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Training the Best Dog Ever: A 5-Week Program Using the Power of Positive Reinforcement Paperback – September 25, 2012

by Larry Kay (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 2,787 ratings
See all formats and editions
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Training the Best Dog Ever, originally published in hardcover as The Love That Dog Training Program, is a book based on love and kindness. It features a program of positive reinforcement and no-fail techniques that author Dawn Sylvia-Stasiewicz used to train the White House dog, Bo Obama, and each of Senator Ted Kennedy’s dogs, among countless others.

Training the Best Dog Ever relies on trust and treats, not choke collars; on bonding, not leash-yanking or reprimanding. The five-week training program takes only 10 to 20 minutes of practice a day and works both for puppies and for adult dogs that need to be trained out of bad habits. Illustrated with step-by-step photographs, the book covers hand-feeding; crate and potty training; and basic cues—sit, stay, come here—as well as more complex goals, such as bite inhibition and water safety. It shows how to avoid or correct typical behavior problems, including jumping, barking, and leash-pulling. Plus: how to make your dog comfortable in the world—a dog that knows how to behave in a vet’s office, is at ease around strangers, and more. In other words, the best dog ever.
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    304 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Workman Publishing Company
  4. Publication date
    September 25, 2012
  5. Dimensions
    6 x 0.6 x 10 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    9780761168850
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0761168850
  8. See all details
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Popular Highlights in this book
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Previous page
  1. While hand-feeding your dog, say her name in a loving way. This is called the Name Game, and I want you to do it whenever you hand-feed.
    Highlighted by 1,296 Kindle readers
  2. “Come here” is mastered. When I recall my dog, he comes to me right away.
    Highlighted by 935 Kindle readers
  3. For dogs, withholding a reward is punishment enough and is, in fact, more effective than physical punishment.
    Highlighted by 887 Kindle readers
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From the Publisher

1

2
In Five Weeks Teach Your Dog to:
  • Succeed at Potty Training
  • Bond with the Family
  • Enjoy the Crate
  • Stop Pulling on His Leash
  • Be Relaxed About Food
  • Accept Bathing and Grooming
  • Respond to Essential Verbal Cues and Hand Signals
  • Be Friendly with Strangers

Down: Luring Your Dog into a Down Position.

Part of Week Two: Training in Everyday Life

If you ever need to control your dog in an urgent safety situation, such as avoiding an aggressive dog or a distraction that makes her either fearful or overly excited, you will be grateful that the down cue is part of her repertoire.

Your dog is ready to learn down when she can sit fairly reliably. The cue takes advantage of her natural tendency to move her body to follow a lure, so it is an appropriate cue to learn after sit.

  • START AT SIT. With your dog in the sit position, hold a lure in your fingertips with your palm turned down.
  • LURE DOWN. Slide the lure toward your dog’s chest. Just before you touch her chest, lure straight down to the floor, staying close to her body.
  • PRAISE, THEN TREAT LAST. If she drops straight down, mark it (say “good”), praise her, touch her collar, and reward her with the treat.

Step-by-step photos:

1

2

3

Step 1

Start at sit.

Step 2

Lure down.

Step 3

Praise, then treat last.

Praise for Training the Best Dog Ever

1

2

3

1
The Big Book of Tricks for the Best Dog Ever
Customer Reviews
4.7 out of 5 stars
2,360
Price $11.59
Also by Larry Kay: Show off your dog! And let your dog show off, too! Using the secrets of professional dog trainers, this fully illustrated guide with hundreds of step-by-step photos shows how to teach your pet 118 tricks and stunts.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Larry Kay, a Los Angeles-based award-winning writer, is Leader of the Pack at Positively Woof, which celebrates the human-animal bond. In addition to co-authoring Training the Best Dog Ever, he created the award-winning Animal Wow dog care DVD for kids. He has written for Dog Fancy magazine and AOL's Paw Nation. His writing credits include PBS documentaries, educational films for the New York City Board of Education, and children’s edutainment software for Disney and The Muppets. Larry Kay's website is positivelywoof.com.


Dawn Sylvia-Stasiewicz trained Bo Obama and each of Senator Ted Kennedy’s Portuguese Water Dogs. She was a professional dog trainer for more than 20 years, ran the popular Merit Puppy dog training classes, and trained and boarded animals for the Washington elite.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0761168850
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Workman Publishing Company; Reprint edition (September 25, 2012)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780761168850
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0761168850
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.6 x 10 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 2,787 ratings

About the authors

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Previous page
  1. Dawn Sylvia-Stasiewicz

    Dawn Sylvia-Stasiewicz

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    Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

    See more on the author's page
  2. Larry Kay

    Larry Kay

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    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    Award-winning dog author Larry Kay believes that "when we discover pets, we discover ourselves." That's the idea behind his newest book LIFE'S A BARK: What Dogs Teach Us About Life and Love.

