Reddit reviews How To Teach A New Dog Old Tricks: The Sirius Puppy Training Manual
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Used Book in Good Condition
That is absurd. If you are getting the dog as a puppy, then you have all of the power to create a well socialized and well trained dog. Find a good vet, get whatever normal vaccinations s/he needs. Sign up for a puppy obedience class. Make sure to introduce her to plenty of new people and dogs during her first few months. Get How to Teach a New Dog Old Tricks and read it.
You will be fine.
For dogs that surf counters and get into trash if people aren’t around, the ASPCA and puppy expert Ian Dunbar recommend harmless "environmental punishers" (booby traps) that startle the dog without injury. I know some people who post here are so sensitive even the anti-cruelty society and Ian Dunbar are too cruel for them. Well, sorry. The ASPCA says,
>Environmental punishers work by punishing your dog directly, without you present. For instance, if your dog jumps from the floor onto the kitchen counter, you can balance some lightweight cookie sheets on the edge of the counter. When he jumps up, he’ll land on the sheets. They’ll move and possibly topple over while your startled dog leaps back onto the floor. He shouldn’t be harmed by this experience, but it’s unlikely he’ll risk jumping onto the counter again.
>The advantage to using an environmental punisher is that the scary thing happens whether you’re present or not. Your dog won’t learn to simply wait until it’s safe (until you’re not around) to do things like jump up onto counters and dive into trash cans. Instead, he’ll discover that it’s never safe to do those things. Plus, since you won’t always be there when your dog gets punished, your dog won’t associate an environmental punisher with you.
ASPCA - Counter Surfing and Garbage Raiding
In How to Teach a New Dog Old Tricks, Ian Dunbar recommends the same approach:
>A well-designed booby trap has a number of significant attributes. Firstly, booby traps are effective at times when owners are absent. Secondly, the dog is punished by the booby trap and not by it's owner. Thus, the dog may be effectively punished without risking the danger of ruining the relationship between owner and dog. Booby traps are extremely effective because of the immediacy and relevancy of the punishment. A good booby trap startles the dog the moment it transgresses. The dog is punished by the environment. The dog investigates the environment, and the environment is unfriendly. It is similar to a dog putting its nose into a candle flame - it only does it once. With booby traps, learning is often a one-trial process.
>The types of booby trap may be many and varied and are limited only by the imagination and ingenuity of the owner/designer My favorite designs all incorporate numerous empty beer cans. The same basic principle may be applied to protect a variety of objects -armchairs, carpets, children's toys, food on the table, and garbage cans. Twenty or so beer cans (each containing a couple of pebbles for maximum rattle-effect) are stacked on a sheet of cardboard, which is placed on top of three other cans, one of which is balanced on the edge of a shelf or counter, overhanging the object to be protected, e.g., the kitchen garbage. A piece of string links the precariously balanced support-can to the bait, e.g., a piece of paper dipped in chicken broth or bacon fat, which is laid on top of crumpled newspaper which fills the garbage can. When the dog grabs the bait, the string tugs out one of the bottom three beer cans, causing the cardboard to lilt and all the other beer cans to crash around the dog.
>Since we do not want to live in a house which is permanently trapped, set up the booby trap but do not connect the trip wire, (give the dog time to get used to the presence of the booby trap. Otherwise, the dog will make the connection between the booby trap and the falling cans, i.e., it will stay away from the garbage when the cans are present, but trash the garbage when you have dismantled the booby trap.
Ian Dunbar - How to Teach a New Dog Old Tricks
You should call around to the doggy daycare places in your area (assuming you have some) and the local pet shelter/rescue. You can often find cheap(er) classes or shorter basics sessions. In Seattle, we can pay as much as a gorillion dollars for classes, but there are lots of cheaper classes for $150 ($3euros) that are a few weeks long.
Also, if you have not picked up any of the books by Ian Dunbar yet, do so now! They are an incredible resource for connecting with your dog and learning how to redirect her attention to you when you need it.
http://www.amazon.com/How-Teach-New-Dog-Tricks/dp/1888047062
http://www.amazon.com/Dog-Behavior-Owners-Guide-Healthy/dp/0876052367