I am rapidly working my way thru all of the Michael Ellis videos and they are just awesome. Currently I am showing 4 different dogs in AKC Utility...2 Keeshonden, a Border Collie, and an Australian Shepherd....so I am quite capable at teaching behaviors. Where I struggle is in combining the exercises into an 8 min long Utility routine. I need more knowledge about how to build reliability when there are no rewards for a period of time. I am very comfortable using both food and corrections. But sometimes my corrections cause fallout because either I am not using the proper correction, not timing my correction well, applying corrections before the dog understands the command 100%, and I am sure other issues.

Which of the DVDs might best address this issue? I have already watched Training With Food, Playing Tug, and I am partially thru Teaching the Send Away and the video on demand about the Remote Collar. I would be very happy to purchase any other DVD that addresses my concerns even if it is not specifically AKC obedience related. But I don't want to buy the DVDs about the protection sports sight unseen because I don't do these sports with my dogs...would love to, but my dogs do not have the correct temperment!

I realize that the Michael Ellis DVDs can cover lots of topics and lots of philosophy that might be very important to me, but I need advice on which ones would contain this type of info and which ones are not relevant to my goals of getting precise, animated 8 min long Utility and Open performances.

Thank you so much for putting these videos together. They are really helping to fill in some missing knowledge for me.

Could you bump this for us/me tomorrow if someone doesn't catch it tonight (I'm hoping Bob Scott, or one of the other marker experts here).

OP said
"I am quite capable at teaching behaviors. Where I struggle is in combining the exercises into an 8 min long Utility routine. I need more knowledge about how to build reliability when there are no rewards for a period of time".

I see the possibility that your putting to many behaviors together without "RANDOM" reward. That's where your reliability comes in.
I have used the analogy of playing a slot machine. Pull it enough times without reward and you loose interest. Win something of value once in a while and the interest stays.
"IF" the timing of that win becomes predictable then you don't expect a reward till you reach a certain length of time in the game and your interest in pulling that slot handle looses it's attractiveness. If you win a valuable reward based on random pulls then you keep going because you "KNOW" the next pull is a winner.
Also, I rarely put all the exercises in one training time period. Do the send out without the directed jumps one day and reward for just that. Do the scent articles one day and mark and reward the dog on the way back (no finish). Do the signal exercises and reward for the down/sit/come, then mark and reward for a fast recall. combine 2-3 exercises on a given day and mark and reward only after they are finished.
Think about the simple behavior of heeling. In Schutzhund you have a soccer field length to do your heeling and if the dog figures it's not going to get a reward till it gets out to 50 paces it becomes lazy in the first 49. Reward on the first step, the tenth step, the fifth step, etc.
Get what I'm saying? Random, random, random and the dogs will always "BELIEVE" the very next behavior is that next pull on the slot machine for the win!.

I just finished watching the Michael Ellis Remote Collar video chapter 2. The last 5 minutes were beyond brilliant. He explained exactly why I am running into problems with my corrections. I don't want to go into details because there is no way I could articulate it as clearly as he does. I will probably never use a remote collar because I don't like gizmos and gadgets, but the ideas expressed in this lecture are PURE GOLD.

Bob, I hear what you are saying and I understand it. There is definately an art to randomizing rewards and I have much room for improvement. I have an extremely good grasp on reward/positive reinforcement principles. What I don't have a good understanding of is corrections/aversives. Plainly speaking, this side of the coin is currently "politically incorrect" so people are uncomfortable discussing it in detail. It has been difficult for me to get an education on these principles of learning because most of the resources available to me are old texts on dog training. This website is the first resource I've found that begins to honestly explore the "other two quadrants".