Broad Question about training GSPs

[100wattwarlock]

Bear with me on this question, it's more about opinions.
I avidly watch Fieldsports.tv every Friday evening (your morning) here at work as a close to the week. I notice impeccably well behaved dogs, in fact I have only ever seen one slightly loopy lab.
I currently have a 4 Year old lab dog and a 6 month old GSP bitch, the lab was trained for Urban Search and Rescue until he freaked out one day, and that was the end of that.

I tried to train him for ducks although not really putting in a great amount of time as he proved quickly gun shy, and who can blame him having never really experienced this kind of volume. Now I intend to really work with the GSP on Deer and Ducks (hopefully), my question is do UK handlers prefer the softly, softly approach or the hang 'em and shock 'em hard tactics? I recently purchased some Paul French videos, and I have say I love his manner with them, but I notice that all his dogs are not really showing any kind of disobedience in front of the camera in the first place. I would actually love to see him with a really out of control pup, not to see him "fail" but to learn something, sadly he doesn't have DVD's on how to train your loopy mental deaf dog.

There seem to be a myriad of clicker, crate, treat, and holistic training techniques that it sometimes reminds me of scenes from "The life of Brian" everyone preaching their own form of goodness! So i figured I'd throw the question to the members of a forum I respect greatly.

I look forward to your responses, and thanks
p.s. While I welcome views from the Ladies, in this particular question I am aiming at the men, women seem to have a far greater success at training dogs which I believe has a lot to do with their non-aggressive approach and higher tones when calling, so please no offence ladies it's not a chauvinistic thing, I'd just like to hear from the fellas on this one, and no false beards and stones please!

 

[andibrains]

Practice and positive re-enforcement most of the time and, this may be controversial, but the odd occasion where a good crack with the back of the hand is the only thing that will suffice. My lab is bloody nuts most of the time, and disobedient for anyone but me, however when I call him to heel he knows that its time to work. I also thinks it helps to give them some time to go nuts and just be a 'loopy, mental, deaf dog' he works far better after he has tired himself out a bit and expended some energy. Just depends on the dog.

I should add that I dont condone and dont myself beat the dog or anything closely resembling that, however I firmly believe that physical contact/reprimand when training is perfectly natural as the pack leader would do this naturally with his teeth.

 

[Dickyboy]

I'm seconding andibrains almost word for word, It has been known for me to flip my dog over and bite his neck.....it seems to be the only thing that gets him to rein his neck in. Dogs don't feel pain the same as a human so a beating has no effect, a swift clip or a dominance rollocking can work wonders