There's a Puppy in the House: Surviving the First Five Months (Paperback)

~ Mike Wombacher (Author) "Every puppy has a fundamental genetic predisposition with respect to his temperament, temperament being loosely defined as his basic orientation and attitude to the experience..." (more)
Key Phrases: critical socializing period, reprimand your pup, leash nudges, Bitter Apple, Direct Book Services, German Shepherd (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Mike Wombacher's second book, "There's a Puppy in the House" is the latest and best guide to raising your puppy available anywhere. It leaves literally no topic relevant to puppy raising untouched. Written in an easy and engaging style, it includes an in-depth look at housebreaking, covers every area of concern for new puppy owners including home manners, socializing, obedience training and much much more.

Unlike any other book on the market, this book contains a day by day, week by week timeline explaining exactly how and when to introduce the exercises in this book. It also contains over 200 photos and illustrations (more than any other puppy book) to clearly demonstrate how to perform every exercise discussed. It's also heavily cross referenced for ease of use and filled with dozens of resources to other areas of puppy raising and dog training.

The layout of the book makes it exceedingly easy to find the topics you're looking for in short order and the advice itself is simple, direct and easy to implement.

In short, this is a user friendly, highly functional guide to maximizing the joys of puppy ownership while minimizing its frustrations.

About the Author

Michael Wombacher has been involved with dogs for over twenty years and at this point has performed over 15,000 in-home behavior consultations covering the entire spectrum of dog behavior from the mundane to the bizarre. He is an author (his first book was "There's a Baby in the House: Preparing your Dog for the Arrival of your Child"), lecturer and has also taught classes, trained other trainers and runs his own small-scale boarding and training operation.

Mike has been certified as an expert on dog behavior by the California Superior Court and does occasional work evaluating dogs in legal matters. He has also been featured on Fox 5 Television's Good Day New York, San Francisco's Channel 7 News, "The Family Pet" with Dr. Jonathan Greenfield as well as radio programs around the country. He has trained dogs for high profile celebrities in the entertainment and financial worlds such as Robin Williams, Sharon Stone, Joe Satriani, Kirk Hammet, Barry Levinson, Charles Schwab and Michael Tilson Thomas.

His training approach focuses on channeling a dog's natural drives and instincts into behaviors acceptable in the human pack primarily through principles of operant conditioning as well as through methods that appeal to the dog's canine sensibilities.

His training methods are so effective and his style so clear that Michael Tilson Thomas, music director of the San Francisco Symphony and one of the great classical musicians of our time, commented that "Michael Wombacher is a Maestro of dog trainers. His clarity of thinking, sense of humor and skills in communicating make dog training fun for both pet and pet lover."

Product Details

• Paperback: 226 pages
• Publisher: Mike Wombacher (April 2004)
• ISBN-10: 0971303312
• ISBN-13: 978-0971303317
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #277,927 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book! All you need; easy to find; beautiful to look at, May 24, 2004

By	birgit chasin (new york, ny USA) - See all my reviews

This book was perhaps the single most helpful investment I made since getting my puppy. The timeline in the back was particularly helpful as it walked me through the day by day process of raising my puppy and pointed me just to those pages I needed on that day. And the piles of photos clarified everything and allowed me to put it into practice with my pup right away. And the results speak for themselves: my pup hasn't started formal training yet but already knows more than my last dog ever did.

Thanks for a great book!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Puppy Book Ever, May 22, 2004

By A Customer

Finally, someone who knows what new puppy owners need: answers and fast. Devoid of long and abstract tracts on training theory, this book goes right to what the owner needs, explains what you need to know and solves your problems asap. But it's much more than that. It contains a systematic, rigorous and totally thorough approach to raising your puppy along with tons of photos that show you how to do everything. There's more in this book than in books twice the size. In fact, once you read this you'll set all the others aside for good.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best!, June 27, 2006

By	W. R. Hawley - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you could only read one book about raising dogs this would be the absolute best one. Between the excellent illustrations and direct writing you will develop the perfect relatiionship with your dog.