Not even sure what a blog is but here's a bit of my history. I traiined my first dog in the 50s with the old Koehler methods. Haven't beat a dog in years though.
Trained and competed in AKC obedience with terriers in the 80s. trained and hunted with working terriers through the 90s.
My 4 yr old GSD has been trained through his CDX and his SchHII. To date he's not had a physical correction in his training. He's my first marker trained dog. I've also trained him in SAR work. Air scent, cadaver, article search, boat work. I will continue training him to his UD and SchHIII. My 9 month old GSD was started with marker training and I have just changed the "yes" marker over to a clicker for both of them. Amaized at how fast the dogs are making the change. My 12 yr old JRT pretty much has the life of Riely since I retired him (and me) from natural earth work. At 62 I've given up digging dogs out of the ground just for the fun of it.
I'm here because I'm a big believer in old dogs being able to learn new tricks!
Positive training of GSDs
Good to see your post! An awful lot of people seem to think that because their dogs were bred from the ones that could handle the heavy-handed training, that's the only way to train them. I'm glad to see dissent.
I'm also delighted to see someone who titles AND does search and rescue. My last GSD did search, and we were basically bludgeoned by the team into giving up any titling. They felt I was overworking my dog. My dog felt that I was only barely keeping up.
clickerbitework
Hi Bob,
Congratulations on your successes with your friends. It sounds like you are having a lot of fun with your dogs. As more and more bitesport enthusiasts are setting physical corrections aside, this challenging and rewarding area of dog training gets way more fun.