Reddit reviews The Power of Positive Dog Training
We found 21 Reddit comments about The Power of Positive Dog Training. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Reddit reviews The Power of Positive Dog TrainingWe found 21 Reddit comments about The Power of Positive Dog Training. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
The big thing here is you are not actually FIXING the problem. Telling a dog he can't sleep on the bed does not teach him how to not be aggressive! Making him wait for his food before eating can help with self control but will not teach him how to not lash out at people he deems untrustworthy. Among other things, that is one of my BIGGEST issues with Cesar Millan is that you are taking things away and punishing your dog, but never actually teaching them how they actually need to behave to TRIGGERS. More exercise is good for general behavior, using a wait is good for manners, not letting the dog on the bed is honestly a wash for this whole situation.
Talk to a veterinary behaviorist trainer or an applied animal behavior consultant who uses positive reinforcement. Fighting aggression with aggression is one of the WORST things you can do and only poses YOURSELF as a threat to the dog, making you a target for fear and aggression, yourself. If you really want to follow dominance theory/pack theory, that is your choice - but drop Cesar Millan. Just because he is on TV REALLY doesn't make him out to be a quality trainer. Instead, check out some of the leading dog trainers in the field: Ian Dunbar, Karen Pryor, Emily Larlham or Patricia B. McConnell
In the mean time - use a muzzle! Be sure you properly condition wearing a muzzle, don't just shove it on your dog and hope he is fine with it (this can often increase aggressiveness or reactivity out of frustration or fear). Use a basket style muzzle to allow him to drink and breath comfortably and show him how rewarding wearing it can be.
Also check out the /r/dogtraining/wiki book list - I would encourage you to pick up Dont Shoot the Dog, The Culture Clash, The Power of Positive Dog training and a few titles from the Reactivity/Aggression section to help YOU learn the skills you will need to help your dog through his issues.
Training is not entirely the dogs issue, it is also an issue with the handlers. Be sure the trainer you work with is working with YOU just as much or more than they work with the actual dog. It is important that you know and understand the concepts being taught so you can continue training once the trainer has left - shipping the dog away to 'training school' is often ineffective for this very reason (they learn skills in 'school' but their owners do not know how to properly use those skills with their dog as they were not directly involved with training.)
Right now, this dog can be very dangerous to anyone. It is definitely worth working with a trainer through these issues before a bite accident occurs. It will take time, patience, consistency and WORK, but it can be done! Good luck!
Training Positive is one of the best resources out there for newbies, IMO. He has a variety of different behaviors and really explains the WHY very well, so ideally you can take the information and apply it to behaviors he doesn't even cover. His information is all accurate and up-to-date with scientific research. He explains things very well -- I watch his videos to get ideas on how to better explain concepts. This is a good place to start!
As for books: Don't Shoot The Dog is a great one by Karen Pryor. She compares the same learning and behavior principals to people, which I think is hugely helpful in dog training (it's better to focus on our similarities than our differences). For actually teaching specific behaviors, The Power of Positive Dog Training is fantastic. Super simple, practical guides with explanations of WHY it works behaviorally.
Good luck in your research!! Already you're off to a great start just for being WILLING to research.
The best start is going to be laying the foundations of communication and a positive relationship. Dog training books are like scripture: highly open to interpretation. The most comprehensive guide I've found that has the most cohesive and wholesome explanation of working with dogs is written by a close mentor and dear friend, Pat Miller, it's called The power of positive dog training
It has a pretty great explanation of separation anxiety, and a list of activities to strengthen your dogs trust in your actions and confidence in itself, as well as a very dry and truthful anecdote about understanding the significance of specific breed characteristics
Fair warning: I don't agree with everything in the book, but 90% of it is spot on. Check out 'Relatioship-Based Approach to Dog Training' — just take whatever info you find with a grain of salt, your gut is typically right
My favorite dog training book: Power of Positive Dog Training
Gives you the basics of learning theory, and the 4 quadrants of reward vs punishment. Explains marker training (with a clicker or anything else). Has a 6 week program to follow with your dog for basic obedience commands and some fun tricks and explains each step in detail.
Edit: Oops, I linked amazon.ca by accident. It's also available at amazon.com if you're in the states.
I came here to say this, glad you beat me to it. I learned a similar technique from Pat Miller, who advises teaching some problem barkers to bark on cue as a prerequisite to teaching the quiet command by rewarding pauses in barking. Karen Pryor also puts barking on cue as part of her 'paired cues' technique. Just goes to show there are a lot of neat positive techniques for dealing with barking, if only more owners would do the research.
I can't say enough about this clicker training book. I started when Lavi was 12 weeks and the first weekend we were sitting on command and doing a few other behaviors. I am a big fan of clicker training. Good luck with the biting, I don't have any suggestions but redirection.
I've just been learning about positive reinforcement training. With patience and diligence, even old dogs can overcome socialization issues with gradual desensitization. Please look into this training method, or get a commitment from a friend to look into this training method for Abby's sake.
