Interesting discussion as I'm looking at this from several angles.
When I was looking for a class for Epic, I declined the 'fun' agility club and went for one where the end goal was competition. Didn't know at that point whether I would compete but I thought far better to start out the right way rather than have to retrain later. Luckily I have known my instructor for many years from attending the same obedience club, but having someone I TRUSTED was an important criteria. I would not have felt the same trust for someone competing at low levels with their first dog. As someone said earlier, safety is a big factor and lack of knowlege could potentially put the dog at risk of injury or seriously affect the confidence.
I have over a decade of experience competing in Obedience but haven't reached the high levels. I feel confident in giving some foundation competition teaching/companion training but not beyond that because I haven't yet got a sufficient competition 'pedigree'.
I'm inclined to agree that being a high flyer doesn't automatically mean you can teach others. I've been to several training courses with top winning handlers but got little out of it because either they were poor at teaching or the methods they advocated wouldn't work with my dogs. (Not saying they were wrong, just inappropriate for me). Actually I probably learned more in the early days from my friend who has done almost no 'serious' competition but who is a great flexible trainer and good teacher.
Would I train under Novice level students? No. As a beginner I would not have enough confidence that they had proven training ability, as competition success is the only real measure of competence. If I was experienced then still No as they wouldn't be able to offer any useful advice that I didn't already know, so where's the point?
The exception would be someone who had an extensive background but may not have done much actual competition for some reason (family ties, non driver etc).
Out of interest Sharon, are the students trying to resolve those problems you mentioned or are they just ignoring them? I would take a very dim view of someone who was making no effort to overcome their own dog's issues being in a teaching position.
