A question I can't answer - Page 7

Surely there's no difference between assessing whether a pup works better for food or for praise, than there is between sorting out whether it responds best to food or toy rewards - something we do all the time, don't we ? Personally I like to try all 3 options. I'll even use a clicker when & where it obviously seems to help with a particular dog; and I am no great fan of clicker-training, but its the old thing of "We have a whole box of tools, we should use them."

Hundmutter, your commitment to learning about the dogs you train and using the methods that are best for them shows that you are an outstanding trainer. Wish there were more like you.

Oh I only wish I was, JonRob. I've made plenty of mistakes, over the years. Some of them I managed to learn from .

It's all behind me now, anyway.  I hope I have helped people along the way, by showing them the 'tools', or training their dogs for them.  I like to believe I've always left both dogs and owners happy.  Now I content myself with having a well behaved dog, the best behaved around this community (although even she is a chicken stealer, given opportunity !);  but then again, next-door-but-3 do let me loose on their 2 doodles occasionally and the pup is already a bit better behaved ...