Looking to enhance my knowledge of dog training. Suggestions?? - Page 1

Hi all,
 I am wanting to better my knowledge of dog training. I am in school to become a certified dog trainer, but; I am not really..Impressed, with all the information it gives. It is all very basic and anybody who did some internet research could do/teach this stuff. I've know several people who had a trainer come to their home and "train" the dogs, being super impressed by their certification, and the person who showed up to do it, didn't have a clue as to what they were talking about.  I do not want to be like that, and since I am hoping to make a career with training dogs in the future, I want to gleen as much information as possible so I can be the best trainer/handler I possibly can be :) I want to be well rounded, so I can assist all types of people with their dogs. I have become an apprentice to a K-9 trainer here in my area, but still I feel as if I need to learn more as not all dogs are high drive(like the ones he trains) and not all dogs can be trained with the way this school is teaching how to train them.  Eventually though, I do plan to train K-9's. That is rather far down the road though as I am young, and even though I've spent pretty much all my life with dogs, I don't have much expierence training them. Just the basic stuff, tricks, and for my own personal dog I've taught her to open doors and go in any direction I point or nod in.

To get to the reason as to why I am posting this; I am looking for book suggestions, DVD suggestions, any type of suggestion would be greatly appreciated! :) I figured this would be a great place to ask for suggestions as pretty much everybody on here has years of expierence with dogs, yeah? I tried asking for books before about shutzhund(bc I am planning on joining a club here), and one very nice person did reply to me with a book, others replied to my question about my dog. :) but this time I just want suggestions for anything and everything that will help to better my knowledge. Basic, advanced and everything in between.

Please and thank you! :)

What state are you in? Kudos to you for working with a mentor, that is a huge benefit! :-) experience is going to be your best teacher, 100 percent, hands on, but in the meantime, Leerburg and Ivan Balabanov (sp?) Have videos you could look at too. :-)
Best of luck to you!

I guess it depends on what kind of "training" you wnat to learn about.

Michael Ellis....Dave Kroyer........Ivan Balanof (sp?) and other for competition obedience and more....

check leerburg.com or caninetrainingsystems.com have dvd's of many different top notch trainiers.

finding a mentor is really the best way of learning......

I learned training by training MY OWN DOGS and working with rescue dogs. If you don't have your own dogs to train, then volunteer for a rescue group. There you will get to know different breeds of dogs and the way in which each learns. Its great experience and you get to know each of the breeds better.

Barb

I'm with Barb; you will learn a great deal by volunteering to work with rescues and shelter dogs.

Thank you all for the suggestions! I have some of the Micheal Ellis DVD's on the way already, and will definetly check out the other guys. :) I will also be volunteering at a shelter here in the next couple of weeks. I'm in south Carolina and as of right now, I am just wanting to focus on Obedience and the various ways to train it. Later on I want to get into other stuff, but I want to start at the very bottom. No shortcuts. I want to do right for the dogs and myself by actually knowing what I'm doing. Instead of saying "Oh, I don't know what to do with that dog" and sending it on to someone else.

Thanks again! :)

Where in SC?

Around Summerville

In Charleston

Go shovel dog waste in a working kennel . That is a good start. Ask them to let you train some dogs who are just sitting there. Ask and watch and study. Reads books. Watch videos.  Train your own dog(s)  too.  Ask them to teach you decoy work and obedience.