Train Your Dog Positively: Understand Your Dog and Solve Common Behavior Problems Including Separation Anxiety, Excessive Barking, Aggression, Ho: ... ... Housetraining, Leash Pulling, and More!

It's not so much a how-to book, though it does have step by step instructions to help the issues it listed, along with some step by steps for teaching certain cues.Its more of an overall guide to help people understand why dogs act the way they do, and give tips on training as a whole.Personally I love Victoria Stilwells methods - they are effective, kind, and will work with ANY dog because they are reward based, meaning you use whatever motivates your dog most (food, toys, play) to reward them for doing well.Some people misunderstand the term 'positive reinforcement' or 'reward based' to mean you never say no, and you bribe the dog so it will only work for treats. That just isn't true. You still correct unwanted behaviours - but you have to work to find the cause (for example, instead of just telling your dog not to bark, you have to look at WHY your dog barks - is it afraid of something, is it bored, is it agressing? Then take steps to help its fear, control its aggression, or relieve its boredom). She also teaches distraction and redirection techniques that help turn unwanted behaviours into wanted ones. As for the 'bribery' arguement - again, not true. The rewards are used as a motivator at the beginning of training. Its a method that has been scientifically proven to work with most animals. With dogs however, because they are social creatures with a desire to please their people, you can phase out the rewards - once they understand the cue you are giving them and perform it well, then rewards become intermittent, until they become praise only.Some might not agree with her hard line view on punitive techniques and quick fixes (eg: shock and spray collars). But being from an area where its illegal for trainers to use those methods I can tell you that they are not needed. You don't have to make a dog even slightly uncomfortable to train it well, no matter how 'badly behaved' it is.

I just love this book, it is even better than her first book.This new type of dog training is really going to take off as it is a gentle training that dogs really take to.It will reassure a lot of dog lovers who have been told in the past that you are the boss and must always act like one, OK you have to be the dogs leader to keep him safe and be able to fit around your family as part of the family,it gives great pointers for behaviour that is negative like pulling on lead, food guarding etc it educates the humans why dogs do these things, dogs don't do negative things to displease you they do it because they are scared, bored, lack of exercise,most negative behaviours I found was because the dog is in fear of something or not been socialized or bad breeding (human cause) If you want to let you dog sleep on your bed or sit on the settee that is up to you there is no such thing as "a dog must be at the bottom of the ladder" and must never be allowed to do any of this, this book does help you though if your dog does jump on the furniture and you don't want them to , it give really good advice and positive training to deter this. Cant say enough for this book, it will be like my dog Bible I will refer to it time after time.

Most of this was what she does on TV so just watch the program

This book is a 'must' for all dog lovers, trainers and behaviourists. Victoria writes with a true passion for her work and belief in 'positive' training methods, supported by reference to scientific research and real-life examples of how she has helped dogs and their guardians over the years. She takes a direct, no holes barred approach, which is what is needed to even begin to eradicate the all too common culture of training dogs using harsh, out-dated methods that rely on dominance and so-called pack theory. It has been an engaging, informative and interesting read from start to finish. Victoria doesn't go into vast depths of detail on each topic but provides enough information to make this an excellent book for future reference, whilst allowing the reader the opportunity to engage in further research, if they wish to do so. The Resources section recommends some really good books and further points of reference. I'm so glad I purchased this book. It has reinforced the way I already work and encouraged me to continue with my education so that I may help others to better understand dogs and treat them like the amazing, sentient beings that they are. Keep up the good work, Victoria! The dogs need you.

My Shi-Poo is an awful barker, slowly getting him less so. I also use the advice to stop him jumping up at people, again work in progress

We purchased a new puppy in July last year ,and we soon found out this puppy was not going to be anything like our three other Rough Collies ,we went to the Puppy course at our dog training club and although our Puppy was Very out going and nothing was was going to put her off .after the Puppy course we sighed in for beginners course ,we had had plenty of dogs books through our hands but when I saw this one I knew this was going to be different so I ordered it . What a good buy this book is well written from the beginning to the end You can either just read the section you are interested in or like me I found it was so well written that I read cover to cover.You can keep looking at this book and work problems out for yourself like we are in the process of doing now as we have never had a Puppy who is so mad for food she barks all the time you are preparing it.

I bought this book and also Zak George’s 2 dog training books in anticipation of getting my new Border Collie puppy Tess. I love all three. Stilwell’s book has more of an ‘easy read’ feel to it, with anecdotes and helpful stories to understand the positive reinforcement training strategy - I’m totally sold on this because of this book. Compared to Zak George’s books, it’s a little less easy to navigate say if you want quick instructions that you can flick to easily, but still gives helpful detailed descriptions for training. Would 100% recommend if you’re unsure about what training method to use - after reading this you will no longer be unsure!!