I did have a Koehler recall training failure, many many years ago, with a Toy Manchester Terrier. I swear, I followed all the steps in the book, very carefully, the light line, the throw chains, the tab, the repetitions…but she was never 100 % reliable off lead. Perhaps a better Koehler trainer could have made it work, but I could not, even with a careful application of those methods. I trained this dog in Novice, Open, and Utility, in addition to any tricks I ever read about. She hated it all.
I can’t say I noticed my dogs were afraid when I was doing the Koehler method, but they sure didn’t like it very much, nor did I. The wolfhound did the “captive lion, humiliated” attitude.
Now, Tori wags her tail and is so excited when we go to the kennel club to train! She loves it! We are partners, she is enjoying it and we both light up with enthusuiasm.
Non-Koehler methods does not neccesarily mean no corrections, BTW. Some mainly positive, clicker-based methods do use some corrections/aversives/negative reinforcement at some point under some circumstances. Some positive reinforcement based “purists” are committed to not using such techniques, others do under certain circumstances. But such aversives are usually balanced by the liberal use of positive reinforcement, such as food or play, or a number of meaningful positive reinforcements. Koehler used verbal praise and petting as positive reinforcement, but very little anything else, and the dogs worked mainly to avoid correction/punishment, IMO.
It is just that the methods used to teach the dog, and the dogs’ motivations, are very different. Koehler was a “you must do it or else” trainer, which may be fine for those dogs, and owners, who can tolerate such methods and prefer them. Some of the less Germanic in temperament do not, though (sorry if this is not PC, but hope you understand what I mean). IMO Koehler would not fare well in today’s obedience competitions, which favor dogs who work with enthusuiasm and happiness and “the utmost in willingness”. “Military precision” is not rewarded unless accompanied by this joyful attitude. Koehler did not really care whether the dogs were enjoying the process, any more than a general would care about what a private thought about following orders. If you just look at the illustrations in the book, perhaps taken from photos, especially of the IW, you will see head down, panting. I do not want my dogs to look like that in the ring, and the early ones I trained with the Koehler method did indeed have this attitude of resigned compliance.
I did not mean for this thread to get into a debate about the merits of various schools of thought in dog training, as I feel if you like Koehler or any other method and wish to use it, go for it, no skin off my nose! But for the OP, with a dog headed for Agility, just wanted her to know that there are other approaches out there that she may wish to explore for her dogs.
I am not aware of any Agility dogs competing today that are trained exclusively by the Koehler method, or for that matter, no one I know who competes today in AKC Obedience uses the Koehler method exclusively. I do go to training seminars and read pretty widely, so I’m not entirely isolated. There may well be someone somewhere, just saying if so, I am not aware of them.
