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The only North American to study and work with the renowned Barbara Woodhouse, Brian Kilcommons solves all those bad dog problems that drive owners crazyand shows how to raise a puppy into a happy, perfectly behaved dog. The trick is to understand how dogs think, read their body language, and communicate with patience, praise, and clarity.
Customer Review: Great Instructions! Methods now "outdated" but still useful
What I love about this book is the step by step instructions on how to train a dog. Kilcommons tells you exactly what you are supposed to do and then shows you with pictures (sadly black and white). He also offers several different methods of training one command. Because of this, Good Owners Great Dogs is a valuable resource to have. He also takes a no nonsense approach for establishing control of your dog. The only drawback to this book is the training methods are very physcial (but not cruel). For most dogs, training that uses treats to guide dogs into position (which he does cover a little bit for some commands) results in the dog learning much quicker. However, it is very helpful to see the different options available. Kilcommons also uses the Woodhouse training collar (not a choke collar) and quick "corrections" to enforce commands. While this is still a humane method, I believe there are better tools now that can be used instead. One great invention is the Haltee or Gentle Leader which allows you to have control over the dogs head movements and allows much much easier control of boistorous large dogs without a lot of effort. Overall, I reccomend this book but to be used along side a positive reinforcement approach of which there are many many books.
Customer Review: Great Advice for New Puppy Owners
Easy to understand, practical advice for owners or prospective owners of puppies. Ranks right up there with the books written by the Monks of New Skete.


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