Barron's Dog Training Bible

Barron's Dog Bibles

by Andrea Arden

This complete guide was written for new dog owners or for prospective pet parents who are about to acquire a canine companion. Author Andrea Arden is a well-known trainer who currently works on Animal Planet's shows, Underdog to Wonderdog, Dogs 101, and Cats 101. She begins by pointing out the importance of understanding canine psychology and a dog's learning capacity as necessary prerequisites to effective and humane training. Also discussed are several different approaches to dog training, canine temperaments, and impulse control. Her training directions cover topics that include-- Housetraining, with reference to short-term and long-term confinements, food, water and walking schedule, and more Socialization, with reference to handling and gentling, bite inhibition, introduction to people, socializing with kids, and more Dog Training 101: Foundation Exercises, which includes exercises in eye contact, teaching a dog to come when called, sit, down, and stand commands, walking on leash, and more Physical and Mental Activity, with advice on teaching games and tricks, agility training, and more Correcting Behavior Problems, including excessive barking, destructive chewing or digging, begging, and more B.E.S. Dog Training Bible is filled with instructive color photos, and features a spiral binding, which will keep the book open to chosen pages when training is in progress.

Genres: Dogs, Nonfiction

232 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 2011

Reviews

[Priyanka · Rating 5 out of 5]

You guessed it! I HAVE A DOG!!! I just got a wonderful little doodle named Naina. For those of you who don’t know, a doodle is a cross between a poodle and a golden retriever. Naina looks more golden retriever than anything but her white paws give an indication of the poodle in her. Here’s her picture!

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Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Genre: Non-fiction (I certainly hope so)

Age Recommended: ANYONE!

My dad checked out a few books about dogs in preparation for her arrival and this one was the best book and it was also the quickest read.

Dog Bible

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There are 10 chapters in this book- the first two and the last three chapters are about understanding your dog and the five n the middle are actually about how to train them. In this review, I think I’ll just give a short summary of all of the chapters. (I might combine some…)

1. This chapter was about how certain breeds of dogs do certain things based on their experiences or their environment growing up before coming to the household in which they will stay for hopefully, the rest of their life. It also talks about how it is necessary to set reasonable goals for a dog and how patience will be very important in training a dog. (I find that the author mentions patience a lot in this book)

2. Chapter two is a continuation and actually talks about similarities between dogs and wolves in terms of their behavior. This chapter also discusses the five senses of dogs and how they socialize using those senses. Chapter two is also about choosing a dog that best fits your household and lifestyle. Big dogs vs. little dogs and how the different breeds matter too.

3, 4 and 7. These three chapters are all about training your dog in terms of playing, communication, and commands. Chapter three focuses on the importance of positive reinforcement and chapter four teaches an owner how to go about doing that. Moreover, these two chapters educate the owner about how to be consistent with their commands and also how there should be a consistent treat for the dog as well. Chapter seven focuses on specific versus generalized commands and how well a dog will respond to a command based on the owner’s tone.

5. Chapter five is entirely about house training a dog. It emphasizes the importance of crate-training and a playpen. Dogs must learn the difference between the outdoors and indoors. This chapter also talks about the tone used when talking with dogs. Even when the dog pees indoors, owners often scold the dog. This leads to one of two things: the dog will be traumatized, or it will think that this is a game because we tend to raise our voices when we play with our dogs as well. In essence, raising your voice to scold a dog is a terrible idea.

6. This chapter six is shorter than the others but not less important. It talks about social behaviors between dogs and how to know when to stop two dogs from getting too close to each other. This chapter covers everything from restraining your dog to knowing when it’s safe to let people touch your puppy.

8, 9, & 10. These three chapters are all about the psychology of a dog. They reinforce ideas from past chapters about scolding your dog, when to give a treat to your dog, and how to know when your dog is out of it. These chapters discuss the mental problems than can occur with dogs and I find that chapter nine has some very educational examples as well.

That’s all for this review! I believe this is one of my few non-fiction book reviews and I hope you liked it!

[Gail · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book very helpful. It gives lots of background understanding about "Earn to Learn" and positive reinforcement training. It also goes in depth into just how to teach the foundational commands - Watch Me, Touch, Sit, Down, Stand, Stay, Leave It, Come, settle on mat (go to bed), and more. Best is to start with Capture - reward the behavior when you see it happening naturally. Use Luring to help the dog perform the action. Shaping is good for moving behavior closer and closer to what you want. Highly recommended if you are preparing to welcome a new puppy or rescue dog to your family.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gives a great background in training techniques and tips on how to get ahead of potential problems with a new puppy/dog. It lists the tricks with various styles of training including clicker (which is what my husband and I use). It also emphasized positive reward and negative punishment, which worked wonders in turning our puppy from a nipping excreter on four-legs to a potty-trained, polite dog. He still has his quirky moments, but this book helped us get a handle on him. The reason I give it four stars instead of five is because not all the tricks are described using the same methods, such as the clicker. So for some tricks, we could go by the book and others we'd have to patchwork from one style into another and these always took longer for our dog to get the hang of.

[Faith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked "Imagine Life with a Well Behaved Dog" better because the author explains a lot of the dog psychology behind her training techniques. But this book takes the same approach and has a wider breadth. It's great to have them both to cover different issues.

[John Orman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent guide to training your dog and handling all kinds of misbehavior. Describes a fairly sophisticated reward system that seems to work!

[MK · Rating 4 out of 5]

More of a how-to manual than anything. Gave me lots of good ideas for training Kea and what to expect with a puppy.