Any reviews on the National K9 center in Columbus Ohio? Master Dog trainer program?

I lived in Ohio for years and their graduates were not impressive in the least.

Basically there are three dog training schools that are actually worth going to:
http://www.triplecrowndogs.com/
http://www.tomrose.com/
http://michaelellisschool.com/

Any other school but these three are pretty much the minor leagues, you need to ask yourself, "Am I going to a school to just pick up a piece of paper that says I'm certified but I don't actually know what I'm doing, or am I going to become a *professional* dog trainer?"
Your choice - let the buyer beware.

I agree whole heartedly with Will, if your not going to attend one of those 3 schools for dog training, then you may as well not go to any. Doing more research into some of the schools available, they're not only poor dog training, some are outright wrong.

Tomrose school is not easy, expect long days, and time limits to train "your dog" certain behaviors. It's well worth it though, all the hard work will pay off in the long run.

Triple crown academy isn't as intense as Tomrose school, but your still going to work your butt off, and learn alot. I know graduates of both schools, and have trained with both. There is no question that they know their stuff.

Personally, I'm waiting for the right time to attend ME's school for dog trainers. Hopefully this next year. I like his style of teaching, and there is the advantage to already having alot of his material at home to practice.

Best of luck to you!

Does that mean you guys don't like KPA?


https://www.karenpryoracademy.com

I used "advanced search" (upper right, in red) and plugged in PRYOR as my term, expanded the date range to two years, and got a lot of returns.

Here are a few:

http://leerburg.com/webboard/thread.php?topic_id=27514&page=3#296542

http://leerburg.com/webboard/thread.php?topic_id=27514&page=3#296593

http://leerburg.com/webboard/thread.php?topic_id=28888&page=1

I didn't check out the rest.

My only problem with Karen Pryor is that her background is AKC OB only, which makes her significantly less experienced that the other school's head instructors.

She is an AKC OB god, and that is certainly impressive, but on examination she ends up one-dimensioned compared to the schools that I recommended.

I looked at the mentioned websites, but I couldn't find anything on training theory. I might have just been looking too hard, but what are these schools' theories? I'm still trying to figure out ME's, but I feel I'm grasping it faster because I've watched him (videos) work with dogs.

ME's main methodology combines classical conditioning (associative learning) and operant conditioning (instrumental learning-"cause and effect").

He uses classical conditioning to teach behaviors. This is positive marker training.
http://leerburg.com/flix/player.php?id=193

He uses operant conditioning in the form of rewards and corrections in combination to reinforce behaviors and build complex behaviors.
http://leerburg.com/flix/player.php?id=196

Here is his lecture that he gives at the beginning of his school sessions.
http://leerburg.com/flix/player.php?id=529

Flinks, Balabanov, Bellon, and most other modern forward thinking trainers employ these same methods in some combination. The difference between them and Pryor is that they teach many types of dogs and behaviors, while she focuses on OB.
If I remember correctly, Pryor uses only positive-based marker training, similar to pet store training. IMO, I prefer ME's philosophy of applying some compulsion when a dog knows behaviors and refuses to comply, or you need to polish and build complex behaviors. This makes everything black and white for the dog. This is pretty much the same way you train Radar.

It's nice to have some words to describe what I do with Radar. I do things with my dogs (now) that I've picked up over the years after lots of mistakes, but never knew what to really call it.