Whoops sorry, Ceasar Milan has already been mentioned.

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned Jean Donaldson, she wrote 'The Culture Clash' as well as a few others, and makes a lot of sense. She'd appeal to those who like Ian Dunbar but don't like Jan Fennel.

I'm a "Cherry picker" where it comes to reading training ideas/methods..
But
Turid Rugaas is god!!
Gwen Bailey
Jean Donaldson... highly commended behind the Guru Turid :)

I read Jan Fennel and used her methods for my first dog..to be honest after a while I wondered why we actually had a dog. It seemed we had to treat him as though he wasn't there most of the time, always putting him last. I guess as a lash back effect our dogs now are spoilt. They come first. They jump up and greet us and tell us what they want. But I like that. They fit our lifestyle although with  future dog I hope to have more of a balance.

The problem with trainers is people have different ideas on how a dog should be treated..the relationship people want to have with their dogs is very different. A good trainer respects the dog owner and their methods needs to be compatible with the training philosophy of the dogs own family. I like the dog to be well behaved and fit our lifestyle but also to see the dog is itself and has spirit, some people like forced control . When trainers try to force their ways on people then it is bad for the dog because it conflicts with the methods they understand. This is the problem I find in agility I am on a different planet in how I train my dogs...but I love the competitive obedience people I have met and trained with! I love their positive training methods because it fits me and what we as a family want from our dogs. It is probably not so much I think some methods or trainers are wrong more they just don't fit me and my dogs.

I was recommended a book called Ain't Misbehavin  (David Appleby) by my vet, and found it soooo helpful. Rather than giving you step by step instructions on what to do and when, it try's to make you see all sorts of situations from the dog's point of view. Understanding (as much as it is possible to understand) how my dogs thinks and what she looks for from me means we have a lovely harmonious house. I haven't read a training book since, and have a great, well behaved dog. *

*99% of the time ;)

With training I believe to an extent that different methods/techniques suit different dogs and not one method will work for all. 

However, when it comes to trainer's I quite like John Fisher's stuff as what he says, does seem to make a lot of sense and through reading his books, (well I've only read a couple so far, still got a lot more of his later books to read and then a few more by other trainers!) I like how he's mentions 'case studies' as such (although I know a few books by different trainers do mention their own cases, I just find the way he writes them is well, to the point yet almost fun to read if that makes sense?!)  Like many others on here though, I have seen most of the TV trainers, and I sit there thinking 'thats ok then no no I wiould handle that differently'.

I love cesar Milan, he's great, so calm and his approach is so common sense, amazed there are people on here who dont like him. I think he is the only one I would believe could make a difference with a difficult dog problem.

I like Jan fennels books, but watching her on tv doesnt seem to have much effect on the dogs , cant stand victoria stillwell shes so annoying !

And the Dog Borstal trainers offer nothing that is common sense to most dog people , could never understand at just because mic martin got a few dogs to jump over a couple of agility steps that that actually achieved anything! 

Unfortunately cesar milans approach is not common sense, it usually equates to nothing more than aggression and bullying (from the trainer not the dog) and flooding.

i must admit ,im no expert,tho ive had dogs for years,i do all those things too,and i have got stairs!yhe only difference now is,i feel sneakily guilty about it!how silly!its all so confusing when you only want to do the best by your new puppy!the best food,the best training method,best time to spay!everything contradicts!guess il just have to be brave and use my own judgement!

Rupertbear, i agree with you although i'm not in favour of electric collars. saying that i think reward based training works well too but using certain thing from CM has worked well for me.

Am I the only one who doesn't buy books to train their dogs? Or has no desire to read any?   Nope  I don't either :-)

Snap!

I have never taken a dog to any sort of training class except ringcraft & I think mine behave reasonably well.  Nor do I watch any of these dog training programmes (Yawn) or have even looked at the cover of any of these 'so called expert' books.   I get people commenting on how well behaved my dogs have been over the 22 years I've owned them so I can't be doing too badly?

Ian Dunbar, no question