>>Hi kathy,
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>>I've read different topics in "THE CANINE BEHAVIOR SERIES" many times, its very informative.
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>>I was considering some dog training books, one inperticular that several sites have mentioned is "mother knows best" (ever heard of it? Is it any good?).
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>>But I know you have "Therapy Dogs: Training Your Dog to Reach Others" too. What exactly does that cover? Well obviously therapy dog training - but is it specifically for training your dog to be a therapy dog? Would it be useful even if I never intend on training a dog to be a therapy dog? Next time I am at a book store I will have to look for your book.
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>>- Thanks, Novice Trainer
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I believe that a therapy dog needs to be extremely stable around humans, well cared for, well trained, and always handled responsibly in public. I think anyone would want a dog like that. So yep, I believe the book is great for someone whose goal is a super companion dog.
Mother Knows Best is kind of old, and stresses dominating your dog. It's not my favorite book. Dog Training for Dummies by Jack and Wendy Volhard is outstanding and is packed with information. Parenting Your Dog by Trish King is a smart book. If you want to do basic and for-fun clicker training from a book, Pat Miller's The Power of Positive Dog Training is very clear. How Dogs Learn, by Burch and Bailey, is good on the principles of learning. And I love to read about all kinds of dog work in order to better understand how dogs think and react and what we kind of know about why they do what they do.
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Kathy Diamond Davis, author, "Therapy Dogs: Training Your Dog to Reach Others," 2nd edition, and the free Canine Behavior Series articles at http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=SRC&S=1&SourceID=47
