Three basic categories of dog trainers which I place on a sliding scale.
Let me explain:
The first category on the left is the group of people who beg or bribe their dogs to do something by offering a food or toy reward. Don’t get me wrong, I use food and toys in training, but I also use distractions and corrections. The people in this first category use neither. All of the large pet food warehouses (i.e. Pet Smart, Petco , or the Monks of New Skeet etc) sponsor this category of ineffective training because they feel it's politically correct.
The problem with this group is that the dogs often choose to not do what’s asked because they don’t think the reward is worth the task. These dogs end up being pushy, dominant and often antisocial aggressive animals. These are the dogs that are turned into animal shelters as being unmanageable when in fact they act the way they do as a result of ineffective dog training.
At the other end of the scale, on the right side, is the second category of dog trainers. These are trainers who intimidate or force their dogs to do what they want (the William Koehler trainers). I call them the old school “yank and crank” trainers.
They put a choke collar on a dog and force it to do everything. Many professional dog trainers use these methods because for them time is money and with enough force a dog can be trained to do almost anything.
The problem with yank and crank trainers is the dogs seldom like their handlers and in fact are often afraid of them. These are the dogs that tuck their tails or lay on the ground when asked to do something. When these dogs are near their owners they don’t look happy because they never know when the hammer is going to fall.
The problem with both of these categories of dog trainers is that their training produces inconsistent results along with dogs that don’t like or respect their owners. If you don’t have a good bond with your dog, or if your dog does not respect you as a pack leader, you will never reach consistency in training.
The third category of dog trainer is the where I want to be. Category three trainers strive to be in the middle of the other two categories. They balance in the middle but are always prepared to move one way or the other depending on what’s going on in their dog training at a given moment or point in time.
The third group uses food, toys or praise to take a dog through a learning phase. This is where the dog actually learns the meaning of a command – for example it learns the meaning of the word “COME.”
Once the dog understands the meaning of the command the trainer then adds distractions to the program. A good example of this is a dog that has learned the meaning of the command "DOWN - STAY" but now must learn to stay when the owner or someone else tosses a ball in front of the dogs feet or drops a hot dog 4 feet from where he is lying.
When a dog is disobedient under distraction or does not follow directions this third category of dog trainers teaches a dog that they will be corrected for being disobedient.
