Customer Reviews

How to Be Your Dog's Best Friend: The Classic Manual for Dog Owners

5 star:		(66)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

Don't let the bad reviews scare you... this book is too valuable to allow yourself to be dissuaded by politically-correct morons who take the monk's ideas out of context. Truly, every bad review I have read on Amazon completely overstate and misrepresent the monk's ideas on physical discipline. The monks do NOT advocate beating your dog. They also ONLY support physical discipline for SEVERE transgressions, such as violent behavior by the dog or serious household destruction, NOT as a way to teach your dog to sit or stay. Also, they are very specific about how to use physical discipline, which is helpful... for instance, they say you should never use an object to hit your dog, you should never hit a dog from behind or above, and in fact you shouldn't need to hit your dog unless ABSOLUTELY necessary, when other methods fail. Physical discipline is NOT a first recourse for the monks.

Having said that, they also try to emphasize (in a very helpful way) that a dog is not a person! All too often, people anthropomorphize their dogs. They are DOGS! The monks understand the animal that is a dog, and try to have this understanding be as independent as possible from humanity, aside from the human-dog relationship. Therefore, dogs expect a certain degree of physical discipline that is entirely appropriate (look at how a mother disciplines her pups) which MAY NOT BE APPROPRIATE FOR HUMANS! Do not mistake dogs for people... the monks are not suggesting that you use physical discipline on your children!

You may well find an effective approach that does not involve physical discipline... which is fine. According to the monks, however, this only serves to alleviate your own HUMAN feelings of guilt. The monks simply believe that physical discipline is appropriate and non-cruel when done appropriately and with a high level of respect for the dog.

As far as the rest of the book goes, it is a complete tome of all aspects of the human-dog relationship. Even if you don't agree with physical discipline, there is no other more complete book touching on each subject. Do not deprive yourself of this excellent overview of dog raising. The monks may not go into many details for some of the subjects, but they provide an extensive list for further reading on specific subjects, which is much appreciated. All in all, an outstanding reference book. Highly recommended to anyone to read cover-to-cover before even getting a dog, regardless of your agreement with them on all issues.

The first day I had my rescue dog he snapped at my 1-year-old daughter. I was contemplating sending him back, but someone suggested this book to help teach him "pack" behavior, i.e. that he is lower in the pack hierarchy than my daughter. It wasn't long before my daughter could safely do anything with him. I was also able to housebreak him, crate train him, and just make him a good dog based on the training techniques.

Yes, the discipline techniques can seem a little extreme, but they are by no means inhumane. And they WORK because the dog understands. My dog usually "got it" after one time and stopped the behavior. I have not had to discipline him for anything in several years. Now he understands from just a look, a word or a gesture. This book helped us get to that point. Highly recommended!

accepting the training methods that use harsh, physical treatment. I have viewed this book but stopped short at the "how hard should you hit your dog?|" section that just left a hollow spot in my stomach. If you are looking to be a trainer for your dog, please do some reading on canine behaviour first. Read some books by Stanley Coren, Jean Donaldson, Karen Pryor, and Ian Dunbar to learn about canine behaviour (ie., domestic dogs are not wolves! The "you must be the dominant controller" views are not consistent with dog behaviour studies today) and then start down the dog training route. We have many canine behaviourists who are dog trainers, but we unfortunately have far too many dog trainers that are not canine behavourists, and there is a very important difference! Physical punishment, dominance, and other harsh training methods, while perhaps achieving what you need in the short term on some dogs, usually end up causing highly stressed/anxious and/or aggressive dogs. There are better ways to develop the preferred behaviours in your house pet and this information is based on sound canine behaviour studies which show the value of positive reinforcement for both the short term and long term gain for shaping behaviours. And, is it not time to move away from such outdated thinking that "might is right"? That is not the way canine behaviour is shaped most of the time, and there are much better ways.