    Larry coauthored TRAINING THE BEST DOG EVER, which became a #1 best seller in dog training on Amazon Kindle, and won the Maxwell Medallion for Best Dog Training and Behavior book from the Dog Writers Association of America Awards, and the first-ever Book Award from the Association of Professional Dog Trainers.

    He created the award-winning ANIMAL WOW dog care DVD for kids, which was endorsed by the American Humane Association.

    Larry has been a frequent contributor to the American Animal Hospital Association and Dog Fancy magazine.

    Larry Kay's 1 MILLION dog-loving Facebook fans celebrate the human-animal bond with him at http://facebook.com/positivelywoof

    Author website http://positivelywoof.com

    See more on the author's page
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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
2,787 global ratings
No defects
5 Stars
No defects
Puppy approved. He likes to sleep on it (only occasionally nibbling on the cover) and dream about being a "good boi".I received the 2012 edition and no pages were missing, like there were from the 2010 one.
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Top reviews from the United States

Tangirl
5.0 out of 5 stars Best dog training book I’ve read
Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2024
Verified Purchase
This book is fantastic. Teaches training through positive reinforcement and starts from the very beginning and walks you through is week by week. Love this book and I wish more trainers understood how amazing positive reinforcement is rather than pushing aversive training. It’s so fun to see your dog learn and want to learn and view training time like play
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A. Starkey
5.0 out of 5 stars great book
Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2024
Verified Purchase
This training book is very helpful, and is easy to follow. I take in foster dogs who are at times traumatized from being in puppy mills, strays, etc. The advice they give is given in small steps that build on each other.
and can work for a new puppy for for an older dog that has not had adequate training. It is gentle training with positive reinforcement and nothing harsh.
One person found this helpful
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ValkyrieMome
4.0 out of 5 stars Good solid resource!
Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2024
Verified Purchase
I really like the basis of the book: training with positive reinforcement. The writers focus on their (excellent) experiences with Portuguese Water Dogs. I found that some of the suggestions simply do not work with puppies who are a more stubborn or headstrong breed. The basics are excellent, but I needed additional in-person help from a professional dog trainer to correct some more stubborn issues. There are additionally some training issues where the writers seem to give up completely. My puppy is a digger. They have little advice, and the advice they do offer seems to be “let them dig.” Not helpful! Overall though it’s an excellent resource for a strong foundation.
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Beau StJ
5.0 out of 5 stars Two thumbs up.
Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2023
Verified Purchase
We just secured. A Bernese pup. This is our first non-Shiloh shepherd. Since we are unfamiliar with the breed this was purchased so we could start training as soon as we got the pup. We love Shilohs but given our age we wanted a not so energetic companion. This book is most helpful and wish we’d had it before. It’s a 1, 2, 3 of training and not endless platitudes and clichés.
4 people found this helpful
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SrhW
3.0 out of 5 stars Good information in general
Reviewed in the United States on December 28, 2016
Verified Purchase
I loved this book before I brought my puppy home - I thought I had everything I needed to train and overcome obstacles. Unfortunately, though, this book just doesn't match up with my specific needs. The author gives a lot of solid, logical advice, but the she doesn't often address the possibility that your attempts won't work exactly as she says they will.

For example, her Week 1 leash training protocol assumes that a dog will or will not pull every single time she's on leash with no room in between. However, my puppy only pulls when she's very distracted. Otherwise she's walking next to me. This book says that I should "be a tree" and stand still when my dog pulls, then wait until she looks at me to move on to the next step. Sounds simple, but when my puppy is distracted enough that she pulls, we can sit there for five minutes or more (I've timed it) before she'll look at me, even when I try to get her attention. I worry that I'm actually reinforcing her distraction and pulling by stopping and letting her stare, then giving her a treat via lure. Since she doesn't pull when she's less distracted, the advice to try it in a less distracting place isn't working out for me, either.

The author doesn't discuss any of this. It's just "if A, then B" type advice. She says in other places that one should "break down the exercise," but this is the first time I've ever trained a dog, and I don't know how to do that effectively without accidentally reinforcing bad behavior. The book offers no help with this. It sometimes allows for variations from the progression she describes, but not often. In fact, right from step one, there's this assumption that your dog is always going to look at you and pay attention. There's not a lot of information on how to get to that point, so if your dog isn't just instinctively locking eyes with you every five seconds, a lot of the content in this book is difficult to make use of. It leaves me feeling frustrated and ineffective.

