John Rogerson came to town this weekend. My trainer really loves this guy and highly recommended checking him out. This workshop was obedience games or something like that.

He had some great ideas for general training -- recall, loose leash walking, go-outs, etc., that could cross over to competitive obedience and I found his seminar was geared more toward either pet people who are passionate about training or people just thinking about getting into competitive dog sports or brand new to it, and people interested in behavior. His methods are positive-based but incorporates traditional training, though not with punishment, per say. He doesn't do e-collars or ear-pinches and trains on a flat-buckle collar. I think the course would be really fun for someone with a young dog and newer to serious training, whether for pet or competition. His methods are based on relationship with your dog, which was also quite good and similar to Denise Fenzi. He also talks about breeds and breed temperament issues as well as the different cultures and the problems that we do and do not have with our dogs, which is quite interesting.

Because I knew some of his methods from working with my trainer, I did not have any "a-ha" moments. He also spent a lot of time lecturing and the time people spent with their dogs was minimal and the set-up was a little chaotic when it came time to bring the dogs out. The competition people in the workshop had issues with the lack of structure. He also spent a lot of time talking about how his dogs were better than our dogs because of the way he trains them and he is right and everyone else is wrong, which for me, is a big turn-off. I prefer to hear about the mistakes people have made and the ways in which they remedied them for the type of dog they have. After all, we are all human and that is how we learn and not one method performed the exact same way works for every single dog.

The workshop for the whole weekend was $300 for a working spot. I opted out of bringing my dog since I'd never been to one of his seminars. I like to watch before participating. I audited yesterday for $75 and felt it was too much in my opinion. I will not be going back today (for another $75), though I will be interested in hearing from my friends if today was better than yesterday.

That said, I hear that his total recall class is excellent for those with rescues, having issues with their dogs or people new to training or wanting to have a better trained dog than their last dog. And, his CSI workshop is supposed to be a blast. If he holds another CSI workshop locally, I'd probably go to that one.