of come up if I hadn't been so blatantly wrong.

And since you are waiting for your new puppy.... I will remind you I got mine!!!!
She is a riot. I will be glad when she can run more than 4 steps without falling on her face. Housebreaking is going to be the death of me or her. My wife is ready to kill us both and it has only been a week. She is getting it though.

Richard,
What kind of puppy did you get? Another Giant?

Sharon,

It is a new breed for me, and a fairly new breed all together. Black Russian Terrier. The breed has only been fixed in type for about 20 years.

The Giants are starting to have some genetic problems, primarily thyroid disease. The BRT do not have these problems yet. In addition most of the good breeding stock in the US have dual championships in both protection work and conformation. They tend to be very intelligent and easily bored if you don't change their training routine. They are handler sensitve but hard on strangers. In the litter I looked at all the puppies tested well as protection candidates. The puppy I took has exellent conformation and a very strong temperament. All had good prey drive and were very confident with strangers. Some were a little softer in temperament. I am sure you could work them all though.

Congratulations Richard! I have seen others posting pictures on the board and while I don’t think Ed wants this a multimedia board until he says otherwise a photo of Richard’s new pup would be nice to see.

If you read Ed’s post on his 6 new videos you will see he is away and crossing his fingers on a 20th return date. His safe arrival is a wish of us all.

Great comments on the rating system. I have grown to enjoy this board quite a bit and even though your faces remain hidden some of your personalities have shone quite a bit through your writings. I don’t think I would be way off saying that we have a pretty knowledgeable group and have a lot to offer the frustrated newcomer to the passion that lives in all of us. Plus I hope I made a few friends.

Vince, this is in reply to your solicitation of my comments about the rating system.

Personally I've used it to rate highly the trainers who I think have their act together (those experts who share their expertise with us, and also some of the less-experienced trainers who don't mind admitting that they are not Donn Yarnall or Ed Frawley, but have something to contribute anyway). There are a handful of folks I feel do not belong here at all because they are spewing, not contributing. Those folks have received the wrath of the one-star rating (and a couple would get negative stars if I could do that).

Personally I really don't care about the ratings--it's kinda cute, I suppose, but if Ed wants to turn off the ratings system that would be just fine with me.

The one thing I will mention is that I gave low ratings to a guy way back when the board started because something he said struck me as half-cocked. You can probably guess who I mean--his nickname is "The Diplomat" <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> . I regret doing that now--he's an interesting fellow and he did not deserve the rating I gave him. The problem is, there is no way to change it now.

Pete Felknor

Someone should not be able to be rated until they get to around 20 posts or so. I remember when I saw my dreaded "one star" after my 4th post or so. I remember thinking "boy either someone thinks I'm a dope or maybe one star is better than no stars!"LOL Someone who is pretty knowlegable, who just became a member, may just happen to jump on a certain subject and his or her opinion may not be popular and boom the dreaded "one star" rating comes along. Really, I agree with Vince, Pete and Co. It dosen't really bother me either way.

Pete:

That's funny you say that because I was going to mention that somebody kidnapped the real Brandon. If you remember awhile back he took a few weeks off and then suddenly he came back with a new attitude. I think this one is an imposter.
I always wait a while now to give ratings for the same reason. I really like your comment on being yourself and not trying to be something your not. I can't speak for you but 99% of my answers are not my own. Disappointed as some of you might be I did not discover that some dogs have the drive to chase moving objects that we call prey drive. So when I answer someone as to "why my pup chasses and bites my son when he runs by". I am just spurting out someone else’s knowledge. This might seem pretty basic but it's good to remind ourselves every once and a while.