“Hello! My name is Stephen Rafe (pronounced RAY-fee). For more than 25 years now, I have been working to put and end to harsh, punishment-based training by helping dog owners and trainers understand and use positive, humane, state-of –the-art-techniques.”
That’s the first couple of sentences on his website. It’s hard to not like a trainer with an opening statement like that. Especially in the punishment-based world of bird dog training.
Mr. Rafe takes a little more ethological approach to his training than the others trainers I’ve mentioned. He flat out knows dogs. I used his “Thunderstorm Cure” CD with pretty good success. He sells very easy to understand, no nonsense, training brochures. Check him out.