Can anyone recommend some dog training books available in stores, for an older dog (not puppy) who has already picked up some bad habits that need correcting?
Some Obvious Benefits of Dog Training - Help For Owners of Older Dogs
Recommended Answer:Cesar Millan is a very divisive subject in the dog world. He obviously gets a lot of exposure through his books and TV show. I'll lead you to sort out his merits and mistakes for your own. What I will say is this: Millan is a big believer in "alpha" issues and he's less about "training" a dog than he is about dealing with behavioral issues. That's an important point to make: just because a dog doesn't do what you want it to do doesn't mean it's got behavioral problems. Most of the time when a dog piddles in the house, it's not about alpha issues but poor house training.
Let me offer a couple of basic philosophical positions I take on dog training (nothing unique to me--almost all outstanding trainers and performance dog handlers would tell you this stuff). Dogs want our approval. Dogs do best when they have a job (to provide focus and purpose) and a dog without a job suffers and is generally misbehaved. Dogs don't generalize well (you can teach "come" inside and the dog doesn't automatically get that "come" means the same thing at the park). Dogs learn better by reward and praise than they do with punishment. Dogs learn better when you teach them to DO something than to NOT do something (ie: easier to teach a dog to assume a down-stay position when someone comes to the door than to teach them "don't jump up on a stranger."). Finally, dogs aren't people. Stuff that a human or even a child would "get" a dog won't. So you've got to keep all of this in mind and when training a dog. And finally, whoever said you can't teach an old dog new tricks is wrong when it comes to dogs. In fact, old dogs learn better than new dogs (better attention span and focus--puppies are ADD).
Two best online sources for dog books are:
--dogwise (www.dogwise.com) and cleanrun (www.cleanrun.com).
--Amazon or a Borders may have more total books and reviews but a most of the reviews are clueless--often by someone who knows nothing about dogs or it's the first book they read. I recall reading an Amazon glowing review of a book I'd never heard of before, did a little research and then discovered that the book advocated training a dog with a shock collar at all times--using pain as the way to train.
--If it is a reputable book about training dogs, cleanrun and dogwise have it.
One thing I definitely recommend that you read up on is clicker training. Clicker training is based on classical operant conditioning research validated by a century of animal and human research (remember Pavlov's dogs taught to drool at the sound of a bell?). The basis for clicker training is what ALL reputable animal trainers use (well, at Sea World they use whistles with the dolphins and orca's--but the whistle is the same principle). While Karen Pryor's book "Don't Shoot the Dog" explains the principle of clickers brilliantly (for humans and dogs), it's more on theory and concept than practice. For clicker application I'd recommend:
--Quick Clicks by Smith and Book
--Clicker Training for Obedience by Spector
--Karen Pryor's DVD/Video "Clicker Magic"
I owned and trained 15 dogs without a clicker. Number 16 I use a clicker on. I have no idea how I did it previously without a clicker. Using a clicker is so much faster and accurate. Especially with a dog you've got some issues with.
As for training issues, it really depends upon where your dog is and what the issues are. For instance, if your dog has received little training and is a bit like an uneducated child than I'd recommend any of Patricia McConnell's books ("Family Friendly Dog Training" is a good one but also "The Other End of the Leash" is good as well). I would also look at Shirley Chong's website (www.shirleychong.com). She has an outstanding section on recalls (the only thing better is Leslie Nielsen's "Really Reliable Recalls" DVD), a section on "101 Uses for a Box" (which is a great training game--it teaches your dog to look to you and look for ways to please you) plus a lot of basic obedience stuff (she has it set up as a mini-course or progression).
If it's about basic obedience, I'd look at Susan Garrett's "Ruff Love."
If your dog isn't a biddable dog (ie: it's in his nature not to obey, he's a problem-solver who will do what he thinks is best) than look at Jane Killion's "When Pigs Fly"
If your dog is reactive and because of stress, fear, over-reaction becomes a mess around other dogs or strangers, than look at either the "In-Focus" series by Deborah Jones and ? (sorry, can't remember her last name) or especially Leslie McDevitt's great book "Control Unleashed."
Two other resources I want to share with you that by themselves would be insufficient but combined with one of the books above will augment it well:
--"Crate Games" by Susan Garrett, a great DVD. It talks about how to use your crate to train your dog. Imagine a situation where your dog RAN to get into his crate. And when you opened it, only came out when you released him. And while it seems like it's about just training to like the crate, it's actually about training your dog in a host of different things (control, focus, behavior, obedience) but using your crate.
--www.clickertraining.com which is Karen Pryor's website. Tons of really great short articles there (how to use a clicker to stop your dog from barking at strangers, how to use a clicker to prevent your dog from jumping up on people at the door). By itself, the website won't teach you all you need to know about using a clicker (or rather it's set up so the articles don't follow sequentially so you'd have a hard time learning how to use a clicker just from the site articles). But in combination with one of the obedience books, you'd learn a lot from this site.
No-one can really recommend the perfect book for you because it's a question of your dog's personality traits, what training your dog has had previously, what you're like as a handler, and what the "bad habits" are.
Dog Training vs Horse Training
- Click Here for a Well-Trained Dog by Deborah A. Jones, Ph.D
Power of Positive Dog Training by Pat Miller
If Only They Could Speak by Nicholas Dodman
Dogs Behaving Badly by Nicholas Dodman
The Dog Who Loved Too Much by Nicholas Dodman
How Dogs Think: Understanding the Canine Mind by Stanley Coren
Don't Shoot the Dog!: The New Art of Teaching and Training by Karen Pryor
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
21 Days to a Trained Dog by Dick Maller
Everything You Need to Know about House Training Puppies and Adult Dogs by Lori Verni
- Any book by cesar millian you might also want to catch his show the Dog Whisperer on the National Geographic Channel or see if your local library has some videos by him.
- Don't Shoot The Dog, and The Power Of Positive Dog Training are good books. Anything by Dr. Ian Miller will be great. Also, Culture Clash by Jean Donaldosn, and The Other End Of The Leash by Patricia McConnell are a couple of other great books. These dog books have more up-to-date training methods that focus on positive dog training.
