If you are choosing one foundational obedience course and you have come down to Michael Ellis’s Dog Training Decoded against Nate Schoemer’s From Novice to Pro, here is the short answer. For most first-time buyers and anyone weighing value, Schoemer is the pick: a reward-first marker foundation, well sequenced, often around $48, with pressure and corrections held to the very end where you can simply stop before them. For the studious owner or aspiring trainer who wants to understand the craft from the ground up, Ellis is the pick: the best-taught foundation we have reviewed, at $249, with deeper theory and the leash and spatial pressure built in earlier as something to understand rather than skip. The headline caveat applies to both: neither course is force-free. If a clean, no-pressure path is your priority, the honest answer is to look elsewhere, and we point you there at the end.
We score every course on two separate axes, one for the dog and one for the human, using the same rubric every time. That is what lets this comparison be concrete instead of hand-waving: both courses were measured the same way, so the differences below mean something.
Who should pick which
- Pick Schoemer (From Novice to Pro) if you are a confident owner of a stable, non-reactive dog who wants a rigorous reward-based foundation at low cost, values careful handler mechanics, and is comfortable being the one who decides to stop before the corrections lesson. It is the better value and the more reward-forward architecture.
- Pick Ellis (Dog Training Decoded) if you want to understand why training works, not just copy a sequence, and you will rewatch and apply it. This is the deeper teaching product, aimed at the serious enthusiast and the aspiring professional, and it costs accordingly.
- Pick neither if your dog is fearful, reactive, or has shown aggression, or if you want a verified pressure-free curriculum. Both courses build in pressure, and for those readers we point to a gentler option below and, where it is warranted, to an in-person professional.
The two at a glance
| Dog Training Decoded (Ellis) | From Novice to Pro (Schoemer) | |
|---|---|---|
| Verdict | Niche only | Recommended with caveats |
| Method and Welfare | 5 / 10 | 6 / 10 |
| Teachability and Design | 9 / 10 | 8 / 10 |
| Price | $249 (one time) | $97 list, often near $48 on sale |
| Best for | The studious owner or aspiring trainer who wants to understand the craft | The confident owner of a stable dog who wants a value-priced reward-first foundation |
One note before you act on any of this: prices and sale discounts change, so confirm the current price before you buy either course.
Method and welfare: Schoemer edges it, but the gap is narrow
These two are close cousins on method, and it is worth saying plainly why both land in the upper-middle of our scale rather than at the top. Each leads with reward and relationship. Each conditions a reward marker and spends the bulk of its lessons on luring, shaping, and motivation. Each is free of e-collar work in its own curriculum. And each, in the end, builds low-level leash pressure into the foundation, which is the reason neither crosses our force-free line.
The difference that gives Schoemer a 6 to Ellis’s 5 is sequencing and degree. Schoemer’s foundation is reward, marker, and positional work for roughly three-quarters of the course; “Leash Pressure Training” is a named Part 6 and a single corrections lesson is held for the very end, Part 7. A confident owner can take the reward-first majority and simply not run the corrections lesson, and most of the value lives in what comes before it. Ellis, by contrast, weaves pressure in earlier and more centrally: he teaches a conditioned punishment marker (a signal that a behavior will not pay) alongside the reward marker, and two full parts on leash and spatial pressure, the dog learning to yield to and switch off pressure. He conditions these tools carefully and keeps the intensity low, and among trainers who use any pressure at all his is close to the most humane version of it. But it is woven into the architecture, not bolted on at the end, which is why his method sits a point lower even though his teaching is stronger.
One honest qualifier on Schoemer’s edge: his documented correction method pairs a punishment marker with either a leash pop or a remote-collar stim, and the in-course corrections lesson is behind the paywall, so we do not assume the worst, but we cannot call it reward-only either. Ellis’s course, for its part, is explicitly e-collar free and even teaches how to transition a dog off an e-collar. So the picture is not “one clean, one not.” It is two reward-first foundations with different placements of, and different honesty about, the pressure each contains.
