The Best Books For Dog-Training
If you're getting a puppy, you might be smart to also get a book to teach you how to train the puppy. This is even truer if you are getting an adult dog. Training adult dogs is much more difficult than training puppies, and you will definitely need a book and probably some professional advice. Here are a couple of popular books that can help you train your dog.
The Art of Raising a Puppy by the Monks of New Skete—This is my personal favorite book for raising puppies and the only book that I used when raising my two Yellow Labs. The book focuses on the first three months of your puppy's life so, if you are adopting an adult dog, you should look farther on down this list. If you are getting a puppy, the wisdom in this book will be rewarded almost daily. The book really focuses on the psychology of your puppy and its instincts. You will learn about pack mentality and how to assume the role of "leader of the pack�. It is through the natural respect that puppies show to the pack leader that you will train the puppy. Because your puppy instinctively obeys the pack leader, there will be no power struggles with your puppy; you will simply show him the right way to act.
Good Dogs, Bad Habits by Jeanne Carlson—This book deals with adult dogs as well as with puppies, in fact, it focuses a little more on the adult dog. This is not a book that focuses on teaching your dog to do tricks. Rather, this is the book to go to when things aren't going well with your dog, which is often the case if you adopt an adult dog that has bad habits from previous owners. Bad habits include behaviors such as jumping up, chewing, and barking. These aren't necessarily things that make the dog bad or dangerous but they are nuisance behaviors, and if your dog has them, you will be interested in anything you can do to make them go away. That is what this book is all about. The book features an unusual technique of doggie massage. That's right, doggie massage: therapeutic rubbing of your dog to teach him how to relax. Other aspects of the book are more mainstream and like most books on dog training, this book focuses on behavior modification. The book is well organized and you will be able to go right to a problem behavior and use the techniques suggested.
Dog Training for Dummies, by Jack and Wendy Volhard—If you are familiar with the 'For Dummies' series you will know just what to expect from this book. If you have never read a For Dummies book, they are books by experts that are written in layman's terms and include plenty of step-by-step instructions, diagrams, and pictures. The great thing about this book is that it gives tons of information, and it is all easy to read. The book features positive reinforcement training techniques and suggests always giving your dog a replacement activity rather than trying to take something away. For example, if your dog is chewing on your shoes, you don't punish the dog, but instead give it something appropriate to chew on. The techniques in this book are positively framed and they are aimed at both puppy owners and at owners of adult dogs. There is quite a bit of extraneous information in this book, for instance nutrition information and information on breeding. If you are only interested in training, you can just skip these parts of the book.
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