INTRODUCTION

Mrs. Anderson loved her puppy. Rocky required a lot of time, but that was to be expected with a puppy. Besides, the kids loved Rocky, and Rocky was great with the kids. This was one of the main reasons the Andersons had gotten a puppy. The kids had been spending too much time next door, and Mrs. Anderson knew it was because her neighbor had a big, friendly dog. Six months ago, when Mr. and Mrs. Anderson surprised their two children with an eight-week-old Labrador retriever, the visits next door came to an abrupt halt. All spare time was being
spent with Rocky.

Thursday morning came as most school mornings did, but the kids were a little late to the breakfast table. Mrs. Anderson had an appointment with the hairdresser right after dropping the kids off at school, and Mr. Anderson had already left for the office. Things were a bit rushed as everyone got ready to leave. Rocky was out in the backyard, missing the attention he usually got in the morning.

“Mom, we’ll meet you out front in just a minute! We haven’t said goodbye to Rocky yet.”

“That’s fine, but you need to hurry. I don’t want to be late for my appointment.”

As Mrs. Anderson was out front unlocking the car, she could hear the high school boy several houses down the street revving up his car as he prepared to speed his way to school the way he always did, making all of the moms on the street nervous.

To hurry things up, the kids used the side gate to get to the front of the house where they knew Mom would be waiting in the car. When they pulled the gate shut, it failed to completely latch and slowly began to swing back open.

As they ran to the car, Rocky noticed that the gate was open and ran after his two best friends. Just as he rounded the corner of the house, ready to run after them to the car, he saw the cat from across the street sitting on “his” curb.

Mrs. Anderson turned in her seat to see what was taking the kids so long. She saw them as they were just getting to the car, but what caught her attention was Rocky, at a dead run, going after a cat that was running across the street. She jumped out of her car, and just as Rocky was getting to the street, she could hear the car from down the street roaring in front of her house.

“ROCKY!!!”

Before writing a book about puppy training, one must answer to himself two very important questions. First of all, he must have a very clear objective. What is the intended result? What is the book going to offer to those who are seeking to train their puppies? Secondly, one must know for whom he is writing the book. Who is going to read the book and follow the guidelines described within the pages?

At first glance, both of these questions may seem a bit odd. The objective, it would seem, is to train a puppy to become an obedient dog. And the intended audience would be anyone who owns a puppy. A simple answer to two seemingly simple questions. In reality, neither question is simple.

What

What does it really mean to train a puppy? Does it mean teaching as many commands as possible, as fast as possible, in the hopes that, because of his vast vocabulary, he will always be on his best behavior? Or does it mean that one must cater to and pamper the puppy so much that he will feel so grateful that he would never dream of doing anything to frustrate his owner?
When a book teaches a method of training that claims to achieve a certain objective, it can be a big mistake to blindly assume that the method within the pages will automatically produce the intended result. It is usually assumed that a puppy will, out of a love for his owner, do whatever is wanted of him. It becomes the responsibility of the reader to ask of the method being taught,“When my puppy says ‘NO’, what do I do?”

When the stated objective of a book is to teach a puppy to grow into a well-behaved dog, this question must be dealt with. If it cannot be logically explained, one must take a hard look at the method. The objective set forth within these pages is twofold and can be stated as follows:

1. That your puppy becomes a happy, well-behaved, well-adjusted, and well-integrated member of your family.

2. That your puppy becomes obedient and under control in all of the distracting situations you and your family come into contact with, whether at home or away.

While this book only covers the first six months of a puppy’s life, the training techniques, done as instructed will have successful results with a puppy or dog of any age. The puppy training in this book will ultimately result in an adult dog that will be completely under control when the leash is off and the level of distraction is high.

In recent years, there have been numerous methods of training put forth that use a variety of gimmicks aimed at getting a puppy to want to behave. This book will offer a critical examination of some of these methods and the objectives they claim to achieve. This book will also refuse to lower the standard of training by assuming that a puppy is too young or too underdeveloped to learn how to behave in the face of heavy distraction.

With every aspect of training covered within these pages, this book will explain, in detail, how to respond when your puppy looks you square in the eyes and says in an emphatic voice, “NO!” It will not be left to the reader to figure out how to “just make him do it.” It will never be assumed that, just because you want him to, he will always willingly behave.

