Shaping Success

by Susan Garrett

Why reinvent the wheel? Shaping Success contains a career's worth of training experience. From puppy basics like recalls, rear end awareness, and distraction training to games for building motivation to a step-by-step program for training incredibly reliable contacts and weave poles, Shaping Success shares the training program of one of the world's most respected dog trainers, Susan Garrett. The book covers both controlling drive and building drive, and it includes an explanation of Susan's world-famous contact training and 2x2 weave pole training methods. Plus it's an entertaining and thought-provoking read that dog owners as well as serious dog trainers will enjoy

Genres: Dogs, Nonfiction, Unfinished

248 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

A world-leading educator of dog trainers, Susan is also one of the most successful agility competitors of the last three decades. She has won multiple Gold Medals at National or World Championship events with every dog she has ever owned over the past 30 years. Susan was one of the very first dog trainers to share knowledge online when she opened her "Clicker Dogs" website many years ago. Susan has helped hundreds of thousands of people enjoy a great relationship with their dogs through her workshops and keynote speaking around the world, award winning books, DVDs, magazine articles, blog posts, podcasts, free dog training and dog agility video series, and online dog training programs.

Reviews

[Virginia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was hoping that I would like this a lot more than I did. There are a few things that I learned that could apply to my dog & myself, but Garrett seems to so effortlessly move through the steps of training a difficult dog that this mostly left me depressed that we will never have the time or opportunity to train with the same intensity that she did. I also think that she tried too hard to make this book into two things at once: a training guide, and a personal story. Neither one was really fully presented, and both suffered for it. Either one alone could have been a great book, but Garrett kept skipping back and forth - sometimes using Buzz as an example for her training theories, and sometimes using her training theories as a vehicle for Buzz anecdotes. Buzz himself got lost in the mix.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was another re-read for me. (I'm blasting through the dog books on my dog-training shelf.) I loved the story part of this book; sometimes crazy Buzz reminds me of crazy Ramses. Reading Shaping Success right after reading the puppy Control Unleashed book was so interesting, because both Susan Garrett and Leslie McDevitt describe similar "problems" with their border collie puppies, but they have very different ways of "fixing" them. I love the puppy games in this book and the way Susan breaks down how she trains agility obstacles.

[Alejandro Sanoja · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a great book. The way the specific steps are explained, when sharing how to train specific behaviors, is brilliant.

The only objection I have is that it is focused too much on the competition component. But I guess that was the point of the book. So, I would recommend it to ANYONE who wants to learn how to train a dog, yet, you must know that you might want to skip some parts as these are focused on specific behaviors a dog needs to learn to compete in agility, etc.

Besides that, the rest of the book is full of value. I would recommend reading it all, even if your dog is never going to compete because you will learn a lot about the process in general and the mindset that is needed to shape a disciplined dog.

Flow: 3/5. I only finished the book when we knew we were getting a dog. That incentive help. Otherwise, the books can get slow because of how much about the competition is shared. It took me several months.

Actionability: 5/5. It doesn't get better than this when it comes to step-by-step behavior shaping.

Mindset: 5/5. You will learn everything about what it means to understand how to shape the behavior of a dog.

Some Of My Highlights:

"If all do owners understood the laws of how all animals learn, they would learn to allow the dog to offer responses that the owner could choose to reinforce or not."

"Gradually you can increase the time or intensity of the exposure as the dog starts to respond more favorably."

"Be on the lookout for self-rewarding activities and be certain you are controlling the rewards so the dog learns that you are more reinforcing than anything else in his environment."

"There are no ringwise dogs; there are only trainers that do not maintain the same criteria in the ring as they do at home."

"In order to gain stimulus control over your dog's responses, do not name the response until you are certain the dog understands all of the criteria you have laid out for it."

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is primarily focused on agility training through the experience of training one dog in particular. I do not anticipate doing much agility, and not very seriously to be sure; however, I still found it a good read. In addition to agility specific training Susan Garrett covers theory of dog training and tells her story of training a dog without any verbal or physical corrections. I love that she includes moments of "frustration, to the point of tears", mistakes that she made and how she would do/does things differently now. She also includes games that she used along the way - some of which I will be doing with my dog just for fun. And the big lure for me to buy the book in the first place was her explanation of using a head halter as a training tool for loose leash walking and helping to decrease distractions on walks (as well as how to use it to decrease reactivity/lunging/barking at other dogs on walks), and how to wean them off the halter. There is also an appendix on the use and misuse of time-outs and one on training progressions through building confidence, increasing challenges and testing understanding. There are definitely sections of this book I will be revisiting as I move through my training journey, and the rest I considered an enjoyable read.

[Karen DeForest · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book! A must read. Susan Garrett shares her successes but also her struggles as she works through creating a bond and communications with her high drive border collie. Susan is openly honest and through her trials and tribulations and successes, we, the readers, reap much. I love Susan's wit and Carisma! She is so motivating and enlightening.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually finished this book, a very helpful tale of agility training, some months ago. A star off because I think Garrett sacrificed her dog’s long term health with excessive training and skeletal stress.

[Daniela Lešáková · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very nice training diary of excellent trainer.

[Brooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a helpful read before we bring our puppy home in a few weeks. Makes me realize how very little I understood about communicating with our furry friends. Lovely lessons told via her experience with a turbo charged lover of life pup.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Susan Garrett is the epitome of positive training. In this book she describes her training and learning process with a dog whom most handlers would have given up on or called a lost cause. In addition to many tips and advice on positive reinforcement, Susan also unknowingly highlights that fact that all dogs are different and unique. Buzz, being the subject of this book, was very very lucky to find an owner as dedicated and loving as Susan.

[Misa212 · Rating 5 out of 5]

As the description states, this is a book for people who enjoy a bit of back story in addition to their instruction. Buzz and Susan are an incredible team, and I find myself reading and re-reading this book for help and inspiration as I train my young, high-drive dog. Susan reminds us that humor and humility are crucial in the undertaking of any journey!

[Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspiring with a lot of good training tips.

[John Goshorn · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books on behavioral conditioning. I think about the lessons learned often. Works on dogs, dolphins, children and co-workers.