Dog Whisperer: Calm Down!

Ok I guess I'm picking on the dog whisperer this week. His training philosophies include flooding and correction, where I believe corrections are somewhat a necessary evil, I am not a fan of physical corrections and use mostly verbal and body blocking in my training. I do think he has some good theories, don't get me wrong. I agree with his use of calmness. I prefer the word confident instead of leader or assertive. Those words bring dominance to mind. I don't want to dominate my dog but work together as a team. So I need to be confident in my skills as a trainer and in my dog. I agree with his philosophy that dogs today don't get enough exercise or stimulation, however I don't think many folks can devote the 4 hour a day hikes that he devotes, it's his job, the rest of us have other jobs. Anyway I think a lot of what he has to say is good, but alot of how he gets there could be improved on. This video shows him flooding the dog. Again I would start far away, just beyond the distance that gets a reaction and counter condition another behavior with positive reinforcement and move forward from there. Even when they returned and the reaction was better the dog still started with a forward agressive movement (tail up, ears back, weight shifted foward, mouth puckered, all signs of I'm ready to bite), but when corrected he seemed to slink down and turn away from eye contact, it looked a bit fearful at that point to me. I want my dog to focus on me for what he should do next, not turn away. Not a comfortable or safe situation in my opinion. My concern with this episode is that some one might try this at home. I could see a bite happening very easily, by picking up and flooding an agitated canine. In the wrong hands this is a nightmare waiting to happen, even with this disclosure not to try it at home.