I train with food, toys, permission to pee on a post.. what ever the dog finds rewarding. I was at a trial a while back with Kat who was then 4 months. She was barking and screaming at all the other Jack Russells. I was clicking and treating for focusing on me. As she has the typical puppy attention span of about 10 seconds. So it was a lot of barking, focusing, getting treat. Someone dismissively said I was being a pez dispenser like it was a disappointing and horrible thing.
Interestingly enough at as the day went on Kat would start to react excitedly then stop and look at me. Which is exactly what I want. Other people were holding their dogs to the ground, yelling at them etc. Now I dont think those methods work particularly well.. but even if they did why would you choose to wrestle your dog to the cold wet ground or yell repeatedly at them jerking the leash vs feeding them a few treats?
