Originally posted by bckrazy
Our trainers are the opposite, they don't allow prong collar, chokers, haltis or harnesses in class. . and all of the dogs that are past the first three or four classes never act up, pull, run away, or ignore their owners, they're all really good pups without anything but rolled/flat leather collars.
The first thing I tell people when they enroll in an obedience class is that only flat buckle collars are allowed. On the first class we teach puppy management. That is where the dog is on a short lead and the handler steps on it to keep the dog in a down position. There are dogs that fight this (of course my Dusty did) but it's more of an embarrasement thing than a painful thing because they only have flat buckle collars on. The dog is not in control and it wants to be so it puts up a fuss. It's hard for some handlers because they are not alpha over their dogs. However, after the first night we usually don't have any problems. This enables me to teach all the students instead of having a dog out of control distracting from the class. This is about as harsh as my classes get. From there is it all positive.

The misconception I think some of you may be thinking about positive training is that you never give your dog corrections. That is the furthest thing from the truth. You do give your dog corrections but in non painful and positive ways. I use the UTT OHHH verbal and break out of the teaching position. Then we go back to step one and start again. Pretty soon the dog learns that wasn't the right thing so Let's try again! Before long the dogs catches on (the light bulb goes off) and the dog has a good understanding of what is expected. The next thing is to proof the behavior to ensure the dog will do it under all circumstances. That's a whole different post. Basically, the best site to check out information on clicker training is clickertraining.com with Karen Pryor, the originator of clicker training.