I have been training dogs since I was 8 years old. I started training because of my love for dogs. I would train all the neighborhood dogs to do tricks and then have shows for the owners. I began training pets professionally when I was 20. Back in those days, I always trained using reward based training. I got great results and the owners loved having a well behaved dog.
I worked in a veterinary hospital and saw many dogs injured from lack of training. Dogs would not respond to their owners and they would get in fights with other dogs or get hit by cars.
I went to many seminars on dog training and behavior. Thirty years ago, there was little research on canine behavior. At these seminars I was told to bully the dogs and use force based methods to get them to do what I wanted. I thought these people knew what they were doing so I did try to train that way for a very short while. I saw that the dogs did not want to work with me and would do what I wanted, but grudgingly. This was in comparison to the dogs I had previously trained using rewards that were happy to see me and couldn't get enough of the training! So, I went back to the positive and reward based training. I have continued to go to seminars and over the years there has been much research and they have found that positive and reward based training is the way to go.
I have 4 dogs who compete or have competed in both obedience and agility competitions. They have won many awards and have multiple titles.
If you want a pet that will always trust you, the positive and reward based method will get the results you are looking for.