Jam packed with information, tips and brilliant advice
Disadvantages:
None
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
Title - The Perfect Puppy
Author - Gwen Bailey
Price - £12.99
This book is a must have for anyone thinking about buying a puppy or already owning one, The Perfect Puppy was recommended to me by my dogs breeder when I bought her and it is full of very useful information. I have a few other dog training books but this is the one I keep referring to, since buying this book I havent opened my others.
The author of this book, Gwen Bailey, is the Dog Behaviour Counsellor for the Blue Cross animal charity and also runs puppy classes, so she is well qualified to write this book and knows her stuff.
The contents are divided into 19 chapters starting with a bit of advice on choosing your puppy, the most popular breeds and their needs, some advice on whether to buy from working or show stock, and what to look out for in a breeder. Next the author tells you how to read your puppys body language etc. Their is also some information on dogs abilities, their sense of smell, eyesite and how sensitive to sound they are.
There is good advice on bringing your new puppy home, introducing them to children and other animals, and a couple of pages on how to introduce (if you have one) your existing dog. Chapter 4 focuses on the development stages, what you should be doing and how your puppy is likely to behave..
Socialising your puppy is extremely important and there is a great chapter on how best to do this, it stresses how important it is to start early on, as this can make a huge difference to how your dog reacts to situations later on in life. An un-socialized dog can be nervous, timid and generally unhappy so this section is very helpful and important, there is also a couple of pages in the back of the book which tells you lots of different things that your puppy should experience several times, and at what age from, introducing them to people of all ages and personalities to taking them to shopping centres and getting used to traffic.
Housetraining is probably one of the first things you will start to teach your puppy when you bring them home and chapter 7 gives some great tips on this subject. Chapter 8 is quite long, giving lots of advice on how to be the pack leader, dogs need to know their place in a household and it can be quite hard to know how to be the boss and at the same time allowing your puppy enough freedom to develop their own personality! Types of games to play that suit your breed of dog is something I had never considered until I read this in The Perfect Puppy, and tips on making sure you win games and your pup doesnt think he has "one over on you" because believe me, given half the chance, some do!
Chapter 12 tells you how to handle your dog, check his ears, eyes, teeth and coat and also how to groom them, this is a great chapter because having a dog that is happy to be handled makes life a lot easier should the need for medical attention arise, grooming also helps develop a great bond and this gives advice on how to make your puppy keep still!
The chapter entitled Good Manners covers teaching how stop jumping up, how to greet people nicely, take tit-bits without snatching and car travel etc.
Th last few chapters cover allsorts of training, timing between obeying a command and delivering a reward treat is essential for quicker learning. There is good advice on teaching your dog to come back when called, with lots of photos as well as written instructions, how to teach your dog to perform fun tricks and practical exercises, this then goes into progressing the training and onto discipline, when to do it and how.
At the end is a short chapter on adolescence and beyond and what to expect when your pup is no longer a puppy but not yet an adult.
I thoroughly recommend this book, it is worth every penny, it is packed with tips and invaluable information and lots of colourful photographs of different breeds of dogs being trained! I have stuck to it religiously and must say that my eight month old puppy is an absolute joy to own and so well trained, I am so proud of her. I wish I had this book with my older dog, as I can see his behaviour is alot to do with my training not being good enough.
The chapters are divided brilliantly, if you need to refer back to something, you can get straight to it. The author explains everything in detail but is straight to the point and if you stick to her fantastic advice everything starts to slip into place without you realising, and is actually easier than you think, if you are consistent and follow the adivce given in this book, by the time your puppy reaches adulthood, you will have a happy, well mannered, well behaved dog that is a pleasure to own.
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