Customer Reviews

Dog Training For Dummies

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

 

 

This book gets put down a lot because it has a couple of flaws. However, overall, it is a great book on Dog Training, and it contains a lot of information the person trying to train their dog really needs to know. This book helps you get inside your dog's head and understand why he does and does not listen. It puts the world as your dog sees it in perspective and shows you how to communicate on his level so you can help him understand exactly what is expected of him.

If you read this book you will become someone who can control their dog and have a happy, obedient canine companion.

Like another reviewer, I am also a veterinary technician and I strongly disagree with her dismissal of many things in this book on the basis that the authors aren't "medically trained". These authors are very experienced and respected people in the dog training/health fields. Their advice on rabies vaccination timing and commercial dog foods are, I believe, valid. The veterinary field (vets and technicians)is not a monolithic block. I personally know many licensed veterinarians
who agree wholehearedly with the health issues in this book. As someone who has a degree in veterinary technology (plus human physical therapy) I am dismayed by the attitude of many of my colleagues that vettech/vet school is the only place to receive valid training and information. There is minimal training inbehavior and nutrition.
I have found that the Volhard's training methods work quite well, and they are also followed and respected by many canine breeding/training professionals.

It was helpful especially when I got my puppy, It was effective.

I was very excited when I got my new puppy. I have always wanted a dog. I was convinced that my dog would be the next movie superstar dog. I got this book so I could train her and get her ready for her up an coming movie rolls (Im such a wishfull thinker). I enjoyed reading the book because aside from the fact that is is a training book, it has a sense of humor, it is entertaining. I have had my dog now for almost 5 years. She is chubby, does not walk well on a leash and about the only trick she does is gives you her paw. But I still have no regrets about the book because I really enjoyed reading it. (Besides.....I do not think the book was the problem....I kinda spoiled her too much)
Oh, and as a side note...my dog is a STAR in my eyes!!! :)

Okay, I'm a bit harsh calling the authors themselves 'dummies' but there were some serious flaws in this one. They seem to have very old fashioned and outdated beliefs on dog behavior, psychology and training. The authors don't go into depth about most of their topics and at times the book is incomprehensible. The complexity of dog behavior is overlooked and they seem to believe that their one approach to every problem is going to work. I would recommend this book if you have no time to take your dog to a class or trainer, have no time for more in depth books, want no personal freedom for your dog and prefer outdated opinions... no, wait... I wouldn't recommend this book at all. The dog personality test was just awful and really didn't help.

It does have good material but nothing that you wouldn't find in any dogs 101 book.

I am one of those people who enjoys reading cookbooks and dog training books. I rarely cook and never well, with an equivalent depressed performance in the canine management domain. This is a book however, that is only good for reading, and in that area, it isn't bad, just not an `ah hah' experience. The "pack behavior" business is covered as it is everywhere, and there are the obligatory breed specific blurbs, but when it comes to the real getting up and doing the stuff, it falls well below the mark. For instance, some on the leash 'figure eight' move that would be a real effort for a motor/direction impaired person like me, is merely a bad picture and a few lines. They couldn't really have intended you to do it. I have found that when it comes to directions with dogs, people are pretty dense, or like me, lazy and unmotivated. People take a long time to grasp the main idea as in keeping them in the crate or a small area until they are completely trained. That seems quite simple, however, with the average people attention span and ability to follow directions, I have observed, (as I am also on an internet dog training E-letter,) a breakdown in human cognition with regard to this most universal and simple rule. Perhaps these authors are wise to that group of reading non-doers of which I am one, and have generated a book just for us as though, it were a cookbook or Gourmet Magazine. Even so, there are better reads, and your dog may even, by fluke, benefit from a wiser purchase.

This is a poorly written book. I own 7 or 8 Dummies books, have borrowed and read another 5 or 6 from the library, and have been pleased with them. This is the worst Dummies book I've seen. There are redundant paragraphs, contradictory statements, and generally poor communication of information in many sections. For example, the section on dog collars is extremely confusing. They refer to a slip-on collar, but it is not pictured, and they do not describe it. So what is a slip-on collar? - it could be just about any type of dog collar. After asking a few dog trainers, I concluded that the authors must have meant a choker collar, which is how 99.9% of people refer to it. So why not just say, slip-on collar which is commonly known as a choker collar? Next, the authors talk about a nylon snap-around collar, which they highly recommend, and say that these are available in all major pet shops and pet stores. Wrong. PetSmart, Petco, and the other major pet shops do not carry such an item, nor have they ever heard of it. I finally found one (that might be what they were referring to) at an obscure internet site, and they were known as Mountain collars. If the authors would have at least offered a brand name, I would have had some clue as to where to start my search. Next, they have a drawing of a collar, and the caption simply refers to it as 'a training collar'. Well, they've discussed 3 or 4 different types of training collars. So which one is pictured? Reading this book was extremely frustrating, and often a waste of my time. Purchasing it was a waste of my money. From now on I'll no longer assume that every Dummies book is a quality book.

Am I mistaken, do the authors have a degree in veterinary medicine? I didn't think so. As a veterinary technician, I know medical advice when I see it and the authors are certainly not qualified to dispense that. They give their opinions as medical fact, and it is not so. They give spaying and neutering a bad name by exaggerating the so-called "negative behavioral changes" associated with that, without hardly mentioning the endless positive changes. They also warn owners that giving a rabies vaccine at the time of the surgery will have "devastating effects" on the animal. In truth, at the very worst, the animal will not mount a sufficient immune reaction and the vaccine won't work. As far as the nutrition section is concerned, if you feed your dog a premium dog food, you don't need supplements or raw meat. Basically, I don't think the authors should be giving advice on medical issues without a degree in nutrition or health sciences. If you can ignore all that and promise yourself not to listen to it, I do recommend this book. It does have some great training advice as well as information to help you understand pack animals and why a dog acts like it does.

There are so many dog training books that are so much better, like, anything by Carol Lea Benjamin, or Job Michael Evans, The Evans Guide for Housetraining Your Dog by Job Michael Evans,
Reading The Dog's Mind: Learning to Train from the Dog's Point of View by John Holmes, Mary Holmes, Dog Behavior: An Owner's Guide to a Happy Healthy Pet by Ian Dunbar, Right from the Start: Care and Training for the Life of Your Dog
by Race Foster, Marty Smith, How Dogs Learn by Mary R. Burch, Jon S. Bailey, Puppy Care and Training: An Owner's Guide to a Happy Healthy Pet by Bardi McLennan , All Dogs Need Some Training by Liz Palika Yhe Dog's Mind: Understanding Your Dog's Behavior ,by Bruce Fogle,Dog Training for Kids,by Carol Lea Benjamin , Dog Training: An Owners Guide to a Happy Healthy Pet by Amy Ammen Dog Training for Children and Parents by Michael Tucker, Mother Knows Best: The Natural Way to Train Your Dog,by Carol Lea Benjamin What All Good Dogs Should Know: The Sensible Way to Train by Jack Volhard, A-Z Of Dog Training and Behavior,by Patrick Holden, Kay White Dog-Friendly Dog Training by Andrea Arden ---- just to name a few! All of these are much better than the the dummies one, which is dumb.
Abby