Teaching: Ellis is the deeper product, Schoemer the more accessible one
This is the axis almost no other reviewer measures, and it is where these courses separate most clearly. As we argue in why most online courses fail, the binding constraint is almost never the dog’s ability to learn. It is whether the course is built so the human actually changes what they do. Both of these are built for that, and both are good. Ellis is exceptional.
Ellis earns his 9 on depth and rigor. Almost every concept is taught twice, once as a short lecture and then demonstrated on a real dog, often several dogs of different temperaments, so you see the principle and then watch it survive contact with reality. He opens with engagement rather than sit, which reflects a sound model of how learning is built, teaches explicitly when to fade your help (the step where most owners accidentally create a dog that only works with a treat in hand), and closes with a sixteen-question Q and A that functions as built-in troubleshooting. It is a course about understanding, which means it asks for attention and rewatching rather than handing you a one-page plan.
Schoemer’s 8 is a strong, more accessible teaching product. His sequencing is meticulous in a different way: food mechanics, then a loaded marker, then luring, then positions, then movement, then generalization, an order that respects cognitive load. He opens with a “Food Handling Breakdown” that targets the clumsy reward-delivery errors that quietly sink most owners, includes an explicit “Avoiding Common Mistakes” troubleshooting lesson, and teaches proofing through an “Environment Difficulty Assessment.” What holds him a point below Ellis is partly verifiability (the page does not state total runtime or whether there are downloadable practice plans) and partly fit: the heavy competition-obedience footwork is more than a typical pet owner needs, and a beginner could feel the load of it.
So: Ellis if you want the deepest possible understanding and will do the work of rewatching; Schoemer if you want a meticulously sequenced, demonstration-heavy course that is easier to start and cheaper to try.
Value: not close
On price, this is the clearest contrast of the three. Ellis is $249, the priciest foundational course we cover, and the price reflects the depth and the name. For an aspiring trainer or an owner who will work through it more than once, that is reasonable for what you get, and you will return to it for years. Schoemer lists at $97 and is frequently on sale near $48, which is one of the better-value purchases on the platform for the volume and quality of obedience content you receive. If budget is a real constraint and you want a rigorous reward-based foundation, Schoemer delivers most of what a typical owner needs at roughly a fifth of the cost. Spending more on Ellis is justified by the teaching depth and the craft-level understanding, not by a better outcome for an ordinary pet dog.
The verdict for each reader
If you are a typical first-time or value-minded buyer with a stable dog: choose Schoemer’s From Novice to Pro. It is reward-first in its architecture, meticulously taught on the mechanics that actually decide your success, priced as genuine value, and structured so you can stop before the corrections layer. Treat that as the deal: the reward-based three-quarters is the course, and the choice not to run the corrections lesson is yours to make.
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If you are a studious owner or an aspiring trainer who wants to understand the whole craft: choose Ellis’s Dog Training Decoded, with both eyes open. It is the best-taught foundation in the catalog and a genuinely reward-first one, and the pressure mechanics it builds in are taught by one of the most skilled and humane teachers of them you will find. You are buying understanding, not a checklist, and the $249 buys depth you will keep returning to.
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If you want a clean, force-free path, or your dog is fearful or reactive: neither of these is your course, and that is a legitimate preference, not a failing on your part. Both build in pressure, and for a fearful or reactive dog a corrections layer is the wrong tool in the wrong setting. The most welfare-aligned course we have found on this platform is Mia Skogster’s Emotional Communication, a Champion on method with no pressure tooling in its curriculum. Be clear-eyed that it is a communication and engagement course rather than a complete obedience syllabus, so you would pair it with a reward-based plan for the mechanics of sit, down, and recall. If you are not sure which way to go, our course-match quiz routes you by your dog and your constraints.
The bottom line: both courses are reward-first foundations that we respect and that fall just short of our force-free line for the same reason, built-in leash pressure. Schoemer wins on value and on holding the pressure to the end, which makes him the right default for most buyers. Ellis wins on teaching depth, which makes him the right choice for the reader who wants to master the craft. Pick by who you are, not by the louder name.