My husband is sometimes critical of the way I train 6 month old Molly, he reckons I should be firmer with her. He is, however, quite impressed with what I have achieved with kindness and kibble (and LOTS of repetition) Today when I got home he grinned and said "I expect you'll like the article in today's Times". And indeed I do. "Down boy? secrets of a happy obedient dog" comes down firmly on the side of praise and rewards. I hope it makes you all as happy, not to mention smug, as it made me.
Re: Secrets of a happy, obedient dog. That's good. Unfortunately, I am not a subscriber, and unlike The News of the World, you have to pay for this one, but here is the link anyway! Down boy? Secrets of a happy obedient dog
Re: Secrets of a happy, obedient dog. Hi Tina , when I first had my last Lab as a puppy , a darling yellow girl called Tess ( this was about 13 years ago ) she was mine and mine alone Having read extensively about more modern and " softer " methods of training , I declared that this was the way I had chosen to go down . My husband ( who used to shoot with his 2 golden retrievers many moons ago ) also thought that I was being too soft , not that he was ever too hard or ever employed cruel methods, just that he thought that the new methods were unproven and soft . He also had to eat his own words when Tess displayed a good level of obedience at a very young age and now advocates modern training methods as being the best and kindest by far
