Puppy and manners training

Helen Zulch and Daniel Mills (Author)
Hubble&Hattie an Imprint of Veloce Publishing Ltd; 1 edition (15 Jun. 2012)
ISBN-10: 1845844467
ISBN-13: 978-1845844462

Helen Zulch and Daniel Mills are both vets and specialists in dog behaviour, with a strong belief that preventing behavioural problems is better than trying to cure them once they’ve become bad habits. ‘Life Skills for Puppies’ looks at the skills that pups need to learn in order to be able to cope with the world. Each chapter focuses on a different skill, such as being able to listen, to follow rules, and to cope with surprises. There are also reminders to humans that pups need help with making choices, and that dogs have the right to be dogs, and even to say ‘no’. The aim is to teach pups to be resilient, and be able to cope with life as adults. The approach is more how to ‘raise’ a pup the way you’d raise a child, than how to train in the traditional sense.

Many guides to raising pups focus on more mundane aspects of puppyhood, like housetraining, with maybe some obedience training thrown in.  It’s refreshing to read a book that takes a more holistic approach to raising a dog, for example, teaching a dog to choose to exercise self-control, rather than simply teaching the dog to obey commands.  Raising dogs also involves two-way communication, but humans aren’t always able to understand what dogs try to tell us, so the photos are particularly useful, because they help with interpreting a pup’s body language. 

I actually bought this book to use with an adult dog, who had had very little contact with humans before he came to me. He needed to learn some lessons that he should have learnt as a pup, so it made sense tackle some of the gaps in his education by starting at a puppy’s level of understanding. ‘Life Skills’ proved very useful as a guide to remedial training with him. It might be worth the authors stressing in later editions that adolescents, and even adult dogs, are still capable of learning many life skills, even though these skills are best learnt as pups.

This is probably the most useful puppy book around for novices and, because the authors take an innovative, holistic approach, it’s also a very interesting guide for experienced owners, which can pinpoint gaps in training programmes. Very highly recommended.

Review by Alison Lever 2015

Amy Dahl
Willow Creek Press; 1 edition (14 Aug. 2012)
Format: Kindle Edition (File Size: 2329 KB)
ASIN: B008RO61GS

Amy Dahl is a well-respected, highly experienced retriever trainer, who writes clearly, and treats readers as intelligent adults. 10-Minute Obedience is easy to read and use as a guide to training, partly because it has a strong structure. There are four parts, on puppies, obedience, manners and tackling behaviour problems. This is a very practical ‘how to’ book. There are explanations as to why some solutions are offered rather than others, but there’s no overload of theory or ‘philosophy’. Dahl also looks at training from the dog’s point of view, which helps us understand how to communicate better with our dogs.

‘10-Minute Obedience’ takes a reward-based, ‘hands-on’ approach to obedience training. A ‘hands-on’ approach has both advantages and disadvantages. An advantage is that ‘hands on’ methods can be part of a wider programme to teach your dog to accept being handled. However, before you try ‘hands-on training’, you do need to be able to handle dogs in ways that relax them, which means being able to read canine body language, so that you can tell whether your dog is relaxed, or stressed.  It takes time to develop these skills.

Teaching your dog to accept, and even enjoy being touched is important whether or not you use hands-on methods. It makes it easier to check your dog for ticks and other problems, and makes your dog safer for vets, groomers, and other people who need to touch your dog. Helen Zulch and Daniel Mills’ ‘Life Skills for Puppies’ (1) devotes a whole chapter to teaching a pup to enjoy touch. If you haven’t worked on this already with your dog, it’s essential to do so before using a ‘hands on’ training method. You can learn faster with the help of an experienced trainer who can give you feedback on what your body language is telling your dog, and point out messages that your dog is sending you that you may have missed.

There’s a lot of emphasis on using a longe line for the initial stages of formal training in 10-Minute Obedience’. A great advantage of longe-line training is that it makes you very aware of what you’re communicating to the dog, because you have to focus on what you’re saying and on your body language.  It’s also useful because the dog is reminded that you exist, and has no opportunity to develop bad habits, like chasing rabbits rather than coming when called! 

