Pet the Puppy Book

I've never been so confused from a dog training book in my life. "Hi, we are inspired by St. Francis" but then you discipline dogs by cuffing them under the chin, the "shakedown," and the alpha rollover. I don't believe for a minute that St. Francis would approve.

Here's what I like about the book: their concept of outdoor kenneling and making sure the dog has the right kind of setup, raising/training puppies, the "Round Robin Recall" exercise, and their suggestion of not training your dog to attack but instead fake it.

What I don't like - Road working your dog...you've got to be kidding me! Jog a dog on a bike, don't "Turner & Hooch" the dog out the car window. That is just absurd! A million things can go wrong and I can't believe they'd put that in a book to be attempted by desperate people looking to fix their dog's behavior issues (people like that will try anything without thinking through it.) The disciplining of course was blowing my mind. If you have to take it that far with your dog, then YOUR DOG DOESN'T LIKE YOU. It really is that simple. Teaching a puppy to not bark in the car does not consist of stopping the car and beating the crap out of it, rolling it, etc. If you have to do that, then you shouldn't own a dog. Teaching a dog to not jump by squeezing its paws, giving it a swift bump to the abdomen with your knee with surprise and drama = idiotic. And my personal favorite...older dogs that potty in the house means physical discipline may be in order. (Although, I'm wondering if they actually meant "healthy, adult dogs with attitudes" versus "geriatric dogs that are too old to hold it." Hopefully they didn't mean the latter.)

Should you get this book to learn how to train your dog? ABSOLUTELY NOT. The only thing you can get out of this book is learning about bad dog behavior and how it develops. It does not show you how to cure it (and if you have a truly aggressive dog, be prepared to be made into mincemeat if you try any of their suggestions, because BUDDY, you'll have to sleep sometime and that's when your dog will pay you back.)