Breaking Bad Habits in Dogs: Learn to Gain the Obedience and Trust of Your Dog by Understanding the Way Dogs Think and Behave

by Colin Tennant

Here in words and color illustrations are clear and humane methods for breaking annoying and destructive canine habits, and teaching the family dog lessons it will always remember. The author describes how dogs learn, then emphasizing humane treatment of animals, he explains how to control a dominant dog . . . how to make a dog respond when it is called . . . how to stop excessive barking . . . how to end destruction of furniture and garbage picking . . . how to deal with the dog who steals food . . . how to paper-train and house-train even the most difficult dog, and much more. The book is filled with more than 350 color, time-sequence photos that demonstrate training methods step by step.

Genres: Nonfiction, Animals

208 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2003

Reviews

[Tobin · Rating 3 out of 5]

If only my dog would just read it and save me some time.

[Angela]

I only skimmed this one. Some good stuff, but the author frequently repeats these approaches: ignore dog, restrain with a hook system in living areas, don't allow in bedrooms, withhold foods except during training sessions. Not a big fan.

[Kat Ice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely not on my reading list this year but trying to learn some different ways to help with certain things Moana isn’t really picking up but I really liked this book! It shows why the dog might have these issues and a ton of different ways to fix them. Very informative!!

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Helpful!

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a no-nonsense book about how to re-assert your leader status in the hierarchy of your pack. No punishment is used, rather a system of taking away the privileges that give your dog alpha status in the family and rewarding only appropriate behavior.

There is quite a lot of information about the types of aggression and how to deal with each type. Fear-aggression and dominance-aggression are separate categories with pictures and information about how to tell which behavior your dog is displaying. Each of these two categories is broken down further.

While the program the trainer recommends seems quite strict I can appreciate the techniques and would definitely use them if I had a dog that was aggressive towards my family.

Separation anxiety, excessive barking and destructive behavior are a few more issues covered by this book. A great deal of useful information if you have "Dogs Behaving Badly."

Nb: 6/10/08
One of my dogs turned into a bully shortly after I read this book and I did use the stricter program. Worked like a charm.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really like this book.

This is the updated version of this book.
There are a lot of things that I had never thought about when training a dog. I especially liked reading about why dogs like to "kiss" their masters. It was not what I had expected!

[Peta · Rating 2 out of 5]

While there is some good information the majority of this book is based on the outdated dominance theory. Not only that but it looses some credibility with me when the pictures of people training include negative body language toward the dog which can hinder training.

[Karetchko]

This may be a really good book about doggie discipline. I don't know, though, because my dog ate it.

Apparently it's kind of tasty!

[Kat · Rating 3 out of 5]

This books has a lot of good information and tips, but some of the information seems a bit outdated and harsh.