Here's a fantastic introductory book on positive dog training techniques:
The power of positive dog training
Get the book. Even if you're not a "reader", the middle section is essentially workshops on training certain tricks.
I have to admit, when I first got my dog last year, I just assumed that dominance was the way to train a dog. Mainly because of our good friend Cesar Milan. However, as soon as I picked this book up I realised the error of my ways.
How can you convince your boyfriend that positive is the way forward? Try and get him involved. Pick up that book, get him to pick a trick from the book to teach your dog. It will be a real eye opener.
Another important point that has been mentioned by others - you both need to be consistent. Him hitting the dog for misbehaving while you're using positive techniques will be counter productive. It is very easy to miscommunicate with negative training techniques. He can be essentially poisoning your training, especially as he has no clue what he's doing.
Good luck!
First of all congratulations on having a dog! Obviously you are a concerned owner and eager to learn and this is a great thing!
Everything you written about her being confused, refusing food, even not going up the stairs is probably due to the fact that she was taken out of her everyday environment. Allow a couple of days for her to get used to you and for you to get used to her. Read about training through positive reinforcement (use the clicker for best results). I strongly recommend reading Pat Miller's The Power of Positive Dog Training as it leads you through the process of teaching your new dog new commands from week to week. Before actually using the clicker, read about it or watch a must see playlist by kikopup.
The easiest way to train your dog is to use food as a reward and lure. Combined with a clicker to mark the exact moment when your dog did the right thing leads to great (and very fast) results!
And now to your specific questions and some other stuff I think is related and important:
Crate training should be done gradually and in a very positive way (refer to kikopup or the book I've mentioned). You will basically teach her to want to go there on her own as a safe place where she can take a time out and relax. If she hasn't been crated in her previous home, she might not take it to well. Be sure to leave the gate open and start working on closing the gate and leaving the room gradually. This means that in the beginning you reward her for going near the crate. Then throw a treat inside the crate. Then reward her for staying in the crate and so on. As with everything else in dog training it is better to put lower expectations on your dog so you "set your dog up for success".
Stairs: she maybe never encountered stairs. If the vet said she's healthy I'd say she just needs to get used to them. In case the stairs are "see through" (like these for example) many dogs won't go up them because they probably think they'll fall through them. As generally dogs don't like to be carried around, she won't get used to you carrying her up and down the stairs in the beginning. After a few days try luring her with treats (holding a treat in hand in front of her nose and slowly moving it forward) the instant she follows your hand - give her the treat. And then repeat for every step. You can also put treats on stairs to motivate her to come up. You'll have to see what works best.
Food/treats: you should see what is the recommended daily amount of food for your dog. Take one half of that and use it as treats and the other two quarters use as morning and evening meal. You should remember that treats shouldn't be an extra on top of dogs food for the day. In that way the dog will be food motivated and eager to please you in order to get the treat.
Establishing dominance. I'm not in favour of people downvoting a post whenever someone says "dominance". It is an old concept, but all of dog training up until recently was based on it so it is very normal that people who are not into dog training still think that this is the way to go. I'm sure you can read about the theory (sidebar) and why is it wrong. As long as you don't use any painful or intimidating methods and respect your dog's boundaries and body signals you can call it whatever you like (but preferably don't call it dominance so as not to confuse people :P ). If you don't want your dog sleeping in the bed with you - teach him where should she sleep. But if you're ok with the dog sleeping on the bed but you're afraid she will turn out into a dominant werewolf if you allow her - you have nothing to worry about.
Good luck!
It sounds to me like it's time to bring in a professional. Seek out someone who does force free training, if she's already bitten multiple people then using force could make things exponentially worse.
And here's a few of my favorite 'dog' books, which might help you figure out what's happening until you can find a good trainer and book an appointment.
Don't Shoot the Dog by Karen Pryor
Culture Clash by Jean Donaldson
The Power of Positive Dog Training by Pat Miller
Yeah, don't worry, you can do it! If you enjoy books, the best intro to science-based training methods that I've read so far is The Power of Positive Dog Training by Pat Miller. It's simple but pretty comprehensive for the things most dog owners run into.
If you can give us more detail about the behaviors you want to discourage and the ones you want to encourage, we can help you come up with an action plan that you both can enjoy doing.
Well, I'd caution first time dog owners against adopting a stray off the street rather than through a rescue that has evaluated it. If its a puppy its one thing, but older dogs who have been strays or ferals for a while can come with some challenges. If nothing else, do try to rescue the pup and contact local rescues (especially if you can guess the breed and find a breed rescue) as puppies get adopted pretty fast. If you do choose to keep the pup yourself, search for a local trainer using the terms "Positive only," "positive reinforcement" and "clicker training" to local a positive-based trainer. Avoid trainers who advertise "balanced," "traditional," or talk about "dominance", "pack leader", or "alpha."
There are a ton of wonderful resources out there, and here are some very worthwhile books to look into
Before And After Getting Your Puppy
Puppy Primer
Power of Positive Dog Training
Family Friendly Dog Training
And specifically addressing house training -
Way to Go!
