Customer Reviews

Teamwork II: A Dog Training Manual for People with Disabilities

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Teamwork II is a great book for training your own service dog. In fact, this book and it's predecessor are the only ones I have found on this topic. Using today's progressive positive reinforcement (operant conditioning) techniques to train dogs, this book is a priceless resource for those that can't use typical training methods to train their dog and need their dog to do more than typical sit, stay, and down. For those of us that can't run backward to teach our dog to come and need a dog that can dependably complete more complex tasks, such as bringing the phone, helping to get dressed and undressed, or providing support and preventing a fall, this book is the answer!

This book is actually written using the real experiences of other people that have self-trained their own assistance dogs and provides their techniques and solutions to training the various behaviors. It is based completely on real-world experiences and exercises, which makes it not only very understandable and broken down well but also gives it the credibility of being tried and true solutions to problems encountered by those of us that have various physical disabilities.

Teamwork II can be used without reading Teamwork I and as a stand alone; however, it only covers the actual assistance behaviors. The groudwork and basic training needed before reaching this level is covered fully in the first volume. While it would be helpful if there were more books dedicated to this subject, of not only training service dogs but geared toward the self-training of service dogs, this book definitely meets and exceeds that need!

I would recommend this book as a must read to those that are disabled and self-training their own service dog as well as to those interested in training service dogs and/or already training them. I think this book also will give those people devoted to the training of service dogs invaluable insite into the needs of the people they are trying to help, as well as a good perspective of the wide range of disabilities and their limitations that the dogs will need to be responding to and helping to mitigate. With the ever expanding need for service dogs and the constant and growing gap of meeting that need, more and more people will be needing to train their own and are rising to that task, and this book is a necessary and vital tool for meeting that need.

While I was visiting my local library the libraian happened to mention this book to me, noticing that my siezure alert dog is fairly young. He turned 2 at the end of May 2006 and is sometimes resistant to comands in public such as :"relax" or "down" which means lay down on the floor and wait quietly. So It ended up that I couldn't get the book from the library because it was more like a text book, I tried to get it from a local Barne's and Nobles but was told they couldn't guarantee delivery, so I turned to Amazon.com.

I recieved the book in about a week and have been working with it, and my dog. It has helped us overcome training snafus such as backing up under a restraunt table because it is "unnatural" for dogs to back in, and unusual for them to have the room to go in forward and turn around. "Tuck" your tail has also been a useful command helping me teach my dog to be safe in the car when closing the door, or at checkout lanes in the grocery store.

The book has also been helpful in educating the public including some medical professionals who had not been aware of "alternative therapies" such as the use of a service dog. This combined with the laws of the ADA found on the dept of justice website, helped me feel more confident in facing other's adversity towards my dog and me working as a team.

My dog has been instrumental in allowing me to do things without worrying i'm going to have a siezure, or fall out. The book Team work 2 has cemented things I already knew about training but offered other examples of how other teams overcame their training roadblocks.

It is fair to say you must most often start training your dog for these purposes at a young age to have the most positive effect on the outcome.

I am training a sheltie puppy to be a service dog for my daughter and with 35 professional years in dogs I want to buy the best book available to help me achieve this task. Teamwork 2 does go back to the original book often, Teamwork, but the information in the book is solid, easy to understand and easier yet to apply to training a calm, focused dog to do effective service work. Thank you Stewart Nordensson and Lydia Kelley.

I hate to speak ill of this book in a world where so many want to take your money to unnecessarily "certify" or "register" a service animal. However, this title fails me in essential ways.

* Not enough detail about any of the desired behaviors to replicate.

* No training approaches suggested, only vignettes of specific successes.

If this book had been able to clearly describe the desired behaviors, either in words or with illustrations, it may have been worth reading. However, each of the sections consists of little more than a few-line description about how one or two specific individuals were able to get some behavior that helped them. Especially when considering that the ability and needs of each individual will vary greatly, what works for one (result and training method both) may not work for another.

The Teamwork II (DVD edition) may be better in its ability to illustrate the desired behavior. I have not seen it.

Another limitation of the book is that it dates back over a decade now and is prior to the general acceptance of "clicker" and positive reinforcement training. In my opinion, a prospective purchaser of this book would be better served by a couple books on modern training approaches:

* The Power of Positive Dog Training (or the older Positive Perspectives: Love Your Dog, Train Your Dog) -- General clicker training approaches

* Click for Joy! Questions and Answers from Clicker Trainers and Their Dogs (Karen Pryor Clicker Books) -- "Q&A" about some puzzling aspects of clicker training

Assuming that the trainer's manual dexterity permitted, I find the Karen Pryor i-Click Dog Training Clicker, 3 Clickers work well for me (reliable, easy to click, not "scary loud")

Every dog is an individual, and no disabled person, even if they have the same condition as their identical twin, will be alike enough to need the exact same things from their dog. This is one reason training your own dog is ideal.

This book truly responds to that. There can be no simple formula for teaching every dog everything. Even teaching "sit", by the lure-over-the-head method, some dogs will do it for food. Others for their squeaky toy.

This book shows you how at least two real people, with different dogs and different levels of ability, including quadriplegics, those who have full range of motion most of the time, and many in between, taught their dogs how to do what they needed in a way their dog could understand.

You have to understand that there can be no 1, 2, 3 approach to this process. You have to try and understand what your dog isn't getting and adapt what you're doing.

But this book gives examples that can help. Reading other sections can give you ideas of how to adapt what you're doing in training a particular task as well.

The book also gave my ideas of ways my dog can help me that I never would have thought of and that make my dog even more useful, and knowing she's helping me helps her bond with me. The more things she does for me, the more things each day we do together.

This book is wonderful in showing how even the most disabled can be the "voice" of authority, even if they communicate to their dog with sounds other than speech or signs. The person assisting the dog is there, doing a lot, but from the dog's perspective fades into the background.

This book has been a wonderful help and guide to us and we just started!

Teamwork II: A Dog Training Manual for People with Disabilities

I wanted to train my own service dog, this book was a godsend....Instructions were easy to follow and understand. The stories interesting and let you know that yes you can do it yourself!! Wonderful. I would suggest that you work with the Teamwork book by the same authors first and make sure your dog is ready for the advanced Teamwork II training. Wonderful book...

Fantastic book for those who want to train their own service dog. I trained two catahoula leopard dogs as service dogs with help from this book. As anyone who knows catahoulas will agree, they are rather hardheaded. With the excellent advice from this book, I was able to educate two young dogs into being reliable workers, one of whom saved my life twice. This edition goes into common service dog tasks and beyond basic obedience. If you don't have an assistance dog training facility or a trainer with experience in these areas, teaching your dog these tasks can be quite challenging to figure out. Teamwork doesn't make it easy, but it sure does make it easier.
--Kym Nippes
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The crowning achievement of this book is its portrayals of actual people and dogs learning to be a team. It also provides alternatives for dogs that need a different approach to learning a task. In addition, it may seem a simple thing, but the spiral binding allows the book to lay flat and be easy to read. The stories and photographs are truly inspiring.

Being very interested in training assistance dogs, this book plus the 1st book (Teamwork) form a great foundation for training, not only assistance dogs but all dogs. The methods used are gentle but also involve correction when a dog doesen't do as he's been shown. Being written by people who require assistance dogs, it is a very practical, down to earth and well written book which progresses from the very basics through to quite advanced training in easy to follow sequences. Invaluable if you are involved in any dog training particularly assistance dog training.

This is a great book to go with the first book. The book shows and gives very detailed instructions on training your dog to become a service dog. The descriptions are very clear and they give instructions for different types of handicaps. Thanks for the great book.