How To Be Your Dogs Best Friend: The Classic Training Manual for Dog Owners

Entirely revised, with a fresh new design and new photographs throughout, this new edition of How to Be Your Dog's Best Friend preserves the best features of the original classic and expands the book to cover and include:

• new observations about dog behavior (natural behavior as well as problems) drawn from the monks' 24 additional years of experience training dogs of all breeds
• new trends in training
• new equipment (e.g., "invisible fences")
• new reflections on the philosophical aspects of the dog/human relationship, and dozens of new stories and case studies that bring to life the monks' essential training concepts.

?While the book does contain many useful, tried-and-true techniques for obedience — stay, heel, down-stay, recall and the like — its unique value lies in the monks' insights and thoughts about the human-canine bond. Concepts such as discipline and praise are more than merely a means to an end, the monks maintain: they are extensions of a caring attitude and real communication with a canine companion?.? Publishers Weekly

For nearly a quarter century, How to Be Your Dog's Best Friend has been the standard against which all other dog-training books have been measured. This new, expanded edition, with a fresh new design and new photographs throughout, preserves the best features of the original classic while bringing the book fully up-to-date. The result: the ultimate training manual for a new generation of dog owners - and, of course, for their canine best friends. The Monks of New Skete have achieved international renown as breeders of German shepherds and as outstanding trainers of dogs of all breeds. Their unique approach to canine training, developed and refined over three decades, is based on the philosophy that understanding is the key to communication, compassion, and communion with your dog. The importance of honest and effective communication with your dog is underscored throughout this guide, especially in the practical training exercises: a detailed, comprehensive, fully illustrated obedience course through which the monks lead you (and your dog) step-by-step. How to Be Your Dog's Best Friend covers virtually every aspect of living with and caring for your dog, including: Selecting a dog (what breed? male? female? puppy or older dog?) to fit your lifestyle Where to get - and where not to get - a dog Reading a pedigree Training your dog or puppy - when, where, and how The proper use of praise and discipline Feeding, grooming, and ensuring your dog's physical fitness Recognizing and correcting canine behavioral problems The particular challenges of raising a dog where you live - in the city, country, or suburb The proper techniques for complete care of your pet at every stage of his or her life In this new edition, How to Be Your Dog's Best Friend has been expanded to encompass the latest equipment (e.g., retractable leashes, invisible fences); new trends in training and care (doggy day care, professional dog walkers, etc.); and dozens of new anecdotes and case studies, drawn from the monks' own experience, that bring to life the essential training concepts. In its scope, its clarity, and its authority, How to Be Your Dog's Best Friend remains unrivaled as a basic training guide for dog owners. Like no other book, this guide can help you understand and appreciate your dog's nature as well as his or her distinct personality - and in so doing, it can significantly enrich the life you share with your dog.

Extensively revised and updated, this new edition preserves the best components of the original classic and expands the book to cover new trends in training, new equipment (i.e. "invisible fences"), new reflections on the philosophical aspects of the dog/human relationship, and much more.