Good Dog, Bad Dog, New and Revised: Dog Training Made Easy

Siegal and Margolis, coauthors of When Good Dogs Do Bad Things , have revised and greatly expanded their 1971 classic. Their bent here is explicit rejection of "the 'one size fits all' approach to dog training." Readers are first urged to identify their dogs by personality type: high-energy/outgoing, shy, strong-willed, calm/easygoing or aggressive. Then, as the writers outline a basic obedience course, from housebreaking to heeling, they describe the proper techniques (specifying the owner's frame of mind, body language, tone of voice, type of voice corrections and leash corrections, and place to train) and propose modifications for each temperament. This strategy is not completely convincing--not every dog will fit in the categories designated--but their instructions are so thorough, clear and patently grounded in good judgment that even a first-time owner will soon have Rover equably in tow. An added boon for fanciers, an appendix draws on Margolis's experience in schooling about 25,000 dogs to profile individual breeds in terms of their general responses to training. Good Dog, Bad Dog , good book. Publicity.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Using the latest information about dog behavior, writer Siegal and trainer Margolis have completely revised their earlier edition ( LJ 6/1/73). Margolis "refined" his techniques, and the authors added the importance of bonding. Also new is "customized training," which shows owners how to adapt basic obedience exercises and corrections to a dog's temperament. "A Dictionary of Training Behavior" gives the characteristics and specific training problems of 100 breeds (up from 66). Librarians who have ordered Linda Colflesh's Making Friends ( LJ 10/15/90) or C.W. Meisterfeld's Psychological Dog Training ( LJ 2/15/91) could skip this one. However they must be prepared for a demand from Siegal and Margolis fans.
-Helen Sondrol, Lincoln Univ. Lib., Pa.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.