Barking Up the Right Tree: Breeding, Rearing and Training the Guide Dog Way

by Derek Freeman

A total guide to dog care and training from the man who pioneered Britain's highly successful Guide Dogs For The Blind program.

176 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1993

Reviews

[Christie Bane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Will and I read this one together. It was written in 1990 by the breeding manager at GDBA in the UK, but it has the feeling of a much older book. For us, it was a bit of a ramble down memory lane, with an overall tone that just doesn't match today's training. There was respect for the dog, but at the bottom of it was: The dog has to do this and do it right. No obsessive worrying about dog welfare, how the dog was feeling, whether it had the right kind of bed, whether the handler was giving it enough support, whether it was stressed... just honest dogs doing honest work. God, I miss those days. Of course tons of stuff that was cutting-edge in 1990 sounds ridiculously outdated now (feeding sheeps heads? removing pups from the litter at six weeks?), but I have no doubt that many of our current best practices will sound equally outdated in 2050, when some guide dog trainer will read my book and think, "Damn, they were dog training Neanderthals back then!"