Obviously, if you want off-leash reliability, you need to practice recalls off-leash as well. Dahl recommends doing this right from the start with young pups in a safe space, before they start more formal training with a longe line. The longe line training provides a solid foundation on which to build more advanced off-leash work in a safe space, with off-leash work in the open as the ultimate goal.

One minor grumble, the recommended equipment is described very precisely, and I found it difficult to buy everything by mail order. However, it’s quite possible to improvise, for example using a long line rather than the recommended cotton webbing longe line.

 I tried the methods in the book on two adolescent sheepdogs, and found that they didn’t always behave as expected. One dog, for example, tended to lie down rather than sit, and it was easier to get him into a sit with a kibble lure, rather than moulding him. The other sat beautifully right from the start, with just a hand signal. Obviously, training is much easier if you start with a pup, because adolescents have already developed habits that can be difficult to change.  This book may also be more geared to retrievers than to sheepdogs, which tend to be more biddable than retrievers, but also tend to have their own little quirks.  I still found the book very useful, adapting it to each dog, rather than religiously following the text.

Formal obedience training is extremely useful. A timely ‘sit’ can help dogs stay out of trouble, and a solid ‘stay’ can be a life-saver. There are other books which give a broader view of foundation training. Leslie McDevitt’s  ‘Control Unleashed: The Puppy Program’ (2), for example, focuses on ‘paying attention’, including arousal regulation, an area dealt with in less depth in Dahl’s book. McDevitt focuses more on strengthening the relationship between dog and handler, as a basis for agility or obedience work. The strength of Dahl’s book is that it very clearly sets out a modern approach to hands-on obedience training, so the two books can complement one another nicely.

Review by Alison Lever 2015

Notes

1) Zulch, Helen and Daniel Mills, B. (2012) Life Skills for Puppies.  Hubble and Hattie, Dorset

2) McDevitt, Leslie (2015) Control Unleashed: The Puppy Program. Clean Rub Publications, South Hadley MA

Turid Rugaas
Dogwise Publishing (1 July 2005)
ISBN-10: 1929242239
ISBN-13: 978-1929242238

This is a very useful book on a very important topic. Walking on a slack leash is an essential skill for a dog, and it makes it easier for owners to control the dog in the faceof distractions, like heavy lorries. This method works for most owners. It is not an instant cure, but you should see a quick improvement, and there is no need for special equipment. There is no guarantee that it will work for you, but it´s worth giving it a try.

Turid Rugaas
First Stone (24 Jan 2009)
ISBN-10: 1929242514
ISBN-13: 978-1929242511

This book looks at barking from the point of view of the dog, so helps owners understand why dogs bark, a step towards controlling the barking. There is help in tackling the problem of an extremely talkative dog, but as Turid Rugaas points out, sometimes our dogs are trying to tell us something with their barks, and it is worth listening. Very highly recommended.

Gwen Bailey
Dorling Kindersley (1 May 2009)
ISBN-13: 978-1405332347

A very good first general dog book for people who want practical advice rather than lots of pretty pictures. The book does deal with training, as the title implies, but also provides help right from the moment when you decide you want a dog. There is help with choosing a breed, developing exercise schedules, teaching basic obedience, and more complex skills. The illustrations make it easy to follow the instructions. It is refreshing to read books which focus on what dogs can do, as well as how to prevent them doing things we'd rather they didn't do. Yes, it is true that manners training is the solid bedrock, but training can go much further than this, to the benefit of both dogs and owners. This is one of a newer crop of canine guides which draws on recent research to help owners develop dogs' potential. A highly recommended starter book for anyone taking on a dog. Top of page

Ed. Terry Ryan and Theresa Shipp
Ringpress Books
ISBN: 1860541739

Terry Ryan has been an obedience instructor since 1968 and has held seminars and lectures all around the world while Theresa Shipp has 8 years experience training, having run her own dog school for the past 5 (at the time of publishing), specialising in puppies and gundogs. She is also a member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APBT), which was founded by the late John Fisher and is one of few recognised dog trainers' organisation whereby members must abide by a strict code of conduct and have gained academic and practical qualifications. To learn more about the APDT click here.

Read more: The Ultimate Puppy