Lisa Maze

My initial introduction to the world of dog training was with a trainer who studied directly under Dick Kohler. In my youth, I read and owned every one of the KMODT books. After my first eight week obedience class I entered and AKC dog show and earned the first leg of my Novice title. The KMODT is a step by system of teaching a dog through Negative Reinforcement/Positive Punishment and follows a simple progressive format of levels that build on one another.

Some of the principals I learned in this eight week class provided the foundation for techniques I still use today however, in the almost twenty years since attending that class I have been exposed to many more methods of dog training most of which put an emphasis on the reward based quadrants of OC and try to minimize the use of aversives.

In this day and age, having every opportunity to investigate a wide variety of dog training methods from those based in science (clicker training) to those cloaked in mysticism (The Dog Whisperer), I question the motivation of a trainer who would cling soley to any one technique/tool and label themselves with the name KMODT.