Training The Best Dog Ever: A 5 Week Program in Positive Reinforcement Review

Are you working on training a new puppy? Nothing is like the joy of bringing a new puppy home and introducing him or her to your family. The not so fun part, however, is training, especially if you a new dog owner. If you have a dog, training is a bit easier since you have another dog (if trained properly) that can help the puppy learn the rules of the household. One thing that I believe strongly in, however, when it comes to training Alaskan Malamutes is positive reinforcement training. Recently, I had an opportunity to read a new to me book on dog training – Training The Best Dog Ever: A 5 Week Program in Positive Reinforcement.

Training The Best Dog Ever: A 5 Week Program in Positive Reinforcement: What Is It

Looking for a book to help training your new puppy? If so, we think you will like Training The Best Dog Ever: A 5 Week Program in Positive Reinforcement. Here is what the publisher has to say about this book:

Training the Best Dog Ever, originally published in hardcover as The Love That Dog Training Program, is a book based on love and kindness. It features a program of positive reinforcement and no-fail techniques that author Dawn Sylvia-Stasiewicz used to train the White House dog, Bo Obama, and each of Senator Ted Kennedy’s dogs, among countless others.

Training the Best Dog Ever relies on trust and treats, not choke collars; on bonding, not leash-yanking or reprimanding. The five-week training program takes only 10 to 20 minutes of practice a day and works both for puppies and for adult dogs that need to be trained out of bad habits. Illustrated with step-by-step photographs, the book covers hand-feeding; crate and potty training; and basic cues—sit, stay, come here—as well as more complex goals, such as bite inhibition and water safety. It shows how to avoid or correct typical behavior problems, including jumping, barking, and leash-pulling. Plus: how to make your dog comfortable in the world—a dog that knows how to behave in a vet’s office, is at ease around strangers, and more. In other words, the best dog ever.

Training The Best Dog Ever: A 5 Week Program in Positive Reinforcement: Our Thoughts

Before I go any further, I want to make clear this is a very basic book on positive reinforcement that assumes you are training your very first dog. If you are an experienced dog owner who has been training for years, this book will likely only be good for you if you are learning about positive reinforcement for the first time. Some of the book is a bit on the verbose side, in all honesty. It goes into a bit more detail than most dog owners really need, but it is a fascinating read if you want to know a bit more of the ‘why’.

Like most positive reinforcement training, you should expect to have lots of treat son hand and not to have a stern hand with your puppy (how I prefer to train malamutes). My only big concern about the book is that it is a bit misleading. Most of the training in this book is a lifelong effort and can’t be done in only five weeks. I would give closer to 6 months, with many breeds, and more if you are dealing with a rather stubborn dog (or abused rescue dog). Overall though, I do think Training The Best Dog Ever: A 5 Week Program in Positive Reinforcement is a good starting point when it comes to an introduction to positive reinforcement training for puppies!

Training The Best Dog Ever: A 5 Week Program in Positive Reinforcement: Where to Purchase

Would you like to purchase this book for training your own pup? You can find Training The Best Dog Ever: A 5 Week Program in Positive Reinforcement on Amazon.com.

About Susan Bewley

Susan Bewley is a professional writer who has been writing content online & in print format for over 10 years. As well, she is an alumni of the University of Louisville with a Masters Degree in Special Education. When not working as an online business consultant or ghost writing, she can be found writing on Budget Earth, on her own novel, or working with various entities in the pet industry.