Surviving Your Dog's Adolescence: A Positive Training Program - Hardcover

Carol Lea Benjamin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0876057423 ISBN 13: 9780876057421

Publisher: Howell Book House, 1993

Synopsis

In Praise of Surviving Your Dog's Adolescence

"Carol Benjamin has brought her usual wit and insight to bear on what is one of the most troubling phases for dog owners.... Whether you're having difficulties with a youngster or have a puppy who will soon be an adolescent, you can't help but benefit from reading this book." Robert G. Maxwell President, The American Kennel Club

"A concise and practical guide Zthat] confronts almost every potential problem...with solid advice and good humor. It is destined to become a dog owner's next best friend." Roger A. Caras President, ASPCA
A Howell Dog Book of Distinction

About this title

About the Author

About the Author CAROL LEA BENJAMIN is a professional dog trainer with over twenty years' experience with dogs of all ages and with all kinds of problems. She is the author of six other books on dog behavior, Mother Knows Best: The Natural Way to Train Your Dog; Dog Problems; Dog Training for Kids; Dog Tricks (with Captain Arthur Haggerty); Second-Hand Dog: How to Turn Yours into a First-Rate Pet and The Chosen Puppy: How to Select and Raise a Great Puppy from an Animal Shelter. In addition, she has written two novels and four nonfiction books for children. Her award-winning column, "Dog Trainer's Diary," has been published in the AKC's Gazette since 1979.

From the Back Cover

In Praise of "Surviving Your Dog's Adolescence"

"Carol Benjamin has brought her usual wit and insight to bear on what is one of the most troubling phases for dog owners.... Whether you're having difficulties with a youngster or have a puppy who will soon be an adolescent, you can't help but benefit from reading this book." ?Robert G. Maxwell President, The American Kennel Club

"A concise and practical guide Zthat] confronts almost every potential problem...with solid advice and good humor. It is destined to become a dog owner's next best friend." ?Roger A. Caras President, ASPCA
A Howell Dog Book of Distinction

From the Inside Flap

Carol Lea Benjamin has done it again. She has written another great book on dog training. This time, she addresses a subject that has never been so thoughtfully and thoroughly examined: canine adolescence. Depending on the breed, a dog's teenage years can start as early as five months of age and last until he's two and a half or three years old. Has the adorable puppy that almost always obeyed you suddenly become a brat with lots of attitude? Does your dog bark back, steal food, destroy your things when left alone? Worse yet, has he become aggressive? Carol Lea Benjamin's Surviving Your Dog's Adolescence presents a positive training program that will teach you everything you need to know in order to have the dog you wish for and deserve. Benjamin explains why puppy training does not work on adolescent dogs, and why training with treats offers only short-term benefits. For the adolescent, for whom choosing to disobey can be an irresistible temptation, Benjamin's answer is training the natural way, the way your dog's mother taught him. With easy-to-follow steps, she will show you how to win your dog's respect, get and hold his attention, teach the basic commands and play games that inspire good habits. Surviving Your Dog's Adolescence presents a humane and effective approach to socializing, exercising, educating and enjoying the zestful adolescent dog.

Reviews

Lest any dog owner think thorough puppy-training sufficient to ensure happily-ever-after canine camaraderie, the author of the puppy-training classic Mother Knows Best pinpoints a trouble spot in doggie development. At anywhere between five and 10 months of age, warns Benjamin, the typically "underemployed" family dog will hit adolescence, and even a previously obedient dog may become "bratty," "moody" and easily distracted. The language here may be anthropomorphic, but Benjamin quickly goes on to offer sensible solutions to a legitimate set of canine behavior problems. She bases her training on the well-known model whereby the owner assumes the so-called Alpha role in the "pack"; while she has explained her theories and methods in previous books, and while most of her strategies for "winning your dog's respect" are more explicitly discussed in her colleague Job Michael Evans's People, Pooches and Problems , her focus on the adolescent dog is unique and her insights about general training are stimulating. The tone is chatty and the pace leisurely--which may reassure those in need of sympathy and aggravate others who want to get down to business. Illustrations not seen by PW.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Benjamin, a well-known dog trainer with over 20 years of experience, here offers a recipe for transforming the willful, disobedient adolescent canine into an enjoyable, well-behaved companion. Her method, which will be familiar to readers of her regular column in Pure Bred Dogs and American Kennel Gazette and in her other books, including Dog Problems (Howell, 1989) and Mother Knows Best (Howell, 1985), is based on treating the dog and his human family as a "pack" and establishing the dog's owner as its "alpha" member. While her book focuses on problems typical of adolescence, such as house soiling, destructiveness, aggression, disobedience, and overexuberance, Benjamin rightly points out that ill-trained dogs will have carried these "adolescent" problems into adulthood, making her guide appropriate for any dog owner. In a particularly useful section, she deals with the inherited behavioral tendencies of different breeds and "character" types and offers positive suggestions on how to channel these tendencies into acceptable behaviors. An entertaining book teeming with good advice. Recommended.
- Ellen Finnie Duran ceau, MIT Lib.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Howell Book House
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0876057423
• ISBN 13: 9780876057421
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Carol Lea Benjamin
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 210