How to Be Your Dog's Best Friend: The Classic Training Manual for Dog Owners (Revised & Updated Edition)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0316610003 ISBN 13: 9780316610001

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, 2002

For more than 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 expanded edition 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 four decades, is based on the philosophy that "understanding is the key to communication, compassion, and communion" with your dog.

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 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.

Review:

How to Be Your Dog's Best Friend, an informal, friendly guide by The Monks of New Skete, is really two books in one: a step-by-step training manual and a philosophical discussion of the spiritual benefits of owning a dog. The Monks, who support their community in upstate New York by breeding and training German shepherds, reveal a profound devotion to all breeds in this detailed guide to every imaginable aspect of dog ownership. They cover it all: naming the puppy, training with eye contact and jingling keys, establishing the best sleeping arrangements, even dealing with pet loneliness. Owners are advised to think of themselves as the dog's alpha figure, to train with praise instead of punishment, and to beware of becoming the dog's maid or doorman. Throughout, the authors reflect on the deep spiritual connection possible between humans and dogs. Generations of dogs have been trained with the bestselling 1978 edition of this book. With this update, the Monks are bound to gain many new fans--happy humans and obedient canines alike. With modesty and generosity, the Monks offer an extensive list of other helpful books about dogs, as well as a useful appendix of American Kennel Club titles and terms. --Judy Fireman

About the Author:

The Monks of New Skete have lived as a community in Cambridge, New York, for more than 30 years. They support themselves by breeding, raising, and training dogs at their monastery. They are also the authors also of In the Spirit of Happiness: Spiritual Wisdom for Living.