Pete

I agree with you 100% that head halters are a wonderful invention. Despite what is written there are plenty of dog/owners walking their dogs very successfully and using the halter correctly. For every dog that simply will not function with one there is in my experience a dog that has no reaction at all from the first time one is put on. If you want to know the uses and correct usage of head halters there are websites that you may want to read - http://www.blackdog.net.au/FitHalter.html http://www.gentleleader.com/pages.cfm?ID=29 http://www.clickandtreat.com/dfogb6.htm The one thing that does not sit well with me at all is that the dog must be weaned off the head halter. If the dog is going for walks happily with the halter on and the owner is now enjoying the walks too why bother. I say this because hindsind is a wonderful thing. I took my first dog to obedience classes and the dog did everything well except walking on a lead without pulling. I discovered by chance one day the dog did not pull on a harness as we drove to a nice walking spot, the dog did not have his collar on so we had to use the car harness to walk the dog who never pulled once. I returned to the obedience club with the harness on to show how well behaved my dog now was, no pulling. The instructor insisted the dog had to learn to walk without pulling on the collar and said it should not be walked on a harness. Being young and inexperienced I did what I was told and only walked the dog on a collar from then on - although the dog never learned not to pull.

I agree with Erny, it would be valuable to see someone qualified to deal with the problem, your vet can usually recommend someone good. Here is a link about agression that you may want to read, has some interesting information about different causes of agression: http://www.trader.co.nz/versatiledogs/arti...taggression.htm

Does titre testing only check for parvo? My problem with this anyway is that it only tells you what the protection is at the time of the test.

I do, have never had any problems. In my case though it is compulsory as I attend obedience clubs and also go to shows so they are in contact with a lot of dogs and it consider it a much higher risk to not vaccinate, especially now with so many dogs not being vaccinated. Personally if I did not vaccinate and one of my dogs caught parvo/distemper etc I would not be able to forgive myself

I do agree, especially with the newspaper bit LOL. You need to try and avoid the situation where the dog does toilet inside, althought in most cases accidents will happen. Observe your dog and you will know when it is wanting to go outside. If you walk the dog out with you it will eventually start going to the door to be allowed outside. Here is a great link with loads of valuable puppy information: http://www.k9events.com

Here is a great site, look under puppies and it has enough information to keep you busy for a long time: http://www.k9events.com - I have not owned a collie myself but from my observations they can have soft personalities so I would definately try not to be too harsh until you know your dog better.

My suggestion would be to firstly learn how to clicker train your dog, then teach some tricks, don't start with any trialling exercises, just have fun. Then you can progress to the dumbell when the dog is a bit more clicker savvy. You already have the beginning of teaching the dumbell. Clicker training will teach the dog to push a bit harder. Once the dog is mouthing the dumbell reliablly then you start to hold off a bit, frustrate the dog a little and it will push harder so the moment you get the tiniest bit more grip then click, and build it from there. This may be the Shirley Kong method, not sure, will have to read it too.

To answer the original question, every dog I have trained using positives has learnt well. I have had dogs that did not respond well at all using traditional methods. As far as the rest of the post goes, the quoting of every persons post with a opposing point of view was so familiar and so boring to me that I couldn't read much more of a page of the running down of every post, not something I enjoy sitting and reading.

If you are interested in the different methods of training I would recommend this book, it does explain how to use different methods correctly: Excel-Erated Learning by Pamela Reid As a side note, traditional trainers have a complete mistrust of people using positive reinforcement in their training, it works both ways. My dog does not find physical corrections positively reinforcing, the exact opposite I would say.

I am not sure from reading your question that you fully understand what positive reinforcement is. A very basic definition: ---Positive reinforcement is the presentation of something pleasant or rewarding immediately following a behavior. It makes that behavior more likely to occur in the future, and is one of the most powerful tools for shaping or changing your pet’s behavior.---- So to use positive reinforcement you need to work out what your dog finds most rewarding which can of course be a variety of things. The most rewarding thing for my dog is food, so if I train using positive reinforcement I use food rewards

The biggest advantage for crates for me is the ability to take them to dog events, whether it be obedience, shows, agility etc and leave the dog in a place where they will be safe as you cannot be with them 100% of the time, even if you leave them only to go to get food, drink, toilet.