This book is horribly outdated in many of it's training methods. Punishment and intimidation is not necessary for training your dog. "Scruff shakes", "alpha rolls", and similar methods have been discounted for years, but this book persists in advocating them. There are so many books available right here on Amazon[.com] that teach you how to teach your dog using scientifically proven positive methods that really work. Start by looking for books by Pat Miller, Andrea Arden, Sheila Booth, and Patricia McConnell. If you love your dog don't buy this book!

I trained my first dog using this book and another by the Monks of New Skete. Six years later, as I began training my second dog, I re-read the books and became uncomfortable with the degree of force recommended. So I looked farther afield and found other approaches that are kinder and better suited to how I want to work with my best friends. I recommend reading "Bones would rain from the sky" by Susanne Clothier before selecting a training approach.

Just so neigh to New Skete!
I am ashamed to admit that 8 years ago I used to recommend this book. With all of the new positive dog training knowledge and techniques, I am astonished that it still sits in Amazon's best seller list. DO NOT buy this book! The monks' techniques are primitive and crude. The scruff shakes and alpha rolls are among the many things that are just not necessary for daily training and are not building blocks for a healthy relationship with your dog. Your dog will learn to fear you, not respect you...so I ask...what's the point in having a dog? If only I had known of Jean Donaldson, Karen Pryor, and Ian Dunbar when I started training my dogs, I would not have the burden of guilt that I do today.

"How to Be Your Dog's Best Friend" is an ironic name for this book, seeing as it addresses (or even dares to ask) the question "How hard do you hit your dog?" With all of the newest studies proving that positive reinforcement is a more effective method than punishing bad behavior, why would you even want to hit the dog? In personal experience, punishing the dog did nothing. I regret using those techniques... and the damage will never be completely undone. The punishment "view" only works under the hand of a skilled, trained professional... and even then it is a dangerous and often misused tool. Instead, I would recommend books on building your relationship with your pet (like "Bones Would Rain from the Sky" by Suzanne Clothier) not destroying and damaging your dog's trust in you.

Do not use the techniques described in this book to train a puppy. The monks recommend behaving like the Alpha dog in order to "train" your dog. This entailed grabbing the puppy by the neck, flipping him over onto his back and screaming in his face. My puppy developed a fear of going to the bathroom after this method was used to potty train. He would hold it in for as long as he could, and when he couldn't hold it anymore, he would be desperate to find something to hide behind so I wouldn't see him go to the bathroom. It took me months to counteract this terrorism with a lot of praise and positive reinforcement. This book does not teach you "how to be your dog's best friend" - it teaches you how to turn your dog into a quivering neurotic mess that is too afraid of you to even think about doing something that you might disapprove of. A much better book with much better advice and much better methods is Barbara Woodhouse's "No Bad Dogs." I would never allow a monk from New Skete anywhere near my dog after the behavioral problems their methods created in my sweet, beautiful puppy.

This is a good book if you learned "traditional training techniques" such as dominance/subordination "conditioning" and are not interested in learning something new, positive and that works. If you have a dog that has ANY amount of dominance or aggression... DO NOT USE THIS BOOK! If you have a dog that is timid or shy DO NOT USE THIS BOOK! There are much better methods today using positive reinforcement where you will end up with a dog that actually loves you and is happy to please you rather than a dog that is doing what you ask "just because he is supposed to". If you are a woman DO NOT USE THIS BOOK! The methods may work for men who can physically dominate over their dogs, but please do not try these training techniques unless you can manhandle your dog into submission (and why would you want to do that anyway?)

The Monks have some good ideas about dogs. But many of their ideas are scary! They advise hitting a dog til it cries. This is abuse and should never, EVER be done. If you truly want to train your dog, try a more humane approach, like Karen Pyror. The Monks do understand a lot about dogs--but i would never enrust my precious Labrador to them, and I would never use their abusive methods of "training." The thought of so many dogs being cruely trained as a result of the Monks scares me.