Anything by the following authors (who also have online articles) is pure gold:
Patricia McConnell
Pat Miller
Ian Dunbar
Suzanne Clothier
Grisha Stewart
Pia Silvani
Jean Donaldson
Sophia Yin
Also check our Dr. Yin's amazing series of youtube videos
And for general training (as in obedience and tricks) Kikopup is phenomenal.
I've worked in rescue for years and I foster harder dogs. If you every need any advice or questions answered you are welcome to contact me individually as well :-)
Alright, I'll give that a look! I'm also thinking of reading this, do you think it would help aswell?
This book is amazing: http://www.amazon.com/Power-Positive-Dog-Training/dp/0470241845
Positive reinforcement/clicker training is the way to go with whippets (and all animals).
Some great YouTube channels I’d recommend are Zak George and KikoPup. Their videos are very informative and watching how to train the tricks helps a lot with training your own pup.
The website of dog trainer Victoria Stillwell, Positively, has lots of good articles on training. I also found the book “The Power of Positive Dog Training” by Pat Miller to be a big help as well.
r/dogtraining is a wonderful resource for ideas and problem solving.
Avoid like the plague any training program or trainer who advocates dominance based training theories or getting rough/violent with their animals while training. Dominance theory is outdated, disproven, and based on incorrect information. It can break down the bond of trust between dog and owner, as well as crest problems like fear based aggression towards the owner.
Congrats on your whippet puppy and best of luck with training!
These 2 books are great! I recommend them
http://www.amazon.ca/Canine-Body-Language-Photographic-Guide/dp/1929242352/ref=pd_sim_b_14
http://www.amazon.ca/Power-Positive-Dog-Training/dp/0470241845/ref=pd_sim_b_19
I like https://www.amazon.com/Power-Positive-Dog-Training/dp/0470241845 . Don't be turned off assuming it's some hippie dippie nonsense. It's based on the same concepts and methods reputable caretakers use with large dangerous animals.
Ok, I had some things to do, I wanted to reply to this earlier...I love this stuff :D
I dunno if you're looking for a specific training (general obedience, agility, protection, etc.), so I'll include a bit of everything that's helped me or that is well-regarded.
For general understanding of dog behavior, I really, really intensely love Jean Donaldson's "Culture Clash." It's not a workbook for obedience, it's more of a compilation of different techniques and why the author chose to move toward the training style she did. It's a little scathing at times. It's also relatively short (I think I finished it in a day or two), so as a general introduction, it works great.
If you have a puppy and are looking for puppy-specific knowledge, Ian Dunbar is the go-to name. There's lots and lots of Dunbar stuff out there, just plug his name in and go to town! Paul Owens' "The Puppy Whisperer" is also pretty good.
For general/pet obedience work, you really can't beat Pat Miller's "The Power of Positive Dog Training". Karen Pryor, a pioneer in clicker training (bridging the gap between marine/whale operant conditioning and dogs), also put out a great one, "Don't Shoot the Dog! The New Art of Teaching and Training". Really, anything by Karen Pryor is worth picking up if you're interested in the subject.
There are certain facets of dog body language and behavior that are pretty essential to know, and which are often neglected or incorrectly labelled in dominance-heavy learning (for instance, appeasement behaviors and fear aggression). A great start here is "On Talking Terms with Dogs" by Turid Rugaas, a Norwegian dog trainer and behaviorist.
Let's say you have a specific problem. Here are some good starts to overcoming common doggie fear issues: Patricia McConnell's "Cautious Canine and Ali Brown's "Scaredy Dog! Understanding and Rehabilitating Your Reactive Dog.. Patricia McConnell's "I'll be Home Soon" is great for separation anxiety, Terry Ryan's "The Bark Stops Here" for barking. One of my faves is Emma Parsons' "Healing the Aggressive Dog".
Finally, a book that I cannot stress enough in its awesomeness is Jane Killion's "When Pigs Fly! Training Success with Impossible Dogs". If you're stuck with a breed that was bred to work independently or you often feel that your dog is just plain ignoring you, this is a great thing to pull out.
If you're not so big on books and want videos, hop on youtube and look up kikopup! She's utterly brilliant and has a ton of videos to choose from. If you want to get more into that angle, look up the terms "shaping," "capturing," and "luring" - three different but related methods for encouraging dogs to do specific behaviors.
Finally, if you want to get down to the science of it and think more about wolves, L. David Mech is the name you want to watch for. And I have more sources on specific dogsports (gundog work, agility, etc.), but this post is already hideously long, so I'll leave it as is.
Hope that helps!
Somebody asked the same thing a few days ago.
I can't stress how awesome The Power of Positive Dog Training is by Pat Miller. $14- Get it.
I read Sophia Yin's Perfect Puppy in 7 Days, and it wasn't good.
I also am currently reading The Official Ahimsa Dog Training Manual, and it has some unique stuff, but it's mostly a shortened version of The Power of Positive Dog Training.
Does he realize he makes you incredibly anxious? Maybe its something you should just come out and say to him. :)
Some Books: