It seem that there are several people that have fooled around with dogs on this site. Dogs trainers are like horse trainers in a sence (Everybodys way is the best way.) I trained dogs to sell, for clients and ran dogs in field trials for 12 years. Every dog that I trained was forced except for my first one.
You asked for pros and cons. Dogs that are forced do things you tell them to do. Dogs that are not do things they want to do.
In my opinion and the opinion of 90% of professionals it is a must to force a dog to be a efficient trainable dog. Forcing a dog will give you the basics to build on when trying to do casting and holding drills. A dog that is forced will go on command no matter what the conditions are and the situation is. Many people will say my dog goes no matter what without being forced. The dog is going because he wants to and not because you tellling him to go. When he decided he had enough he will not go. thats where the forcing come in.
You first do obediance, then force and hold, then simple drills to a pile and so on. He will begin to give you trouble if he has not been forced. He may give you problems even though he is forced but by reminding him of pain compliance forcing, he will begin doing on command as expected. The non forced dog will then realize that he does not have to do it and will escape the things that are not fun to him. Those things are handling drills and running blinds. that is a whole diferent world without a good foundation. He will do marks all day long since that is what is bred into him. Without forcing it becomes work and he is likely to shut down.
Bottom line is that most meat dogs are not forced and most dogs that are fully trained to run blinds and handle well are forced.
If you plan on going through with the full coarse of training him do yourself a favor and force him or have him forced. If you want a basic hunting dog just teach him good obediance and bring lots of rocks in the bling. good luck and remember there is dogs that is the exception to the rule but not many.
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