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NEWER AND BETTER DOG OBEDIENCE TRAINING by Byron G. Wels

NEWER AND BETTER DOG OBEDIENCE TRAINING

By

Pub Date: Nov. 12th, 1974
Publisher: Putnam

Reasonable, encouraging and eminently humane instructions -- not particularly child-oriented, with grownup trainers shown in the sketches and frequent references to the author's own experiences with his Schatzi, but easy enough for anyone over nine to read and to follow. Dog training, says Wels, is ""simply a matter of teaching new words,"" which is more easily done by using small rewards (praise, not treats) than by punishment (and by all means avoid sadistic devices such as pronged and electric collars). As for tricks like ""roll over,"" they may gratify your own ego ""but really there isn't too much purpose."" (Weis is evidently more sympathetic toward performing in shows and impressing judges). The manual goes into common mistakes (such as repeating commands) and common questions, discusses the role of clubs (positively) and the practice of attack training (negatively), and generally provides the commonsense advice a young trainer needs.