It is hoped that the reader will either commit the above-stated training objectives to memory or write them down on a piece of paper so that they might be carried through every page of this book. A stated objective can only become a reality if the pages of the book really do take the reader where they claim.

This book takes the view that, since puppies begin learning the moment they come home, training begins immediately. It will also be demonstrated that, by far, the most important training a puppy receives will occur during the early months of his life, while he still has a clean slate and has not accumulated numerous bad habits that must be broken. Since it is easier to establish good habits rather than break bad habits, the idea that Initial Indoctrination Influences Everything will be one of the themes of this book.

Who

When deciding for whom a book is written, the desirable answer would be that the book is written for every puppy owner. Having spent more than twenty-five years working with dogs makes it clear to me that no single book related to the subject of puppy training will satisfy every puppy owner. For whom, then, is this particular book written? Part of the answer to that question can be found when carefully considering the second training objective stated above.

Simply stated, we will be teaching the puppy to be under control in any distracting situation. That would include teaching him to behave during a visit by Uncle Joe and his family or to remain in the unfenced front yard despite a mad dash by a cat into a busy street. This takes work, because these are situations where the puppy will want to say “NO” to any commands coming from the owner.

There can be a wide gulf between the desire to have and a willingness to work. There must be a willingness to work if one wants to end up with a puppy that, once grown and mature, is under complete control when the leash is off and the distraction level is high. There must also be the realization that a few simple commands or a few weekends of work will be insufficient to reach the stated objectives of this book. A major requirement for the reader will be a willingness to spend time and expend effort raising and training his puppy.

Another requirement will be that the reader must understand, as outlined in the following pages, how the puppy, as a pack animal, really learns. It will be clearly demonstrated how a puppy requires time, structure, affection, and discipline in order to become the best possible companion that he can be. It will also be clearly outlined how the first and best trainer of all – Mom – starts her puppies on the road to good and respectful behavior and how the new owner(s) can best follow through with what Mom started.

Finally, the reader must be someone who has an open mind. The approach taken in this book to the training of a puppy takes an overall view of every aspect of the puppy’s journey through his first six months. It shows how all aspects of his development including his relationship with his owner, his family, and his environment are related and must be taken into consideration if the training objectives are to be met.

When outlining for whom a book is written, it is implied that there are certain people for whom the book is not written. Some of these individuals will be mentioned below in the hopes that they will not read a book whose guidelines they have no intention of following. Any training method is doomed to fail when the owner, for whatever reason, simply will not put into practice what is written on the pages.

This book is not for the individual who feels that the only requirement for good training is to jam as many commands as possible, as quickly as possible, into his young puppy. Such training is usually done in the quiet of the backyard, removed from the many distractions offered by the real world, and generally falls apart as soon as the puppy is exposed to a high level of distraction.

Such individuals seem to have an excuse fully prepared for every situation that occurs where their puppy demonstrates a complete lack of control. These individuals are also likely to ignore all attempts at re-education because they usually “already know that.”

Those who have no time to spend raising and training their puppy and instead seek out prescription medications to drug their untrained puppy into obedience will likewise find no support within these pages. Interpreting, understanding, and working with a puppy’s inherent temperament are thoroughly covered in this book, and it is the responsibility of the owner to properly identify and work with the temperament of the puppy he chooses. “Changing” a puppy’s temperament by the administration of drugs is an indication of an owner who is unwilling to spend time properly training the puppy he has, and this approach is not accepted as a viable training technique.

Finally, this book offers no help to those whose emotional stability is tied to their puppy in such a way that any form of discipline brings them to the brink of a breakdown. Such a person is usually incapable of bringing a puppy to the point of respect and true affection that would cause the puppy to mature into a happy, well-behaved, and obedient dog.

This book is for the person who wants a successful conclusion to Rocky’s sudden and unexpected bolt after the cat that was running into the street. It is for the person whose love for the dog is matched by a conviction that he must be brought to a point of trustworthiness in a world full of potentially embarrassing, costly, and dangerous distractions.

Just as this book offers a critical examination of many of the popular training methods of the day, it is hoped that the reader will read these pages in the same light. It is only when you ask the proper questions that you ever find out how well a training method really works. “Why? How? What if?” And it is only when these questions can adequately be answered that you will have an effective way of properly raising and training your puppy.