I'm ultimately glad I read this book BEFORE I brought my puppy home. It did a great job outlining the tone and purpose of positive reinforcement training, and that information has really helped me keep my cool and focus on bringing my puppy up with love. I was much better prepared for how much of a process dog training would be. But I was hoping that I'd be able to save some money on professional training by working this program myself. At this point, I've actually spent as much on books as I would have on a couple of private training sessions that probably would have been more useful.
87 people found this helpful
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Joshua Samuelson
5.0 out of 5 stars Nice week by week positive program, pairs well with Zak George's youtube videos.
Reviewed in the United States on January 14, 2018
Verified Purchase
I don't know if this is the best book out there, but the thing I really liked is that it has a week by week program to get you started. We adopted a very energetic 4 month old puppy from the humane society who I don't think had been trained at all. This helped us get through some of the initial challenges and learn the basics. One helpful thing is that there are photos of a lot of the training methods, which I found much easier to follow than just a written description.

I really appreciate the non-violent/positive-reinforcement approach this book uses, honestly it just seems to work better and the dog seems happier. So even if you don't mind more "old school" style, give this a try first. The book has one section that recommends basically yelling to startle the dog out of an unwanted behavior and then immediately rewarding when the behavior stops, which I found to work pretty well. So it's not like it totally disregards the ways that a more negative approach can be effective, it just focuses more on building a good relationship with the dog.

When you're done with this book I highly recommend Zak George's videos in youtube (and maybe his book, I haven't bought that). To me it's much more helpful to see a video of how to train something than to read a written description. Also, he uses cooked chicken as a training treat, which has worked super well with our dog and it's cheaper than pet store treats.
10 people found this helpful
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Linda S. Watson
5.0 out of 5 stars Dog training
Reviewed in the United States on December 7, 2023
Verified Purchase
Helped with training our puppy
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Top reviews from other countries

carmen
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Reviewed in Mexico on September 14, 2021
Verified Purchase
It is really detailed plus if you are willing to follow it by the rule you will find it very useful for bonding and training your dog.
Highly recommend it.
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justine rimington
5.0 out of 5 stars Best buy ever!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 15, 2020
Verified Purchase
I am SO impressed with this book. It makes training your dog really enjoyable for dog and owner. I now have an 11 week old puppy who sits when she wants anything, walks at my side, comes when called, will lie down, sit up, stand, roll over when I ask her to. Is happy on a lead walking around the garden without pulling. She sleeps well at night and it's been for or five days since we had an accident indoors. If you are thinking of getting a dog, either a puppy or a rescue, get this book and read at least as far as the end of the week one training plan before bringing your dog home (if possible). It's so worth it.
3 people found this helpful
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Ali W.
5.0 out of 5 stars Dog Training Bible
Reviewed in Canada on May 31, 2018
Verified Purchase
Great tips and tricks to train a puppy or dog. I’ve had the book for a month and already it’s paying off in “spades”.

My relationship with my dogs (13 week old puppy and 5 year old) is more connected, happier and meaningful than before, and the dogs are far more obedient than I could ever imagine.

One of the major “wins” for us is having our little rescued Mexican street puppy going in her crate on cue. She is sometimes hostile, chasimg the cat, scarfing down anything in site including important papers, and biting our ankles.

After a few days of training using the advice in the book, if I say “crate” and point to the crate, she runs in there and waits patiently for her treat for being a good obedient girl :) it’s a perfect way to counteract her bad behaviour and praise her for listening to cues.

Now, if she sees me with a treat (even a carrot), she runs in her crate, whether it’s for her or not!

There are some great tips that are applicable to owners who are willing to put in the time to enhance the relationship between their puppy or dog and build a lasting bond that benefits more than just trainer and pet.

Note: if you are thinking of alternative training devices like prong/shock collars, please give this book/manual a chance.
12 people found this helpful
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Fleur
5.0 out of 5 stars Good ideas
Reviewed in France on March 14, 2020
Verified Purchase
Good book for reminding us how to approach training a young dog
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customer
4.0 out of 5 stars buy only from cloudtail
Reviewed in India on March 19, 2018
Verified Purchase
she explains basic training with illustrations and pics. much better than two of the Cesar Milan books i purchased from Amazon. it's useful, go for it.
2 people found this helpful
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