I for one appreciate it very much, especially being new to this breed. I'm looking forward to hearing what happens with the behaviorist/trainer. Have been a little preoccupied the past 2 days with Ivy's surgery but just trying to catch up with this thread now. I completely agree with you on the harsh training methods. One example: I had a puppy trainer come to the house 3 times to work with Ivy, when she was too little for puppy class (hadn't had enough shots). Overall this is a great trainer and I loved her. She had a lot of great behavior management techniques that were super valuable - she completely solved our puppy-biting problem which was making every human in the house completely miserable. She had some good methods. However, she hadn't worked with TMs (had encountered a few but not trained them). Some things, she really just didn't realize would NOT work with this breed. We worked on loose-leash walking one day in our yard. I explained that even with the harness on, sometimes (actually often) Ivy would sit down and refuse to move. I actually switched to the harness because the buckle collar, she'd just duck her head and pull out of. So Ivy did this little thing we used to call the "Ivy roll." She learned really quickly that the harness would get tight around her chest when I pulled the leash. So when I'd give a quick tug, to get her to move in my direction, she'd sort of do a little hop, fall on her side and roll over. I think she figured out that relieved the pressure of the harness, plus then she was lying down and I couldn't get her to go anywhere. She did this in front of the trainer and I said, "Okay, what do I do now?" The trainer told me to drag her. I just looked at her and said, "That is not going to work with Ivy." She said, sure it will, dogs hate to be dragged. Well, guess what - Ivy does in fact hate to be dragged (and I don't blame her one bit) but being a TM, she damn well did let me drag her halfway across the yard. I finally stopped and the trainer said, "Hmm. I've never seen a dog do that before."
Yep. Anyway, I'm just trying to illustrate (and agree with you, broccolini) that the harsh training methods don't necessarily work with "our" breed. And that not everyone realizes this. I myself am very guilty of coming to this forum while we were still considering whether to bring Ivy home and also finding other articles online, reading how "different" TMs are and saying, yeah, yeah, whatever. They can't be THAT different from other dogs. I learned pretty quickly that YES THEY CAN, and YES THEY ARE. I'm willing to put in as much work as it takes to train Ivy to the point that I need her to get to, while recognizing that we have limitations - with the recall, just as one example - so things are working out fine for now. She's a fabulous dog and I am completely in love with her. But anyone that tells me I'm not doing it right just might not be getting it and I suspect that might possibly be the case with some of the replies here (not flaming, just suggesting).
Anyway ... whew ... good luck and I do really want to hear how this all works out for you.