Customer Reviews

Control Unleashed: Creating a Focused and Confident Dog

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Whoever said that CU is geared to help calm, normal dogs and not reactive dogs is really really missing the point. CU is all about molding calm dogs from previously reactive dogs. I have a reactive agility dog, and, amazingly, so do many many other people. Once one understands what reactivity is (the book explains rather well), one will start to realize that A LOT of performance dogs are reactive and/or very stressed. Zoomies anyone? It's not just excitement! Stress sniffing anyone? Tuning one's handler out and "shutting down"? "Ring nerves"? "But s/he does so well at home"? Most agility competitors have probably experienced one of these things (I know I sure have!). I find it rather callous to say that these dogs do not belong in agility, as was noted by a previous poster. WE have created these artificial stresses on these dogs, and it is up to us to help them learn how to cope with these stress triggers. WE need to help our dogs learn to cope. And that is EXACTLY what Leslie helps us do.

All of her methods are geared towards helping us help our dogs be calm. Reactive dogs are over the top! We need to teach them how to get back under the threshold and stay there and work with us. It is an amazing, beautiful thing, and I've seen the beauty firsthand (have been to CU seminars and am on the Yahoo! group).

Bottom line: If you have a reactive, stressing, sniffy, fearful, etc. agility dog, and you're just itching to help your dog feel better, CU is for you.

I've read quite a few training books recently - and this is one of the best. It contains lots of new information that doesn't appear in other training books, and is all based on positive training. Definately no collar corrections or prong collar suggested here!

Highly highly recommended. Particularly if you have a fearful dog.

While this book claims to be for the average dog owner who is interested in having a better relationship with his/her dog and use positive techniques for training and behavior mod, I really felt that it was geared strongly towards participants in obedience and agility competitions.

If you are interested in either of these things, then this book is GREAT for taking your relationship with your dog in a new direction. And, it's all about positive reinforcement, which is awesome...b/c it's so nice to reward them for the good stuff.

Have a dog that is reactive? Have a dog that doesn't pay attention when you need? Leslie helps you build a better relationship with your dog that includes teaching your dog how to focus and be confident.

The book is laid out as if you were taking a class with Leslie over a seven night course. Leslie breaks things down so that it all works in real life and real dogs.

A must have for owners of reactive dogs! Yes, many people are going to look at this as a way to solve their agility problems, hopefully what they learn is a better relationship with their dog.

We really enjoyed Leslie's visit in November 2007 at CSDogBookReview, check out our archives of her visit. I was also fortunate to see Leslie in action locally for a CU seminar.

Although Leslie's CU class was born of the need of agility instructors to have dogs in their classes that could cope with the excitement level of that sport and stay within their threshold so they could learn, this book os an absolute must for anyone involved with dogs. It is a reactive dog manual, a puppy primer, a shelter dog guide. It is a book that should be basic library material for all dog clubs, and anyone who is involved with dogs, whether it be dog sports participants, pet people or any other dog people. Leslie gives you basic exercises which would help settle in any dog. She has taken time from her life to write this book, present seminars, help people and moderate and answer questions on the Yahoo! group of her creation. Thank you Leslie from me and my dogs, Riley and Tater. I will see you in Elburn in May of 2008!!!

McDevitt usually uses the chaos of the dog-show atmosphere to illustrate when/why her methods can be used, so on the surface it might seem as if this book isn't relevant for the 'average dog owner', but I've found her focusing and calming techniques to be extremely useful in 'everyday' situations that my puppy-mill rescue dog feels are stressful -- like a walk in a busy park, or a quick trip to PetSmart...or even a stroll along our quiet suburban neighborhood sidewalk, where he was on constant alert in case anything "scary" might possibly happen (like a person coming out of a house, or a playing child running around in a yard across the street, oh dear!).

If you have an anxious or fearful or shy dog, I highly recommend this as the #3 "Must Read" book, after "Help For Your Shy Dog" by Deborah Wood, and "The Other End of the Leash" by Dr. Patricia McConnell.

We recently brought our dog to a training seminar at the wonderful foster farm where we adopted him less than a year before, and they didn't even recognize him because he was no longer the terrified, trembling, wild-eyed, wanna-runaway-now creature that he'd been just 10 months before. I credit these 3 books -- and a lot of patience and slow-going socializing in small, positive-reinforcement dog classes -- for that turnaround!

I don't know much about agility training. I hired a professional dog trainer that recommended the "Look at that!" game from this book for my dog. Since I love reading up on dog training and behavior, I decided to read the entire thing to find out more. Wow, was I in for a surprise. I couldn't make sense of many of the terms at first, and no explanations were provided. If you read the entire book, you eventually learn what pretty much all of those terms mean, but it can be a LONG time.

The thing is that you HAVE to read the entire book. It is not laid out in a way that makes it easy to look up information. The names of her games are often headers, but you don't know at a glance what those games are for. Until you read the entire section on a game, you may not know when or how you should use it. Until you have them memorized, it is confusing when she cross references games in descriptions for other games. I took a highlighter to the book though, and found that it's better to read it over quickly a second time.

Still, this is one of my favorite dog behavior books. There is information in there that is useful not only for the problem dogs in the world, but for understanding behavior and both the learning and teaching process involved. If you can apply concepts to outside situations, this is a great foundation on which to develop your own training plans. I do feel better off and more well rounded in my views on dog training after reading this book. I wish the teachings in this book were as famous as Cesar Millan's style of training (I've also read 2 of his books) so that people could see how much better things could be. Because this book is not nearly as accessible to the common person though, I don't see Control Unleashed getting the attention it needs.

If you have a dog that has been written off as aggressive or dominant though... just take the time to decipher this book before you start dominating your dog. You might be really surprised at what you find.

Every dog I own from now on will be taught the Control Unleashed games before I even set foot in a basic class! This training program is amazing!

Yes, the program is good for reactive/fearful/easily stressed dogs, but there is someting in Control Unleashed for every dog!

In addition, the author is inspiring and very easy to understand. I recommend this book to anyone and everyone!

This is an excellent book for anyone who has a dog with focus issues, or aversion to other dogs or people. Its not written for truly aggressive dogs, but it will help immensely with anyone who has a dog with minor to moderate reactivity issues.

It is written with dog sports in mind--primarily agility--so that may throw some people off. However, again, the exercises I learned in this book really have made a huge difference in learning how to control our dogs both around other dogs and in the context of general focus and in paying attention to me while there is other activity around.

The hardest thing that most people dont recognize is that there is never a magical solution for "fixing" your dog. It will take months, maybe years, to get a rescue dog--or even a purebred dog--to "come around". Stick with these exercises religiously and you will see the pay off. If nothing else, it will enhance your understanding of how to manage your dog in everyday situations.

This was the most helpful book I have found for healing my highly reactive dog. It's focused at agility trainers, but the tips for creating a relaxed, focused and confident dog are universal.

She is also great at helping owners understand their dog's behavior. Dog's may turn away and sniff the ground when they get scared or overwhelmed. That's a form of doggy communication and is unfortunately often mistaken for the dog ignoring his owner.

McDevitt's advice has really helped my dog become less afraid of his environment and very responsive to me even in highly distracting environments.