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New Skete Monks

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How to Be Your Dog's Best Friend: The Classic Training Manual for Dog Owners (Revised & Updated Edition) Hardcover – September 1, 2002

by Monks of New Skete (Author)

4.6 2,048 ratings

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For more than a quarter century, How to Be Your Dog's Best Friend has been the standard against which all other dog-training books have been measured. This expanded edition preserves the best features of the original classic while bringing the book fully up-to-date. The result: the ultimate training manual for a new generation of dog owners--and, of course, for their canine best friends.

The Monks of New Skete have achieved international renown as breeders of German shepherds and as outstanding trainers of dogs of all breeds. Their unique approach to canine training, developed and refined over four decades, is based on the philosophy that "understanding is the key to communication, compassion, and communion" with your dog.

How to Be Your Dog's Best Friend covers virtually every aspect of living with and caring for your dog, including:

Selecting a dog (what breed? male? female? puppy or older dog?) to fit your lifestyle
Where to get--and where not to get--a dog
Reading a pedigree
Training your dog or puppy--when, where, and how
The proper use of praise and discipline
Feeding, grooming, and ensuring your dog's physical fitness
Recognizing and correcting canine behavioral problems
The particular challenges of raising a dog where you live - in the city, country, or suburb
The proper techniques for complete care of your pet at every stage of his or her life

In its scope, its clarity, and its authority, How to Be Your Dog's Best Friend remains unrivaled as a basic training guide for dog owners. Like no other book, this guide can help you understand and appreciate your dog's nature as well as his or her distinct personality--and in so doing, it can significantly enrich the life you share with your dog.

Print length

336 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Little, Brown and Company
Publication date

September 1, 2002
Dimensions

6.5 x 1.38 x 9.63 inches
ISBN-10

0316610003
ISBN-13

978-0316610001
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

How to Be Your Dog's Best Friend, an informal, friendly guide by The Monks of New Skete, is really two books in one: a step-by-step training manual and a philosophical discussion of the spiritual benefits of owning a dog. The Monks, who support their community in upstate New York by breeding and training German shepherds, reveal a profound devotion to all breeds in this detailed guide to every imaginable aspect of dog ownership. They cover it all: naming the puppy, training with eye contact and jingling keys, establishing the best sleeping arrangements, even dealing with pet loneliness. Owners are advised to think of themselves as the dog's alpha figure, to train with praise instead of punishment, and to beware of becoming the dog's maid or doorman. Throughout, the authors reflect on the deep spiritual connection possible between humans and dogs. Generations of dogs have been trained with the bestselling 1978 edition of this book. With this update, the Monks are bound to gain many new fans--happy humans and obedient canines alike. With modesty and generosity, the Monks offer an extensive list of other helpful books about dogs, as well as a useful appendix of American Kennel Club titles and terms. --Judy Fireman

From Publishers Weekly

The Monks of New Skete have been raising and training dogs for over 30 years at their Cambridge, New York, monastery, and this volume-updated from the 1978 version-offers solid insights on dog training, behavior, grooming, feeding and a host of other topics. Whether discussing country, city or suburban dogs, the monks dispense good advice on humane care, such as admonishing owners to avoid "canine incarceration," i.e., leaving a dog confined alone for long periods of time. While the book does contain many useful, tried-and-true techniques for obedience-stay, heel, down-stay, recall and the like-its unique value lies in the monks' insights and thoughts about the human-canine bond. Concepts such as discipline and praise are more than merely a means to an end, the monks maintain: they are extensions of a caring attitude and real communication with a canine companion. Without devolving into New Age psychobabble, the monks make philosophical and spiritual observations that no dog lover could resist, and which just might make a convert of the uninitiated. 87 b&w photos.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Little, Brown and Company; Revised edition (September 1, 2002)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0316610003
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0316610001
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.25 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1.38 x 9.63 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #17,486 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #21 in Zoology (Books)
- #26 in Dog Training (Books)
- #112 in Behavioral Sciences (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.6 2,048 ratings

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New Skete Monks

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The Monks of New Skete have lived as a community in Cambridge, New York, for more than thirty years. Their two previous books, The Art of Raising a Puppy and How to Be Your Dog's Best Friend, have sold almost three-quarters of a million copies.

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P. L. Straw

dog training for a blind dog

Reviewed in the United States on June 12, 2009

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I found that this book stood out from the others of it's kind by the simple gentleness that the authors use in their training methods. They allowed the dogs to enter their daily routines and lives with something akin to mutual respect. I needed this viewpoint and it's respectful workability to help me with my situation. About this the book had no answers and I found that most of their training suggestions had to be used in a different manner.

