Customer Reviews

Beyond Basic Dog Training

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Beyond Basic Dog Training is a well-written book filled with practical advice. Every page screams with common sense in dog handling. Most importantly, the author's attitude is hard to beat. Diane L. Bauman, through the text, proves herself to be humane, experienced, and serious about dog obedience training.

The author parts company with most other dog trainers when she says that a dog obeys not because the dog wishes to please its master. Rather, she says, the dog obeys only when the dog finds that obeying is in its best interest. Additionally, the author emphasizes that the best way to train a dog is to train it so it UNDERSTANDS the commands. To make sure the dog understands, the handler is taught to "proof" each exercise. Instead of being taught patterns that may fail when distractions are present, the "thinking" dog will perform, because the dog KNOWS what it is supposed to do.

Finally, Diane L. Bauman's record of achievement as a dog trainer must be highlighted. Among other awards, her Golden Retriever, Charo, retired from dog obedience competitions with six perfect scores of 200, and is a three-time Gaines Superdog winner.

Beyond Basic Dog Training is a competent, if uninspired, account of Diane Bauman's methods for training dogs to perform Kennel Club obedience routines. The book is a series of short chapters covering most obedience exercises from Novice to Utility, as well as short discussions on training equipment and trialing tips. Due to the limited scope this book will not be especially helpful to the pet owner wishing to teach basic manners and practical obedience, though it could be a useful read for an obedience competitor.

The teaching methods themselves are old fashioned and rather boring. Dogs are pushed into sits, pulled into send aways, ear-pinched into retrieving. There is no discussion of other methods that can be used to achieve these behaviours (luring, shaping, capturing, etc), leaving the reader rather at a loss if the given method does not work for them.

Bauman's catch-phrase is that it is "good to be wrong", which means that a dog should not be corrected in the learning phase of training. Like most good trainers, she believes dogs should only ever be corrected if they are defiant, not if they are confused or frightened. Bauman discusses how to safely fit and use several types of correction collar, and how to determine which collar is best for a certain dog.

Bauman emphasises the importance of praising the dog for good work, but doesn't present a particularly coherent account on how to motivate a dog or utilise his drives. She does suggest using small food tidbits to reward dogs, but does not go into detail about how or when to deliver these. She does not discuss the use of prey drive or toy rewards at all, despite them being exceptionally useful for some dogs. Neither does she explain anything about operant or classical conditioning, or about marker words or bridges.

In conclusion, although I doubt any dog would be harmed by use of these methods, I also doubt that this method will get the best obedience performance out of every dog. Some dogs need more motivation than Ms Bauman provides, or do better with "hands-off" techniques, and this book unfortunately does not cater for the learning styles of these canines. However, it is still worth a read for kennel club obedience competitors, who might well pick up some useful tips.

Diane Bauman is not only a great dog communicator, but also a great human communicator. I do obedience work with my Rottweiler, Mattie, and most of the obedience books on the market are difficult to understand and implement. Diane speaks directly to handlers of all ages and degrees of experience, in language that everyone can understand and examples that apply to almost every problem faced by trainers. I also enjoyed the photographs illustrating certain techniques. This book caters to dogs of all sizes and shapes. I was impressed with Diane's simplistic approaches and found that there definately is a big difference in having your dog understand what he/she is doing as opposed to just performing because of the enticement of bait. After implementing the strategies and techniques in the book, I found that the main reason for Mattie's non-performance was because I was giving her the wrong signals. I found that we worked wonderfully as a team once I got things straight. I think that this book should be every dog owner's bible, because so many dogs end up in the pound because we don't know how to talk to them. If only every dog owner would take the time to read through and implement the simple steps outlined in Diane's book, our dog pounds would be empty and what a wonderful thought that would be. Mattie and I are on our way to getting an obedience title and we wouldn't be if not for Diane's great insight. I was amazed at how quickly Mattie's performance changed. It doesn't take long, because if you love your dog they can't do enough to gain your praises.

Too many people seize on brand-new, so-called "modern" training methods, such as clicker training, as being automatically better than "old-fashioned" methods that use both praise and correction.

This is unfortunate, because so many of the "old-fashioned" methods (not only of raising dogs, but also of raising children) work wonderfully in producing respectful, confident, happy dogs (and children!). Newfangled is not automatically better.

