“It is our view that in order to grow into a great dog, your puppy does not need lots of training, he just needs love, understanding, some good habits and the chance to be a dog!”
Why did I get this book?
For a very long time I have been searching for a puppy book I could recommend with good conscience to new and experienced pet parents alike. The closest I have come so far has been Gwen Bailey’s “The perfect puppy”, but even with that I wasn’t entirely satisfied: it was a final compromise before giving up on my quest. But to my luck, this book dropped out of the sky when I was just about to give up. And I just had to read it. I did in fact end up getting two copies because my youngest dog loved it so much that she needed at taste. Of course that was my fault for leaving the book on the couch in the first place before I left for work.
What does this book do?
What is says on the tin. It teaches you how to successfully raise a puppy. And while many books claim this, what makes this book special is the approach. The book starts out with a chapter about what a dog is and how a dog would dog with no human intervention. From this introduction, the reader is brought on a journey into how we as humans can best mimic the natural care of puppies and help them grow happy and confident in our home. What truly sets this book apart from the masses though, is the complete absence of obedience focused approach. Instead we’re taught how to integrate our dogs into the household by giving them safety and love while meeting their needs and apply ever so gentle teaching techniques to help our puppies understand how the human world works. I grew particularly fond of this book when I saw that finally there’s a puppy book taking a stand against confinement. This book will teach you to cohabitate with your new family member without needing to use crates and it even is kind enough to highlight the potential downfalls to the practise. This book is great if you already have your puppy in your home, but also if you’re having thoughts about adding a new member to your household. A chapter in the book is dedicated to picking a puppy, talking to breeders, understanding breeds, and get ready to take your new puppy home. In short, this is so far the most complete and dog-compassionate puppy book I have read and I highly recommend it to anyone having or looking to have a puppy in their life, regardless of their experience level.
What does this book not do?
Obedience. If you’re looking for a book on how to teach your pup sit, stand, down, heel or any other trick, this is not the book. However, if you’re just starting out with a new puppy, you don’t need obedience anyway, so I’d suggest you’d go ahead and buy this book instead of what you were looking for. Obedience is super easy to teach if we have the foundation down and this book is just that: the foundation to a great relationship.
