The Perfect Puppy: How to Raise a Problem-Free Dog
The Perfect Puppy - Gwen Bailey
by Gwen Bailey
Our first puppy was a chocolate Labrador, Wesley, who reached the ripe old age of thirteen understanding just one word - "Dinner". That isn't to say that he wasn't trained - far from it. As a puppy, he was given endless instruction in the simple commands of Sit, Stay, Fetch and Come, not to mention being taken to weekly puppy training classes at which he was the only dog present to fail the course - twice! It was perhaps at that stage that we accepted that he was not the sharpest pencil in the box and concentrated on making allowances for him rather than trying to hammer more than the most basic of training home.
We were determined to do better with puppy number two. Charlie had mastered the words Sit and Come and was progressing well with his training when an accident put me on crutches for almost a year. Have you ever tried to walk an excitable puppy on a lead whilst on crutches? The end result was that we now have an older dog that pulls like a train on the lead, is aggressive towards strangers and other dogs and is, to put it mildly, a total liability while out walking.
Puppy number three, Bertie, arrived two months ago and this time we knew we had to get it right. We searched the shops for a book to give us some guidance and came up with The Perfect Puppy: How to Raise a Problem-Free Dog by Gwen Bailey. So far, so good...
This is a basic puppy-training manual written by an Animal Behaviourist and is perhaps best bought and read before the puppy even arrives. It starts with the words "Life for young puppies should be one long, happy adventure. Too often, it is a rather confusing time when humans expect too much of them and they often get into trouble for breaking rules they didn't know existed." This is the ethos of the whole book - training your puppy in a way that will ensure he turns out to be a well-behaved adult dog with the emphasis on prevention of bad habits rather than cure.
It is divided into short chapters, each covering a different aspect of training from Toys and Games to Handling and Grooming to Teaching Tricks. The first and second chapters are especially revealing. Chapter one, The Raw Material, looks briefly at genetic traits pointing out that a Dachshund, originally bred to unearth badgers is likely to be more inclined to dig than a Collie, who is prone to chasing. The second chapter, A Puppy's Eye View of the World, is even more revealing. It shows that gestures mean very different things to dogs and humans. A human smile or stare, for example, is to a dog, a threat since bared teeth and staring eyes in a dog pack are an warning of an imminent bite.
Chapter three deals with The New Family, pointing out that people's puppies tend to reflect their owner's characteristics. This chapter covers all aspects of introducing a puppy to its new home and family including children, other dogs and other pets.
Chapter four outlines all the developmental stages from birth to maturity while the remaining chapters - nineteen in all - mostly deal with training issues such as Housetraining,Socialisation, Discipline,Good Manners and How Puppies Learn.
The essence of the book is gentle, kind and hassle-free training from birth to maturity - and, while it deals solely with puppies, its sound, common sense approach is also being put to use as we attempt to retrain our older dog. The book is superbly illustrated with photographs by Rosie Hyde and even includes a "suggested daily routine" helping you to plan your life around your puppies needs (only fourteen daily trips "out to toilet" suggested - we're managing at least thirty!) There are charts in the book that you can fill in yourself to ensure that your puppy has completed an adequate socialisation programme and, most useful of all, a chart of Puppy Training commands and Signals to fill in that can be copied and pinned somewhere prominent about the house so that all members of the family consistently use the same commands.
Much of the advice given falls into the category of common sense, however the greatest strength of this book is that it explains aspects of training from a puppies point of view. It is well laid out and easy to follow. For me, the only regrettable omission was a paragraph or two on 'Swimming'.
The ultimate compliment for the effectiveness of this manual came from the owner of our local boarding kennels. Young puppies should not be left in kennels, however a recent family emergency left us with no other option. Faced with the prospect of our puppy having to spend time shut in the car in July, the kennel owner reluctantly agreed to have him for two days in the company of our older dog. When we returned home, we were greeted with a glowing report. "I have never before seen such a clean, confident, well-behaved, friendly puppy" was the kennel owner's verdict. "Next time I have a puppy, it's coming to you for training for the first couple of months." While much of this is undoubtedly down to Bertie's equable temperament some of the credit must go to Gwen Bailey. I only wish she had included a chapter on "How to prevent a new puppy demolishing a twenty foot clematis plant"!
Publisher: Hamlyn
ISBN: 0600585816
Price: £12.99 p/b
Date Reviewed: August 2002
My Rating: 3/5
