HALLELUIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Brandy is GONE!!!! yes I scared my beast jumping out of my seat cheering, hooting and hollering.. NOW if we could just get rid of barbie dog!

I so love Bill and Star and to be honest I think whats-her name giving up the special room kept her from being completly axed.

Carrie

Very rarely will a dog work off praise alone unless trained with very harsh methods. The praise becomes a "no punishment" marker and thus why dogs trained with harsh methods will work for it.

It's still no excuse to scruff a dog and throw it around (as he stated he does).  People are people and dogs do not see us as one of them.  Scruffing them just makes them scared of us; they don't associate scruffing with whatever they supposedly did wrong.

ETA: I agree that that had to be the dumbest challenge I've ever seen.  It wasn't even a challenge, it was just based on luck!

NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  OMG those judges should be OOOHH I don't know but not BILL!!! he was the best guy there! 

" src="/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/blue/emoticons/biggrin.gif" /> OK WOW I am impressed with how well Andrew did with the Elephant. I saw that and shook my head.. Wachter would have been running away as soon as he saw it.

Carrie

Sorry folks, I am going a little off topic on this post, but had to respond to Somer on training with praise only. 

I always use positive reinforcement for my dogs when training and both Belle and Halo could have cared less about food when they were little.  So I was challenged as a trainer to train without food reward.  It can be done with praise alone and no harsh treatment of the dog.  I know allot of good trainers that don't use food to train, and in any case if you show in obedience, rally, etc you cannot use food in the ring.  So, that means you have to eventually wean a dog off of food as a reward.  When you do use praise alone you have to be almost over the top and keep your energy level really high.  The dogs then end up looking for the silly excited person game after they do what you ask them which is the reward for them.  I have one friend who has been training dogs for years (currently she is training 2 vislas and a Norwich terrier) and when she has finished the exercise she gets all excited and says WooHoo and the dog ends up jumping excitedly around her.  Her dogs always are well trained and love to work for her.  She never does anything harsh with them either. 

Now don't get me wrong, I will use food if the dog is interested (and boy is my new pup interested) as it is easier. I expect though with my new pup I am going to be challenged by him when I start removing the food reward.  Only time will tell.

Sorry again for the hijack as I know this thread is about the TV show.

My impression was that he only used praise as a reward.  Also, if you watch his dog's behaviour he acts very "slinky", ears back, etc. i.e. he has been treated with a heavy hand (which JD admitted to).  In that case, the praise only reward does become VERY rewarding (even more so than to a dog who hasn't been trained with a heavy hand/traditional methods).  He is very old school in his training style.

My dogs like praise, jumping around and getting excited but I don't teach them entire behaviours off praise alone, which is what I thought JD was implying he does.  I switch up to something more interactive with the dog when they master (when I'm positive they understand what I'm asking of them) a behaviour to help make me even more a part of the reward/game.

I had Twiggy enrolled in a basic obed. class at a local training school.  Their traditional yank-n-thank methods were just too old school and disappointing for me to stay the entire 6 sessions (they were recommended to me as positive training and they most definitely weren't).  She doesn't work well with that and either do I (I find it very boring, frustrating and a chore to train like that).  I really don't understand how people can train their dogs like that and enjoy the process at the same time.

I find that my clicker training only method is very different from what most do on here so I rarely post on training threads on this board.

All IMO and how I see it, of course .

Carrie -

You are dead right when you say every dog is different and different training styles are needed for different dogs.  My library of dog training books is huge and I often pick and choose from the different concepts and then modify based on the dog I am working with.  I have also been known to consult with some friends that have been training different dogs for friends.  Someone will through out a scenario and everyone chimes in on the discussion.  Some great ideas have come out of discussions like that.  That is one reason I really enjoy this forum, the discussions are great.