Before & After Getting Your Puppy: The Positive Approach to Raising a Happy, Healthy & Well-Behaved Dog

From Publishers Weekly
The star of the British television show Dogs with Dunbar has been teaching pet owners to train their dogs humanely and thoroughly for over 30 years. In this compassionate and honest volume, the veterinarian shares his definitive opinions about the way dogs should be trained. This is a great tool that anyone who wants to get a dog should peruse before they bring their pup home because, as the author points out, owning a dog is a big responsibility, and "millions of dogs are euthanized each year simply because their owners did not know how to housetrain or chewtoy-train them." Dunbar includes information that prospective dog owners should know before they select a puppy, and he also explains how to meet his proscribed series of important Developmental Deadlines (two of which come up even before the dog reaches its new home!). In addition to a step-by-step guide to every stage of puppyhood, the book includes practical services, such as a pre-puppy shopping list and lists of the best dog training books and videos.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


Library Journal, Spring 2004
this edition belongs... alongside such classics as Dog Training in 10 Minutes and The Power of Positive Dog Training.


Book Description
Combining two popular titles in one value-priced edition, Before and After Getting Your Puppy is a simple, practical guide for anyone bringing a new puppy into the home. In clear steps, with helpful photos and easy-to-follow training deadlines, Dr. Ian Dunbar, who pioneered puppy classes and a loving style of dog training in the 1970s, presents a structured yet playful and humorous plan for raising a wonderful dog. The guide is based on six developmental deadlines: completing owner education and preparation, assessing a puppy's prior socialization and education, teaching errorless house-training and chewtoy-training, completing a socialization program of meeting strange dogs and people, learning bite inhibition, and continuing a program of ongoing training. In the first half of the book, Dr. Dunbar focuses on what the owner needs to know to select a great puppy. In the second half, he presents the crucial lessons the puppy must be taught during its impressionable early development - using a kind, positive approach that, over time, has been proven the most effective.


About the Author
Dr. Ian Dunbar is a veterinarian, animal behaviorist, and dog trainer. He has given over 750 full-day seminars and workshops for dog trainers and veterinarians around the world. A columnist, the star of the British television show Dogs With Dunbar, and author, he has written numerous books and hosted a dozen videos about puppy/dog behavior and training. He received his veterinary degree and a Special Honors degree in Physiology & Biochemistry from the Royal Veterinary College (London University) and a doctorate in animal behavior from the University of California in Berkeley. He is the founder of many dog-training organizations, including the Center for Applied Animal Behavior; the Association of Pet Dog Trainers, the largest and most influential worldwide association of professional dog trainers; and Sirius Puppy Training, the leading provider of puppy classes in the San Francisco Bay Area. He lives in Berkeley, CA.


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In the 1970s, veterinarian and animal behaviorist Dunbar revolutionized the world of dog training with an approach that eschewed punishment for fun, reward, and motivation. In this summary of his system for novice owners, he explains that turning a puppy into a pleasant companion actually begins before it is brought home; he describes how to evaluate and select a puppy and then discusses the crucial aspects of a puppy's education, including house training and chew-toy training, socialization, bite inhibition, and maintenance of socialization through adolescence and adulthood. Consistency, confinement, short training periods integrated into daily routines, and the use of a stuffed Kong (a hard, rubber chew toy) are other hallmarks of his system. Although this was previously published as two separate volumes by a small press, James and Kenneth Publishers (2001), the books were not widely distributed. Free of jargon, sprinkled with humor, and copiously illustrated, this one-volume edition belongs on public library shelves alongside such classics as Carol Lea Benjamin's Dog Training in 10 Minutes and Pat Miller's The Power of Positive Dog Training.-Florence Scarinci, Nassau Community Coll. Lib., Garden City, NY Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.


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