Dog and Puppy Training – 10 of the Best Books and Aids

Week by Week Puppy Training (Charlotte Schwartz)

With 40 years of expertise in dog training, Charlotte Schwartz takes her proven methods and applies them to puppy training for everyone, in a fun and exciting way. This entertaining, easy to follow guide focuses on the first eight weeks of your puppy’s life, which behaviourists agree is a time of critical development and uses an easy to follow week-by-week calendar, in the comfort of your own home.

Using positively-focused training techniques, Charlotte Schwartz teaches everything from toilet-training to obedience. This work will make you feel like you’re in a fun obedience class with a master teacher, you will not only learn teaching methods, but you will also learn about your puppy’s personality.

Beautifully illustrated with over 135 colour photographs, including many subjects successfully trained by Charlotte Schwartz herself, this book is sure to be a massive help in the crucial early weeks of your puppy’s life and development.

Puppy Training For Kids (Colleen Pelar)

A much-needed resource in the puppy training genre of books are books focused on kids. Kids and puppies are a great match, often complimenting each other’s energy and teaching kids responsibility. Many puppy training books can be complicated when it comes to explaining to kids how to train a puppy, but Puppy Training for Kids introduces kids of all ages to practical puppy care, training, housebreaking, and socialising, as well a clicker training, positive treat-led training, and selecting toys.

Puppy Training For Kids also delves into body language and puppy psychology, with an easy to understand style of writing. The book includes tips for parents to guide their kids towards being responsible and how to treat a young puppy for them to grow into a healthy adult dog, with many full-colour photos to help illustrate the captions and tips.

This book is the ideal gift for any child who is living with a puppy, or about to live with one in their household.

Train Your Own Service Dog (Lelah Sullivan)

Reflecting a lifetime of experience in this book, Leleah Sullivan’s call to action is that everyone who needs a service dog should be able to have one. Service dog training can be costly, and the waiting lines for one can be very long. This book allows anyone who wants or needs a service dog to train one themselves. You will be guided from the basics, through an intensive 30-day programme, by teaching your dog several necessary behaviours, as well as a customisable task, depending on your particular needs.

The book doesn’t just focus on tasks within the home but also shows you how to teach your dog to conduct himself well in public, keeping their attention focused, instead of allowing themselves to be distracted by a variety of things.

Lelah also offers continual support, both through her Facebook group, and her Skype, available through the Facebook group (linked here: facebook.com/groups/180613442286351), should you have any additional questions, or require additional support.

101 Dog Tricks (Kyra Sundance)

Would you like your dog to get you a soda from the fridge? How about tidying up after themselves? These and many, many more, ranging from the easy to the “I can’t believe your dog can do that!”, can be learned in 101 Dog Tricks. These tricks are designed to be easy to learn, for both yourself and your dog, with step-by-step instructions, and beautiful colour photos illustrating each step. Skills come with a difficulty grade, and essentials to start you off. Boxes with tips satisfy common problems, with more difficult skills being built on the simpler ones.

The form of trick training taught in this books has the added benefits of allowing you to bond with your dog, and family members can easily command the dog through the use of universal hand commands.

Tricks will keep your dog intellectually stimulated and physically tested, and you can take this training further, to dog shows, dog dancing, or to show off his skills on Youtube. Beyond just tricks, this will strengthen the relationship between you and your dog, making you both more comfortable with each other, inviting an easier relationship for both of you.

Total Recall (Pippa Matinson)

In this book, world-renowned trainer Pippa Mattinson addresses the problem that many dog owners face some point: their dog won’t come back when you call on them!
Divided into three distinctive sections, Preparation, The Recall Training Programme, and Problem Solving. In Preparation, the book leads you through all the basics you’ll need to start the programme, including dog psychology on how they learn, and positive training.

In Recall Training, there is a complete set of exercises to work through with your dog, advice and training for every stage of a dog’s life, from puppy to older dogs, training them in recall forever, so you never need to worry about your beloved dog running away.

The third section is the troubleshooting section, where you can learn why you made a mistake, and how to avoid them in the future. This training programme will reduce anxiety over your dog not coming back, allowing you to have fun and enjoy your time with your dog.

Training Clicker

Making training more comfortable and straightforward, this PetSafe Clik-R Training Tool provides a uniform tone that makes it easy to train pets to connect it with a treat. Teaching your dog recognition of behaviour and consequence, your pet will quickly start to associate the clicker sound with a reward, improving the health of your pet, by reducing the need for constant treats.

The PetSafe Clik-R Tool can be attached to a lanyard and comes with a finger strap, the PetSafe Clik-R Tool is small and portable, while not being easy to lose, making it easy to carry, for walks and outings.

Training Whistle

Ultrasonic, with adjustable sound frequencies, so you can adjust it to exactly the right pitch to get your dog’s attention, this whistle is fully customisable, with a matching lanyard to ensure it never gets lost. The lanyard also means the ultrasonic whistle will be close to hand, whenever you need it, as well as being able to be hung up and close to hand whenever you need it. The whistle is an essential training assistant to keep in your kit.

This whistle covers vast distances, so no need to worry if your dog is off doing his own thing; this whistle will undoubtedly command his attention and bring him back to you, whether you’re off on a short walk, on holiday, or on a special outing. This whistle is particularly good to bring to places you and your dog may be unfamiliar with.

Target Stick

Durable, and made from over ten years of collective experience, the Dogsline Target Stick combines stability with a silicone, non-slip grip, and stainless steel construction, with a solid ball made from dense foam. The ball is both chew and gentle enough for soft noses, and can be further utilised by spreading a tasty spreadable, to further capture your dog’s attention.

The stick also has a handy aperture, that can be threaded with a cord and the small, light stick can be worn around the neck. Used for the training of dog’s, horses and even cats, a good training book will give you advice on how to use it.

Pet Corrector

Utilising the natural defence mechanisms of animals, insects, and birds, like swans, for example, the Pet Corrector releases a loud hissing noise, which pets are naturally sensitive to.

Delivering a loud hiss of air, the Pet Corrector deters pets from harmful behaviours, such as nipping or jumping on furniture, in a way that doesn’t upset their natural senses. Included is an extensive instruction manual, with tips on how to train your pet responsibly with the Pet Corrector. It is essential to use the Pet Corrector responsibly and always positively reward good behaviour.

Dog Training Discs

These Mikki Dog Training Discs can be utilised to surmount a variety of problems, such as barking, being too excited, and even hostile and destructive behaviour. Created by animal psychologist John Fisher, the founding member of the Association of Pet Behaviour Counsellors, and the end result of lots of years of research, the small metal discs create a unique sound, these discs are a fantastic way to teach your pet good behaviour. The sound of the discs will stop the pet in whatever wrong thing he is doing, and brings his attention back to you. A treat can then be given for better behaviour.

A training manual is included with the discs to ensure you know the correct ways to use them.