Puppy training books

I'm a Casar Milan fan.

I have owned a St Bernard and a Springer.  Both exceptionally well behaved.

Simple formula.

Be the Alpha

1) Own the food.  Dog must sit and wait calmly before being allowed to eat.  Only the ALPHA DOG eats whenever it wants.

2) Own the entrance and exit of your house.  Dog must sit and wait calmly before entering or exiting the house.  Only the ALPHA DOG enters and leaves at will.

3) Own the walk.  Teach your dog to walk alongside you, in heel.  Correct your dog when they are just thinking about doing something naughty.  Only the ALPHA DOG walks ahead and goes where it wants without permission.

Follow those three rules, and you will be the unquestioned boss and loved owner by both your dog and other humans.

I've got this one on order from the library!

Good!

I just asked my daughter if she thinks she can socialize with the rest of us in the living room without screaming while I'm reading the chapter on puppy socialization .

http://www.cesarsway.com/shop/Cesars-WayThe-1-New-York-Times-Bestseller-Paperback

This sounds very similar to how we trained our previous dogs. I have not read Cesar's book but I used to really enjoy watching his show.

My recent searches have presented information that challenge the theory of dominance and dog training though so I am trying to get my hands on books from a variety of different methods.

Here is an article I came across for example:http://www.apdt.com/petowners/choose/dominance.aspx

Honestly, this is hard for me to wrap my head around because so much of the behaviors of dogs I am around I interpret as dominate or submissive behavior. I am challenging myself to understand something new. I'll probably confuse myself .

I trained retrievers for about 10 years......I can't really recommend a book because all of the ones I read and used were about "gun dogs". 

I can tell you, without a doubt, a puppy/dog is most comfortable knowing it's place in the "pack".  Be the leader.  Let your dog know it's place and don't deviate when it is young.  There will be plenty of time to let your friend take on a bigger role.....but NOT as a puppy.  Be FIRM when teaching lessons you want it to know....be loving every chance you get. (yeah, just like raising kids)

Have fun!  Only kids are better than puppies.

I have mixed feelings about Cesar Millan. Great respect for some of the things he does--and also that he has done shows with co-trainers where they agree to disagree. But he is much more about intuitive troubleshooting (if we had the intuition, we wouldn't need a dog training book/method), and raising a puppy is totally different than interventions.

The other thing is that the whole idea of dom/sub, pack mentality, Alpha, etc. can be useful metaphors, but that's all they are. They're not grounded in behavioral studies of pet dogs, which as it turns out are very different than wolves. (A lot of the "wolf-based" dog pop psychology out there isn't what happens with wolves, either).

APDT was founded by Dr. Ian Dunbar, one of my mentors/trainers, who also happens to be the guy who founded pet dog training as we know it. The original guy. He and his videos and writings are definitely who I'd point you to (and he also thinks highly of the Monks of New Skete).

Check out the resources (many of them are free) at http://www.siriuspuppy.com

I've also found his approach to be the most family-friendly and inclusive. Very easy to bring kids on board with it; they're actually designed that way.

Our pup will be a lab/border collie mix. Of course you already know he won't be a gun dog .

I found the book "Oh my Dog" to be quite helpful in a lot of areas and not just puppy raising but in areas like finding good dog food.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/oh-my-dog-beth-o-stern/1100367716?ean=9781439160299

This cannot be over-emphasized.

The more friendly people, puppies and dogs (good to have a program/puppy kindy because they'll all be vaccinated, too) you can expose puppy to, the better mannered and more trainable for life the dog will be. Prime socialization window closes around 14 weeks; some think sooner. Basically, the earlier and more often, the better.

This kind of activity also gets puppy familiar with and comfortable in different kinds of environments, noises, movements, etc.

Thanks for the info! My In-laws have two friendly dogs and they live in the country. I was thinking it would be good socialization to take a trip over there but I'm not sure how soon. Pup is 6 weeks today and we just brought him home. My In-law's dogs are both large - an 11 year old golden retriever and a 10 or 11 month old German Shepard who is very playful and very large.

Just sharing how freaking adorable this puppy is. He is napping right now. He tried to fall asleep on my feet except, you know, I couldn't stand there all day. He has had an adventure outside and tromped around in the snow even though I shoveled a nice little path for him so his feet didn't get too cold. He played ball with my daughter and he is loving her so far, even with her light up shoes on. He was following her everywhere . Whew!

That is RIDICULOUSLY cute! Uebercute warning! Puppy love face licks!!!

Be prepared to spend a lot of time with him, as much as possible, the next 2 weeks (after that, longer periods apart are more appropriate) because pups usually aren't fully weaned until 8 weeks and he still needs both physical proximity and some attention, which it sounds like he's getting

In the same vein, hold off with the bigger dogs until then, and make sure they are up to date on vaccinations because your pup hasn't had all the full rounds yet, just the initial first few.

If those dogs are reasonably gentle and well-socialized, friendly with people and dogs and well-mannered, then by all means have them as playmates and a good example for puppy, also with regards to bite control (which, along with socialization, although socialization tends to take care of most of it, are the big two major issues with narrow optimal developmental windows). Certainly don't leave them alone together, though (I think this is assumed so forgive me if I'm being too obvious); supervise and step in if puppy is getting too knocked about/stepped on/overwhelmed.

i have 3 of these if you would like one

Lucky you!!

SOOOOOOOO CUTE!!!

OMG that is one cute pup!

Ditto on the Monks of New Skete...we followed their stuff pretty tightly and now have an exceptionally well-behaved dog. I also agree with the socialization pointer...the sooner you can comfortably get the pup exposed to many different social situations (as well as your expectations), the better.

Enjoy!