Mathew your methods are (for lack of a better word) old school dog training. Can one train a dog like Mathew explains? Yes - Are there better ways? Yes there are MUCH BETTER WAYS.

Dog training has come a long way in the last 40 years.

New trainers need to organize their thoughts into the LEARNING: CORRECTION and DISTRACTION PHASE.

In the LEARNING PHASE there are only 2 ways to train - motivation or force. It is far better to try and motivate your dog to want to learn than to force the dog to have to learn. One can ALWAYS force a dog to learn.

There are only three ways to motivate a dog: using food, using a toy (prey item) or using the personal relationship between the dog and the handler (in my opinion less then .0001% of the dogs out there can be trained only with praise from the handler - I have only known of one in 42 years of training dogs that would rather get priase than food or a toy)

If a dog cannot be motivated with one of these three methods then the only other way to train is with force. I HATE TO TRAIN WITH FORCE. IT SUCKS!!!

The argument against food or the arguments against using a toy as a motivator are always made by trainers who have not yet been exposed to the correct way to do motivational training.

The argument that using food or a prey item in the learning phase are made by trainers who don’t fully understand the correction and distraction phase.

People who bad-mouth the use of food or toys in training are people who have not been involved with dog training for a long time. These people should keep an open mind and try and find someone that really understands the process to teach them how its done. This is exciting training, it is fun training and when its done properly it is the most reliable way to train.

It is a fact that dogs who are motivationally trained have a much longer career as a working dog when compared to dogs that have been trained with force.

New trainers need to get involved with the training videos that I am doing with Bernhard Flinks - there will be a complete series. The first three tapes are finished. My advice is to get these tapes and start a long learning process that really never ends.

I am going to close this thread. Points have been made and I see no reason to bring this down to personal attacks.