Monks of New Skete - Page 1

I read the First Ed. on The Art of Raising a Puppy. It was an excellent read. I know they've marketed
out a Rev. Ed. Has anyone read it?  I may buy it if it has new techniques and information. It is a comfort
book just to read by the fireplace with Thai tea.   Also, has anyone ever bought a GSD from them?
If so, temperament, etc.  Any comfort books to recommend. Thanks

White Fang - One of my favorites.

I talked with them about a breeding female. They wanted cheap, cheap, cheap and pretended to know something about bloodlines. Clueless is how I would describe my conversation.

I read their book many years ago. I related to their training methods as they never seemed harsh and hurtful to their dogs. The part I remember the most was that in order for your dog to be your dog and protector it must sleep with you in the same room. Once I read that part all the dogs I have owned over the years have always slept on the floor in our bedroom. I have never had a dog run away from home they always stick very close to us. We are a part of their pack, and dog packs sleep close to one another. This made sense to me.

This handsome guy is in all my dogs pedigree, he had a great tracking ability, I talked to the lady that owned him, she 
belonged to a tracking club and she said he was among the first of a few dogs in America at that time to receive an FH

​He is the great-great-great grand-sire of my girl Mira that just had her 13th birthday 








http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/german_shepherd_dog/dog.html?id=517869-new-sketes-halo-of-lockwood


 

What I liked most about their book was where a family with young children were admiring one of their males. The father asked the monk "What is the purpose of a good breeding program?"

Just then, his kid yanked the dog's tail. The dog turned around, surprised, then on seeing the youngster, licked his face.

"THAT," said the monk, "is the purpose of a good breeding program!"

Too many breeders have forgotten that.

I am not a fan of the shake can, either. I've seen dogs that were afraid of the can, but had absolutely NO respect for the person holding it.

I don't remember that being in their book. Maybe that was the earlier edition.

Are these monks from a certain religion?
vonrivera

They are Eastern Orthodox. I read the first edition when it first came out and along with Kohler's book they were my early training guides. My dogs were obedient but training methods have vastly improved since then and even the monks have disavowed some of the methods in that first edition. No book is going to teach you how to train your individual dog but I would recommend Ian Dunbar's How To Teach A New Dog Old Tricks,  Stanley Coren's  How Dogs Think or How To Speak Dog, Karen Pryor's Don't Shoot The Dog, Jean Donaldson's the Culture Clash, Pam Reid's Excelerated Learning, Patricia McConnell's The Other End Of The Leash, Michael W Fox's Behaviour Of , Wolf, Dogs And Related Canids,Sheila Booth's Purely Positive Training, Helmut Raiser's Der Schutzhund, and if you are up to the read try Max Von Stephanitz's The German Shepherd Dog In Word And Picture or try Steven Lindsay's three volume set of Applied Dog Behavior And Training but do not skip any of the volumes. I do not agree with everything in these books and all of them are incomplete but they are superior to anything you will read in the Monk's books.