For a very good guide to all sorts of dog training processes and dog behavior challenges, I use and recommend Clickertraining ...that link goes to the description of this terrific ebook you download immediately, wherever you are! -- Rosana

I often review books, ebooks, and DVDs — products that you can buy, such as new books coming out from Dogwise that deserve attention. Today I want to point you to an amazingly comprehensive resource that is completely free: the Dog Star Daily Online Digital Dog Training Textbook.

I’ve mentioned this website before. It features articles, videos, and more by dog trainers who are deeply involved in the positive dog training movement. It’s edited by Kelly Dunbar, wife of Ian Dunbar. You likely know his name if you’ve been around positive dog training, and if not, suffice it to say that he, dolphin trainer Karen Pryor who brought clicker training to dogs, and some others pretty much invented the field.

But I just found this “online digital dog training textbook” recently, It covers a variety of topics on its pages, with images of related videos on the side.

To give you an idea of the scope of this dog training resource, here are the chapter headings. All online, all (including the videos) at no cost. These people are dedicated to dogs.

Chapter One: BEFORE You Get Your Puppy
This chapter, adapted from Before You Get Your Puppy by Dr. Ian Dunbar, begins on such a sobering note that I am going to quote it:

Sadly, the majority of puppies fail to live long enough to enjoy their second birthday. They suffer from the terminal illness of being unwanted — failing to live up to the expectation of the Lassie–Benji–Eddie dream. Instead they develop a number of extremely common and utterly predictable behavior, training, and temperament problems and are surrendered to animal shelters to play lotto with their lives. Many people blame irresponsible ownership for this tragic situation. I would simply cite lack of know-how…. Ironically, the demise of many dogs stems from novice owners following misleading, erroneous, and in some cases downright bad advice from out-of-date training books.

I didn’t realize the numbers were so bad. Yikes. Makes it all the more important that we do what we can! Okay, more:

Chapter Two: Raising a Puppy
Like most of the chapters, this one consists of quite a few pages… I counted almost twenty. If you don’t want to read all that at the computer, you can print out the pages that interest you most. One of the best pages here, in my opinion, is one I have mentioned before: errorless housetraining.

Chapter Three: Basic Manners & Obedience
Includes an interesting article on using food as a reward for training, answering those who attack this method: “Any criticism of using food as a training tool may actually be applied to the use of any training tool, including leash-corrections and praise.”

Chapter Four: Adolescent Dog Training
Covering 18 weeks to 2 years, explains why it’s important to walk your dog every day. This age range can be one where owners despair of solving training problems. Don’t despair, read!

Chapter Five: Adult Dog Training
Some of these articles are also excellent for adolescent dogs. Something that got my attention was the concept of all or none reward training.

Chapter Six: Dog Behavior Problems
Something for everybody here, with topics like

  • Housesoiling
  • Destructive Chewing
  • Excessive Barking
  • Digging
  • Separation Anxiety
  • Fearfulness
  • Fighting
  • Hyperdog!
  • Pulling on Leash

Chapter Seven: Dog Behavior & Play
Includes a topic titled “The Alpha Fallacy,” as well as dog play and communication.

There’s a bit more, but this should get you started! And your dogs will thank you.

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