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simba
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Sense of deja vu- have I posted this thread before?

 

 

So, in time for Christmas, what are your recommendations on dog training books?

 

I hate buying a book and getting it home and it turns out it's all about the author's Very Speshul relationship with dogs and how everyone was astonished at their wonderfulness. Or it's mostly long-winded personal anecdote, or only has very basic and general information that one would already be expected to know ('sit', 'stay', 'dogs need exercise', 'when a dog growls it's angry'). I want a nice paper book that has a lot of practical information and hopefully a lot of reading.

 

So what dog books would you reccommend?

 

I was pleasantly surprised by Cesar Milan's book, it suffered somewhat from the 'celebrity' thing and too many anecdotes, but was mostly pretty sensible and about 'don't be an idiot and make sure your dog gets the exercise and attention it needs'. Surprised by that because I expected it to be more 'DOMINANCE AND SHUSHING' from people I'd met who followed him. I also liked Stanley Coren's book 'How to speak dog'.

 

Thinking of Kyra Sundance's 101 dog tricks book, her 10 minute dog training games book, Jean Donaldson (Oh behave, Culture clash, Fight) or Patricia McConnell (For the love of a dog, The other end of the leash). I haven't read any of them though or heard much about them. Thoughts on those? Books you've read and loved?

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I also really like the Coppinger's book.

 

My favorite, though, is Suzanne Clothier's book, "Bones Would Rain From The Sky". If you are looking for a step-by-step "here is how you do it" sort of training book, then this is not for you. But if you want an excellent read by a superior trainer, whose approach is centered on the relationship between you and the dog, it's the best. It is also a very enjoyable, and tends to make you appreciate your dog, and the relationship you have, even more. I give it ten stars.

 

Karen Pryor's "Reaching The Animal Mind" is also great.

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I love Bones Would Rain from the Sky!! Definitely a fave of mine.

 

If you want something that's not about training and just fun, Flawed Dogs by Berkeley Breathed is a real hoot. All the twisted humor of Bloom County (for those of you who are old enough to remember that comic strip) and about dogs. :lol: :lol: :lol:

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  • 2 weeks later...

Simba, Idiot's Guide to Fun and Tricks w/your Dog, (Sarah Hodgson? I think is the author) saved my sanity when I got my first bc, Samantha. I had fallen into the 'play fetch with the border collie for an hour a couple times a day' rut, not knowing any better. Then it started to rain and rain and rain. We still played fetch, but for much shorter times.

 

Taught Sammie some wonderful and very fun tricks in rapid succession - bow, speak, whisper, yell, shake yourself off, and more. She loved it even more than fetch. Highly recommend this book, I think I still have it.

 

Ruth and SuperGibbs

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  • 2 weeks later...

The two books that were of the most use to me were "Culture Clash" by Jean Donaldson, and "Adam's Task" by Vicki Hearne. Not training books per se, but they supply a lot of useful information to understanding the canine mind, which, one must agree, helps to apply whatever training philosophy and techniques one chooses.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Definitely late for christmas, but I have been using Train Your Dog Like a Pro by Jean Donaldson.

 

After doing a lot of research on dog training books this is the one that I decided to use as my main obedience training guide. It is definitely a step-by-step book. Everything is spelled out for you (kinda annoying sometimes, but it works). I really do mean that it is step-by-step. It goes through the progression of each command. I don't have the book in front of me, but something like the command "sit" will have 5 progressions. So she will tell you how to guide the dog into a sit. Then she will tell you how to transition that into a hand signal. Then you will be able to add the word command. It also spells out when you can push forward and when you need to drop back. Also, she definitely emphasizes the "stay" command. She kinda sees this as the cornerstone for all advance obedience work because stay is basically an exercise in impulse control for the dog. Her process is frustrating at times because I want to move forward faster (right now I am working on 2 minute stays, super boring for me, the dog might be better at those then I am), but I think it will pay off.

 

I've read/skimmed a few training books and Train Your Dog Like a Pro is my favorite, at least when it comes to obedience training.

 

My mom who does fostering for a leader dog organization really likes Puppy Problems? No Problem! by Brenda Aloff. She might be biased though because she goes to the author's classes. But I did look through the book and it is definitely pretty impressive. I might have gotten it if I wasn't already working with Jean Donaldson's book.

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I haven't seen this books but I had a book like that and one of the things that I found difficult is it didn't offer an alternative if the dog didn't offer that behaviour. Does she offer options in that sense?

 

For example it took me ages to teach one dog to sit and the book, and others I saw, had 'use a toy he loves' or 'roll a ball and get her to chase it'. But she didn't grab or chase inanimate objects of any kind ever. I eventually just had to reward looking at object, reward poking object, reward open-mouthed poking, reward grabbing etc.

 

We're working on 'stay' too at the minute. I found Heather Houlahan's 'paper plate recall drill' very good for that. I'm sure you're happy with your methods and have a plan you're working from- just when stuff helps me I like to mention it in case it helps a lurker too.

 

Edit: for 'sit' in the second paragraph read 'fetch', my bad.l

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So the answer for your question is kinda a yes and no. I say no only because she doesn't ever say something like "if you dog doesn't sit then do this". But I say yes because her training starts by assuming the dog won't offer the behavior right away. I've got the book in front of me now and "sit" actually has 10 progressions. The first behavior she has you reward for is just getting the dog to crane it's neck. Then she has you reward for deeper and deeper knee bends. She spells out 5 progressions of sit before she actually gets to the full "sit". Of course, she mentions that some dogs will offer a sit easily and you can skip some steps. Then she has a "push, drop, or stay" progression. If you get 5 out of 5 repetitions for a command then you can mover forward (push), if you only getting 3-4 out of 5 then you stay, and if you are getting less then you drop back to an earlier step.

 

I won't say that this book is perfect, but I do find it to be a really useful book. A trainer would probably find the book super boring due to the amount of instructions that are provided, but that is what I needed. Also, the book does assume that you are always teaching each command with a food reward to guide each behavior. I was kinda hoping for some tips on how I might do this using a toy because my pup finds toys a lot more rewarding then food. So I tend to just teach new behaviors with food then once he has them down I switch to using a toy intermittently to reinforce each command.

 

Also, thanks for the link to the paper plate recall drill, that is awesome! I'm definitely going to be doing that!

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Has anyone read In Defence of Dogs: Why Dogs Need Our Understanding by John Bradshaw?:

 

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2011/jul/17/dog-training-john-bradshaw-animal-behaviour?CMP=share_btn_fb

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