Doctor Dunbar's Good Little Dog Book

This book is aimed at the person who is bringing a puppy home, not raising a litter for adoption. I bought the book because I am most interested in the proper socialization of these puppies, to make sure they turn out to be great dogs. Many have heard Dr. Dunbar's recommendation that your puppy meet 100 people by the time they are 16 weeks old. This is why I got the book - to get more detail on that recommendation. Sadly, there wasn't much more than that. They are sections on training too. I guess when the book was first written, this was cutting edge knowledge - not so much now. Still good information, however.

I bought this book as an introduction to dog training materials. It was so concise, and said exactly what I already knew to be the correct advice (I have a lot of experience already, just looking to get some official education) in such a straightforward way, that I ended up bookmarking sections of it and giving it away to teenager with a new puppy the next day. Ugh, now I have to buy another!This is not a detailed training manual, nor a textbook. This is the perfect manual for a new dog owner, or someone just starting to dip their toe into dog training. It's also not a Cesar Milan type story-of-his-life with dog advice thrown in (which I loved too; just a completely different type of book than this).The only thing I would change is putting the socialization/new puppy chapter before some of the training stuff instead of after.Dunbar is very well liked in pet training circles. I was glad to find this book was geared to the average dog owner, and not just trainers.Good stuff!

good book

I am a certified dog trainer studying for even more certifications(CPDT-KA). This book was on one of my reading lists so I bought it. If you know anything at all about dog training, you will know that Ian Dunbar is regarded as the father of positive reinforcement training methods and as such is fairly highly thought of. That said, this book blows from start to finish and even contains blatant lies about training, specifically in regards to how quickly a dog will learn.This book is a 3rd edition, and was revised/republished in 2012. So one would expect that the methods described within would hold up today even though it's been 7 years. When you crack the book open the first thing you'll notice is that there are crummy black and white pictures littering the pages. These pictures are all captioned to one side with usually about a paragraph of text that may or may not be relevant to the specific topic of the current chapter. The pictures and accompanying text at times take up half of one page and I personally think they're fillers. In contrast, the sequential pictures depicting how to gesture/lure your dog into various positions are crammed 3 to a page and shrunk down more than necessary. These pictures are vital if you actually purchased the book to teach your dog how to sit or lie down, so it's frustrating that more care wasn't put into this aspect for owners that are using the book. There is also another series of pictures in the book which are labeled with text of some sort, but it is horrendously hard to read the text, to the extent that I just gave up and decided not to waste my time. It is worth mentioning that I have average eyesight and don't use glasses/contacts.The next thing you'll notice is how the book is written. It is an infomercial. The first 2-3 chapters, around 30 pages or so, crow on and on about how these methods are just the greatest and you should use them. Frankly I do not know why one would be reading or purchase a dog training book without at least an intent to use the methods described. So ultimately it feels like the book is advertising itself when I've already bought it. It is also written in such a way that it's condescending. Let Lord Dunbar show you the perfect way to fix your pup and correct the errors of your past!! You dear reader must be a moron on this front, but we'll fix that!! For the average person I would assume this style and type of writing would grow annoying quickly and actually make one less likely to finish the book(I skimmed it after a point) and even less likely to practice the techniques that are being conveyed.Some of the techniques are outdated and inefficient. The book encourages you to do away with rewarding your dog as quickly as possible, which is actually the opposite of what you want to do and any competent trainer will tell you this. The book also advocates only using the dog's kibble for training, which will not work for all dogs or be possible in all situations. The section on bite inhibition is comical to say the least with unnecessary steps and complications. Communication to your dog, if you use the methods the book teaches, will be guaranteed to be muddled and extend the time you need to train your dog. There are also some discrepancies when it comes to the socialization portion of the book, which isn't a one size fits all although the reader is led to believe that. There is little if anything said about what to do if socialization goes wrong, how to correct potential hiccups there. In fact there isn't very good troubleshooting at all throughout, which paints this book as being more of a money grab, you can follow all the steps correctly but still end up with a problem. Which of course to solve you'll need another one of Ian's books. No Thank You.A hilarious part of this book is revealed if you've read materials that are recommended by Ian in the book. I have read most all of them and some of them are pretty much in direct conflict with the methods that Ian preaches. Which is to say, the science conflicts what he teaches. So I find it questionable to say the least if Ian actually read the books that are recommended within, and if so, why his methods haven't evolved since 1992 to reflect new and better knowledge.There are many better books out there for the same cost. Patricia McConnell, Sophia Yin, Karen Pryor, Pamela J. Reid, Jean Donaldson, and so many others produce books that are so much better than this one. I honestly don't know why this book is still in print; everything in this book has either been improved upon or is readily available on the internet for free. Save your cash and your time.

Dr. Ian Dunbar is a Veterinarian, animal behaviorist, and dog trainer who has been treating and training dogs for more than 40 years. If you're looking for an easy to follow training manual, Doctor Dunbar's Good Little Dog Book is a great book to follow. Dr. Dunbar's lure/reward methods are totally positive and upbeat. There is no jerking, kicking or scolding in Dunbar's philosophy. Just good, practial advice that works. It's easy to read, easy to follow, and you'll love the results.

Ian Dunbar is a fabulous dog trainer who uses positive reinforcement to train dogs. His methods are fabulous and I have used them with my three Jack Russell terriers. His writing style is fun and light and enjoyable!

After reading through half of this book, I finally got to the part where it explains how to train your dog. Reading this book feels like you are in conversation with an extremely talkative 14-year-old. The author repeats himself over and over to the point where you feel like there are about 5 pages of useful information and the rest is just to fill the book. No economy of expression whatsoever. All that aside, there are diagrams illustrating how to train your dog which seem useful.

I like this writer. He has a very positive approach to raising and training a new puppy.

This book was recommended by our dog training class - but we didn't think it was much good. It's very American, very simplistic and full of dreadfully corny jokes and one liners. He makes it look very simple and perhaps it is. But we have a flat coated retriever puppy and these gundogs are notoriously challenging to train at first. His exercises just didn't work and there isn't much trouble shooting advice. We found Pippa Mattinson's Good Little Puppy book for more helpful (and her website even more so). This book may work for you - we didn't much care for it.

Brilliant book.I'v applied all the techniques that Dr.Dunbar teaches with my ,now, six month old America Bulldog puppy. House training was easy, not a single hous hold item chewed, walking to heel off lead, perfect recall. Amazing. Dr. Dunbar is clearly the leader in dog training.brought back lure reward training back in tha 80's and 90's, and it's now main stream.

As an experienced dog owner I thought I knew what I was doing, but two young terriers are showing me I was mistaken. The book gives clear, simple advice and is helping me regain control when I have them both out together. The younger dog still screams like an excited lunatic when he sees another dog whilst he is on the lead, but seems to be improving as we focus on his training in general. The Good Little Dog book is proving quite invaluable with sensible tips and solutions.

great little book as usual from Dr Dunbar very useful tips

Dr Dunbar is extremely knowledgable and teaches owners the simple rules of having a happy obedient dog A good book which helps owners train their dog with kindness. Simple instructions and should make dogs and owners happy.