Are Basic Dog Training Classes Failing to Prepare Dogs?

I love a lot of stuff Dunbar says and especially the way he doesn't mess around getting to his point. But for the last few years there's been a lot of stuff that's made me not so happy, and then today I found this video about his new speaking schedule.

Currently, I'm not teaching puppy classes, but I do get a lot of puppies in my basic classes.

At one place I teach, most dogs and puppies are working off leash within a class or two. [At the other...we apparently specialize in reactive and hard to handle dogs... so...not so much offleashness in basic class!]. As in, a couple weeks, and they're off leash for a few exercises. We could do more classical conditioning. We do some in class but it's so boring and so straightforward, I'm not able to inspire people to continue working. And socialization is outside of our range.

I would almost argue that the populations I work with do not need verbal control at a distance in high level distractions. Personally, my dogs don't really need that in their pet lives. Around here, most people just don't have the chance to give their dogs opportunities to run. Some go to dog parks, many have their own yard. Am I missing something about how my students interact with their dogs? Or even the average pet owner?

I'd love to know more about the populations Dunbar sees and the types of trainers he sees and figure out more about this disconnect....

Yes my students could do better, yes we can get better responses and reliability. but I'm impressed with what we do in a short period of time!

This doesn't typically bother me... but apparently it does today!