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I confess to being quite unimpressed with your current puppy class, based on what you've described. At least the puppy play portion of it. The (very positive only, force free) trainer I went to with my puppy would have immediately interrupted that behavior and, yes, physically removed the offending puppy if necessary. Many "force free" trainers and handlers are not against physically restraining or removing a dog (or cat, in your example) if they're exhibiting poor (and especially dangerous) behavior - that's not a training scenario, but a management one, and best management is sometimes physically removing the animal to a place where it can calm down and doesn't have the opportunity to continue bad behavior.
That being said, we do have to work with what's available in our areas. Sometimes that means a balanced trainer is the one with the most experience and best approach for a particular dog, because the options for force-free training are just not very good. You've shown that you have good instincts when it comes to things not feeling right in training classes, and I urge you to continue that! Don't let anyone pressure you into using tools or techniques you don't feel are appropriate for your puppy, whatever their core training philosophy.
As for the kibble thing, it's not unusual for very food-motivated dogs to struggle to contain themselves with high value treats. I often use kibble for training treats around the home, because to my dogs, they ARE rewarding. I break out the good treats in higher distraction environments, like when there's lots of other people and dogs around, because that's when my dogs need a little extra goodness to help focus them and make the reward I have better than the reward they can get from their surroundings. Neither of my dogs can train well on a totally empty stomach - they become too frantic about food - so instead of skipping dinner as my trainer suggested, we would do a half dinner. What I mean to say is kibble is still a food reward, and use what reward works best for your pup! The "best" treats - meaning the highest value ones - aren't always best for all training or all scenarios.
If you're interested, I highly suggest reading The Other End of the Leash, which is by Patricia McConnell, a dog behaviorist of high repute who has been successfully working with serious behavior problems (including aggression) using force-free and positive methods for years. Not all postive trainers (or balanced trainers, for that matter) are able or willing to work with serious behavior problems, and that's fine! Nobody should be putting themselves in harm's way to work with issues they don't have the experience or desire to handle. But just because your puppy class's trainers don't do it doesn't mean it's impossible to do without corrective techniques.
That being said, we do have to work with what's available in our areas. Sometimes that means a balanced trainer is the one with the most experience and best approach for a particular dog, because the options for force-free training are just not very good. You've shown that you have good instincts when it comes to things not feeling right in training classes, and I urge you to continue that! Don't let anyone pressure you into using tools or techniques you don't feel are appropriate for your puppy, whatever their core training philosophy.
As for the kibble thing, it's not unusual for very food-motivated dogs to struggle to contain themselves with high value treats. I often use kibble for training treats around the home, because to my dogs, they ARE rewarding. I break out the good treats in higher distraction environments, like when there's lots of other people and dogs around, because that's when my dogs need a little extra goodness to help focus them and make the reward I have better than the reward they can get from their surroundings. Neither of my dogs can train well on a totally empty stomach - they become too frantic about food - so instead of skipping dinner as my trainer suggested, we would do a half dinner. What I mean to say is kibble is still a food reward, and use what reward works best for your pup! The "best" treats - meaning the highest value ones - aren't always best for all training or all scenarios.
If you're interested, I highly suggest reading The Other End of the Leash, which is by Patricia McConnell, a dog behaviorist of high repute who has been successfully working with serious behavior problems (including aggression) using force-free and positive methods for years. Not all postive trainers (or balanced trainers, for that matter) are able or willing to work with serious behavior problems, and that's fine! Nobody should be putting themselves in harm's way to work with issues they don't have the experience or desire to handle. But just because your puppy class's trainers don't do it doesn't mean it's impossible to do without corrective techniques.
