Most new trainers are too passive. This is either a result of them having a soft personality or temperament or it's the result of the handler being exposed to ineffective and poor dog training techniques. We see this frequently in training classes which only focus on positive training methods while ignoring distractions and corrections. The dog training classes at Pet Smart or Petco are the perfect example. What these company stores call dog training classes are a sham.

People who train with clickers or markers and never correct a dog also fall into this category. Don't get me wrong, I love training with clickers. I train with them and markers (rather than a clicker I will use my voice and say "OK"). You can read the article I wrote on my web site about training with markers.

So called instructors who tell people to use a heads halter and a clicker and never correct the dog because all behavior problem can be fixed with a clicker are drop dead wrong. They do the concept of marker training a disservice, because when markers are combined with corrections we have the most powerful tool available to train a dog.

The difference between what I do and what these ineffective obedience classes do is that once the dog has learned an exercise with markers I add distractions. When the distraction becomes so high that it promotes disobedience I introduce corrections into the training. This is the cornerstone of my philosophy on dog training. This is the only way to get consistency in training and ANYONE WHO TELLS YOU DIFFERENTLY LACKS EXPERIENCE.