Diane Bauman's method is tried and true, and the dogs I've used it with have been my happiest, most confident, most respectful dogs. Which is really no surprise, since dogs understand and appreciate an owner who provides both positive consequences for good behavior, and negative consequences for bad behavior. It is precisely that clear-cut contrast between the two that allows your dog to make the right choices.

Just because you correct misbehavior doesn't mean you *aren't* using positive training techniques. This terrific book is packed with positive training techniques. You can use it with confidence -- your dog will learn happily from it.

This was a very good book. It sets you up to teach your dog to think about the commands you give rather than following patterns. If the exercises are followed correctly it does not set your dog up for failure as a previous review stated. Rather it makes sure that your dog understand what it is supposed to do regardless of what is going on around it. I found her methods to make a lot more sense to me than the positive only training where there are no consequnces if the dog chooses to willfully disobey. The methods described are humane and it is fairly easy to follow.

Diane Bauman's book is one of the best books in its genre. It is not at all surprising that the author's a winning trainer of up to four breeds in obedience trails. The recommendations in this book, like its title, go beyond basic training (clicker or otherwise), taking owners one step further into tweaking and polishing oftentimes assumed basic but nonetheless important commands like HEELING for dogs. Its succint chapters make it convenient for the reader to pause and assimilate some of best (but not necessarily the easiest for less experienced handlers like myself) tried and tested methods to teaching dogs how to think and even preempt(!). The book's only drawback is one that is purely aesthetics (lack of colored photos) but one that is overcomed by the author's highly motivational style of writing. This is a book for owners with an aim to cultivating a deeper relationship with their dogs via the systematic construction of a repertoire of common vocabulary. While I have no wish to put my three dogs through obedience trails, Bauman's book still scores very highly in the must-read list of dog training books as it will help anyone who's keen to hone their skills in dealing with their dogs in a loving yet firm basis. 5 stars for readability, effectiveness and excellence in being in a league of its own!

This book is well written, well thought out, and addresses the needs of many kinds of dog owners! There is frequent use of show dog terminology, but, other than that, I found this book a great supplement to dog training. It describes this experienced trainer's methods for ending up with a great relationship with your dog as well as a happy, well trained dog. Anyone who actually cares about their dog's mental and emotional health will benefit greatly from this book, whether you want a show dog or simply a well trained animal. The author is well-read and cites other works where appropriate- it's just a wonderfully put together reference.

The greatest thing this book gave me is and overview of the entire training process. Diane outlines training with the goal of producing a well trained dogs for advanced competition. Diane has some great comments about how dogs think, and how we as handlers sometimes scare our dog out of work he or she might otherwise be perfectly happy to do for us. She writes in nice short chapters which are easy to digest, and the book has many excelent photographs to illustrate the techniques described.

The negative reviews are 180º off the mark about this most excellent book. Not only is correction NOT encouraged at all, the word NO is NOT to be used with this method at all. Ms. Bauman teaches that to be WRONG more than OK, it is a learning opportunity for the dog. There are NO, nada, absolutely zero harsh corrections, only gentle "helps" to the dog when they don't understand the command. The (there is no other word for it)LIE that chairs were thrown or any other such horrible thing isn't even in the *realm* of truth about this book. This book stresses a method that will produce very very good results, and a methond in which the dog remains happy and pleased to do the work, a VERY far cry from the criticism that was launched at it. No "hang-head" obedience dogs will result from this book, only HAPPY, healthy, dogs EAGER to do these exercises, because it gives them such a sense of confidence. I trained a dog using this method back when the book first came out. We never went beyond novice because life got in the way. But the method is simply the best you'll find out there. There may be others that work, but you'll not wind up with a HAPPY dog to do it. With this method you will have a very happy and CONFIDENT dog.

Bauman's book is a no-nonsense approach to obedience training with an eye on competing. She is thorough in her discussions and accurately provides details into the how, why, where and when to create the results that are wanted with training. I found this book to be very complimentary to other positive training books I've previously read. Would recommend this read to anyone who is a novice trainer like myself who wants/needs more information than they are receiving in a class setting. Additionally, I believe it would serve the trainer who must train alone.