I do work my dogs and they are companions, but as I said, I’m not in high stakes competition with them and at this point don’t feel the need to use pain, which George says is necessary w/ the force fetch. I went to him to learn how to teach the dog to hold point and for backing. I’m disappointed I’ll be missing the field fun this season, but am due in February and pretty much gave up on training in the heat of the Florida summer during my first trimester of feeling overheated even when I was in the A/C. :)
I’m not sure what you’re trying to change my mind of; I didn’t think I was disagreeing with you. I don’t have any problem with someone using that method to train their dog and one of my girls, if I decide I want to do senior or master hunter or retrieve competitions with her, will probably require it. If I stick with just Junior competitions I won’t need it. I was just saying that I’d rather possibly screw things up myself than send my dog off to someone where you never really know what they’re doing to your dog when you’re not there.
If you have a trainer that you trust to send your guy off to I think that’s great and I’m sure you’ll be pleased with the dog that is returned to you.
My trainer has dogs that have been named all-breed national shoot to retrieve champion. I trust him to do a better job than I could and I want to do right for my dogs.