Looking for a Book...Any Suggestions? - Page 1

My niece who is 17 years old just got her first GSD. American lines I believe. What I want to know is can anyone suggest a good book on training her dog for AKC style obedience? I want to give her one as a gift, I don't care the cost just that it is a good book. I would have paid for her to attend an obedience class but not feasable for her to attend one due to her remote location. Thank you very much in advance. I know there are a lot of very knowlegeable people here and I really appreciate all your input. Most sincerely, Leo

Winifred Strickland is an excellent author on training Shepherds.

An excellent book on behaviour and training is "Don't Shoot the Dog!" by Karen Pryor. Karen Pryor is a renowned dolphin trainer and her methods are applied to the training of dogs with positive reinforcement. This book is available in paperback. A fantastic training book is also "Beyond Basic Dog Training" by Diane L. Bauman.

As mentioned above "The German Shepherd Dog" by Winifred Gibson Strickland and James Moses is a great starter book which covers basics of puppies, Sieger shows, Schutzhund training, Akc obeidence trials, health issues... List is $29.99/isbn 0-87605-154-9

Consider also Purely Positive Training by Sheila Booth.

I am a HUGE fan of Building Blocks for Performance by Bobbie Anderson and Ruff Love by Susan Garrett. You niece will need to get a copy of the AKC Obedience Regulations.... check the website www.akc.org - she needs to ask for the most recent so she may want to call them - think they are $2 a copy.... It will be difficult for her to train for competition with no one to help her(not impossible but it sure helps to have guidance).. is there nowhere she could even go to train once a month maybe and then come home and work for a month ?- once her dog is old enough - there is also Training the Competitive Obedience Dog (something like that) by Adele Yunck and another author.. you can post me off list if you are interested, it's also a great book and is more specific to the AKC exercises. Hope this helps......

DKiah I spoke to her last night and she's not totally without help as she is in 4-H. I wasn't aware of that so I should have questioned her instead of her mother first. I will look up and order those books for her. The book by Stickland, I found two of them, one about German Shepherds and the other one was more focused on Obedience training...Maybe I should consider both of them as well. Dog1- I have Purely Positive Training by Sheila Booth and never considered this one, you're correct it's a great book too. Thanks to everyone for your input. Leo

Glad to help, it's nice to see a young person take an interest and have an adult interested in helping her!! I bought my first obedience book many many years ago, I was about 12, and saved my 25cent a week allowance for a very loooong time in order to do that! I know I'm giving myself away here!! My parents are not really dog people but got me the GSD cuz I was nagging the bejesus out of them!! I joke about the noise I hear every time I get another dog, that would be my dad rolling over in his grave!! So, the support for a young person is awesome! What a great uncle!

A must have book for anybody into shepherds is a book written by Susan Barwig called German Shepherd Book. I have had it for I don't know how long and love it. Pretty much anything you can think of is in it, It is kind of exspensive but worth every penny if you can still find it.

If you have not done so yet, search amazon.com . My best dog books were from them including susan barwig's classic which I highly recommend.