My dog has recently gone blind from glaucoma and while there are a few books out there that deal with this, I liked the monks' approach to training the best. My dog and his situation differs in that he is a bassett hound - very scent oriented - and whose main function/job is as watch dog and protector. He was never formally trained but responded well to a few commands as he grew up to understand his job. We live on a large fenced property (15+ acres) and walk the perimeter nightly for exercise. His blindness came on over a period of time but was still traumatic. It was here that I needed a bit of guidance to get him passed the fear and uncertainty of what to do next. The monks gentle approach helped as we started to work on more appropriate voice commands and a bit of formal training. I needed the assurance that he would behave on command and respond with the appropriate actions so that I could keep him safe. While he can't see any hand signals or see my movements, he follows my voice and is responding well gentle leash tugs for direction. Also I had never before used dog treats but they are definitely helping to get the training moving along. We still take our nightly walks with me acting as a "seeing-eye dog", and after a month's time he now steps out with confidence, head held to the ground, sniffing out intruders, but tail held high.

My biggest thanks to the monks and their gentle ways was that as long as we maintained our routine, something my dog had come to depend on, he had the courage to face the world blindly. He still shares in my life the same spot and attention he's always had. We are able to go out in public with confidence and he's established friends at the local dog park. I think that the key factor was just being my dog's bff (best friend forever). With his new situation he is greatly dependent on me to keep him safe while he explores his surroundings. Instead of a depressed, whimpering/cowering dog I have one that steps out with confidence and is once again smiling and wagging his tail happily.

If I can get that from this book, then it should work for pretty much everyone.

23 people found this helpful

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artemis 1291

On dog traning with heart and soul.

Reviewed in the United States on November 26, 2017

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One of my favorite saints of the Church is St. Francis of Assisi because of his humanity, compassion, sweet nature, and his love of animals with whom he is believed to communicate based upon the story of his converting the Wolf of Gubbio to a tamed animal. The story goes that while living in the city of Gubbio around 1220, St Francis volunteered to take leave and meet a ferocious wolf who devastated the country by attacking people and livestock. When St. Francis finally met the wolf, instead of punishing him for the offenses, he gently admonished the wolf to cause no more plight to the people and the livestock and promised him that he would be fed daily by the people of the city. The wolf was grateful for the compassionate promise and put his front paw on the saint's hand as a gesture of accepting the advice. Thereafter, the Wolf of Gubbio kept his promise with the saint and became a tamed pet animal of the city.

With this evocative image in mind of the gentle saint and the tamed wolf I had once seen on a prayer card, I selected to read this book by Monks of Skete of the Eastern Orthodox Church. In this regard, I was piqued by the facts that (1) these monks were reputable German Shepherd breeders and acclaimed canine-human relationship teachers; and that (2) the monks lived with the dogs in accordance with the teachings of the Gospel manifested in their healthy relationship with the dogs. However, the monks of Skete carefully avoid religious jargon in the book lest the book should be interpreted as a promotion of their faith. Instead, their faith is carefully incorporated into the belief of fostering their ideas about dogs with a philosophical and spiritual foundation for personal change because dogs mirror who we are by responding to the way we treat them without deception.

The gem of this book is the monks' views on salubrious human-canine relationship as appreciation of truths of the two worlds: one world of our own human prowess as a caretaker and one world of their own pristine nature as a guide to the wondrous natural world from which we have gradually distanced. While we provide them with food, shelter, and veterinarian care, dogs enable us to appreciate the beauty, the warmth, and the compassion that are deeply rooted in our humanity we often overlook or even try to suppress in the face of existential dilemma. In consideration of the aforesaid, I believe that the story of St. Francis of Assisi and the Wolf of Gubbio is not a myth but a truth.

32 people found this helpful

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Vaibhav Sharma

Get this book before you get a pup

Reviewed in India on June 9, 2021

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This book is really really great. In fact, the techniques mentioned in the book worked for me almost instantly within a single day. Highly recommend that this book must be read before a pup is gotten home.

Iris

Muy completo

Reviewed in Spain on February 17, 2020

Verified Purchase

Muy completo. Contiene muchos consejos útiles y está muy bien redactado. Sin duda, una buena compra.

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lynn michell

These monks understand dogs.

Reviewed in France on November 30, 2019

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Wonderful, interesting, compassionate account of dogs and monks.

arturo nelson

Super buen libro

Reviewed in Mexico on January 9, 2018

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Estos monjes llevan educando perros y conviviendo con ellos por muchos años.
Todo el que tiene un perro debería leer este libro. Ademas de que te ayudara a convivir con tu perro te ayudara en las relaciones del dia a dia.

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jgp

This is a very detailed introduction to dog training. ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 19, 2016

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This is a very detailed introduction to dog training. I had already read their book on puppy training but needed this for an adult dog. Very helpful and enjoyable to read as well.

One person found this helpful

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