Chez PLJ

As with any big, life-changing event in our lives, I try to read up on the subject as much as I can first. So—only for interested future dog-owners here; everyone else can just skip this post—here is a list of dog books I’ve read recently (the ones I remember, anyway) and what I think of them, in no particular order:

January 1, 2007 Edit: I’ve added two more books at the bottom of the list, and final conclusions at the end of this post.

Ian Dunbar (2004): Before & After Getting Your Puppy: The Positive Approach to Raising a Happy, Healthy, and Well-Behaved Dog
Excellent primer on puppy care and training by one of the originators of “puppy preschool” classes. Covers all puppy basics from birth on. A little alarmist in places, perhaps (e.g. by the time your dog is four months old he must have met at least 100 different people or else he’ll never be properly socialized, aroogah!!!)—maybe he’s got good reason to be, I don’t know yet—but otherwise fairly reasonable, straightforward and even humorous. Gives you lots of useful tips, and a handy chart outlining when doggie milestones should be reached. Advocates positive (non-aversive) training, but does acknowledge that you sometimes must say “NO!” to a dog.

Stanley Coren (2006): The Intelligence of Dogs: A Guide to the Thoughts, Emotions, and Inner Lives or our Canine Companions
I thought this book was going to be flakier than it turned out to be. Aside from the headline-grabbing stunt of ranking dogs by intelligence (Mini Schnauzers at #12 and Aussies at #42?? Oh please.) the book turns out to be a fairly interesting and factual read about dog history and sociology, from the current theories about where and how dogs originated, to basics of dog communication (positions of ears, tail, posture, and what they mean). Also useful discussions of dogs’ adaptive vs. crystallized intelligence, and how possession of either in different amounts can affect how “intelligent” they appear. A book of Coren’s, published in 2000: How to Speak Dog: Mastering the Art of Dog-Human Communication covers much of the same communication topic more extensively.

Ian Dunbar (1989): Sirius Puppy Training video
Video showing basic obedience training performed by Dunbar, puppies and their owners in a puppy class over several weeks. Very well-structured and entertaining (though not in a too-slick way), and realistic: shows how puppies don’t always behave! Though it does also show how easy experienced trainers make it look compared to regular owners.

Monks of New Skete (2002): How to be your Dog’s Best Friend
General “puppy to old age” text by the reknown breeders/trainers of German Shepherds. Not as clinical as Dunbar’s book (being written by monks and not a vet); covers puppy basics, but not in as much detail (the Monks’ book The Art of Raising a Puppy has that). Training theory generally positive, but they do use a few punitive methods. Some useful tips (growling “nnahh!” like mom when a puppy does something bad). At least in this edition they acknowledge that you should not use the “alpha roll” technique they popularized, as it has been discredited and can be dangerous.

Karen Pryor (1999): Don’t Shoot the Dog!: The New Art of Teaching and Training
This is written by one of the originators of the operant conditioning (clicker) training method (a wholly positive approach, using treats as a reward and a clicker sound as a reinforcer. Pryor started as a dolphin trainer, where you can’t use punishment—a dolphin will just swim away). It’s more for historical or background interest than a real dog-training book. She’s on less-convincing ground when she talks about how operant conditioning techniques can be used for shaping human behaviours as well; some of her examples seem too conveniently “cured” by her methods.

Cesar Millan (2006) Cesar’s Way: The Natural, Everyday Guide to Understanding and Correcting Common Dog Problems
By the TV Dog Whisperer himself, this book purports to show how to correct your problem dog, but spends way too much time talking about Cesar’s upbringing, struggles to get to America, successes, and his celebrity clients. I flipped almost halfway through the book to get to something remotely useful. Since he’s dealing with problem dogs, most of his training methods are not really applicable to puppies or ordinary dogs. Also, they are rather punitive in nature (though with dogs that bite I suppose they often have to be). He plays up the “alpha wolf” theory a lot more than it really merits and uses dangerous (alpha roll; flooding) or unrealistic-for-most-people (regular 3-hour walks; putting dog on treadmill) techniques. Millan clearly has a gift with dogs, but whether his instructions are usable by anyone else is iffy. Give this book a pass unless your dog is so much trouble you’re ready to send it to the pound.

Miriam Fields-Babineau (2006) Click & Easy: Clicker Training for Dogs
Basic dog-training book by clicker-trainer. Not terribly well-written, but it covers training basics adequately, if a bit unevenly at times. Better photos would’ve helped.

Gary Wilkes (1996) Click! & Treat Training Kit video
Video showing clicker-training techniques by one of the clicker movement’s bigwigs. Very straightforward and explanatory (but with dated production values).

Jon Katz (2005): Katz on Dogs: A Commonsense Guide to Training and Living with Dogs
Another general overview, with less emphasis on the actual mechanics of training puppies and more on the philosophy of raising dogs, with lots of personal anecdotes. Katz provides a valuable service by pointing out throughout the book that dogs are not just little humans and we do them no favours to think of them as such. He outlines how many behavioural problems can stem from people misunderstanding a dog’s nature or misinterpreting dog “language”. An entertaining read; some of the chapters are based on columns previously written for Slate.

The Monks of New Skete (1991): The Art of Raising a Puppy
This book is an excellent guide to puppies: how they develop; a fairly detailed guide on how to train them (using both informal techniques for very young puppies and formal training for older puppies and young dogs); and how to feed, groom and otherwise care for them. Because it deals with puppies rather than older dogs much of the Monk’s training methods are gentle and positive, though they do use leash pop corrections for many exercises. They also take an interesting tack in refusing to use food as a training reward (which is standard in most of the other books I’ve read).

What training techniques do I lean towards? Since I don’t actually have a dog yet I don’t really know for sure what I’ll end up using; in theory, totally positive approaches sound good, but I can’t see that you’d never use the word “NO!” or grab the dog by the scruff of its neck (which are, strictly speaking, aversive or punitive techniques). I’d like to try clicker training since it looks fun (I’ve trained rats using operant conditioning; why not dogs?), but I see it as one method, not a whole lifestyle. The clicker trainers have an unfortunate tendency to take the theory behind the technique totally off the cliff, saying that all training must be positive and aversives have absolutely no place in training dogs. Well, I say nnahh! to that!

(Jan. 1, 2007) So which books of all the ones I’ve read do I prefer? As a future dog owner the most useful are probably Ian Dunbar’s Before and After Getting a Puppy and the Monks’ The Art of Raising a Puppy. They’re the most detailed, complete guides to all aspects of living with a puppy. Dunbar’s book is slightly more clinical in tone (he is a vet, after all), while the Monks’ book stresses the more spiritually uplifting aspects (without getting preachy) of living with a dog along with the practical. Both books dovetail nicely and make them a fairly complete dog primer.

Katz on Dogs and Stanley Coren’s The Intelligence of Dogs are entertaining general reads that don’t touch on the nuts and bolts of training much (and thus make them perfectly suitable for non dog owners as well). Most of the other books are purely instructional training books, and thus by nature useful, if not terribly interesting.

I disliked Cesar’s Way, both in style and content (much too much detail about Millan’s life and celebrity friends). I acknowledge that his methods might be useful in extreme behavioural cases, but it’s definitely not appropriate for young puppies.