The best Dog Care books: Reddit reviews

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

Looks like you may have used a training acronym. For those unfamiliar, here's some of the common ones:

BAT is Behavior Adjustment Training - a method from Grisha Stewart that involves allowing the dog to investigate the trigger on their own terms. There's a book on it.

CC is Counter Conditioning - creating a positive association with something by rewarding when your dog sees something. Think Pavlov.

DS is Desensitization - similar to counter conditioning in that you expose your dog to the trigger (while your dog is under threshold) so they can get used to it.

LAD is Look and Dismiss - Marking and rewarding when your dog sees a trigger and dismisses it.

LAT is Look at That - Marking and rewarding when your dog sees a trigger and does not react.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/reactivedogs) if you have any questions or concerns.

That's a good start!

General confidence building is also going to be great so I've found the best way to go about that is with training and with puzzle toys actually (they learn that they can interact with the environment and control it which is generally something that gives dogs confidence)

Something else that might be great is "station training", so basically teaching your dog to lay down on a mat or bed or similar and have them just chill there.

For some separation distress, I would also start trying to work on that. I have to admit, I haven't read these books in a while, but if I recall I'll Be Home Soon by Patricia McConnell was a good intro (I've gotta get back up to date on the most recent separation anxiety books... I haven't read any since I worked through it with my dog)

Do note that basically anything in separation anxiety is going to really talk about how your dog cannot be left alone, and for the best way to train - they're totally right. But we're human and often have limited funds and resources so a good way to help mitigate some of the issue is to have a "bad place" where you'll leave the dog when you have to leave and the training isn't that long yet and then a "good place" which is the place you eventually want to leave them long-term and only put them in the "good place" when you can work on the separation anxiety training.

It’s hard sometimes. They develop physically so quickly that it can be tough to remember they’re just babies.

Try your best to remember that your pup is picking up on everything you do. Tone of voice, body language, etc. Maybe read The Other End of the Leash

Honestly though, keep it together while dealing with your puppy. When you put him to bed or for a nap, have a cry about it, and start again. He’s just doing what his instincts are telling him to do. It can be damn frustrating. Forgive yourself and take it as a lesson to not react like this again.

My puppy bites so hard and draws blood and sometimes, I literally can’t get him to stop. To help him, I stay calm and take that as a cue that he needs to calm down in his crate for a nap. I gently and kindly have him go to the crate with a chicken jerky, and he usually passes out after that. My puppy gets real asshole-ish when he’s tired. It was unbearable until I got him napping whenever he became a land shark. Try putting your puppy for a nap up until class time for the next session. Make sure he’s hungry so he focuses on the treat. You got this!

The absolute best thing you can do is find a Fear Free Certified Trainer and (if you can, they're rare) groomer

There is also "Low stress handling" another certification.

Dr Deb Jones also just published a book on this kind of training, called cooperative care . You can find it here

Try not to beat yourself up about it. 20 years ago we didn't have the tools we have today.

I would highly recommend this book to you!

Pit Bull: The Battle over an American Icon https://www.amazon.com/dp/0345803116/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_Vn.lCbBR3VY85

Pitbulls (kinda silly name since includes a bunch of completely different breeds that all originated for different reasons) used to be viewed as America's most beloved dogs! They were WW1 heroes, beloved family pets, and even the most common dogs used in advertising in the beginning of the 20th century. They were the every man's dog! But eventually towards the 70s, there grew to be a massive media push to label these dogs as innately aggressive murderers. Why the change? Well, lots of reasons, but it's not actually because they are all killers or evil dogs! In fact, almost all veterinarians and the CDC agree that banning pitbulls doesnt even reduce incidence of dog bites at all! Fascinating stuff!

I don't have the time to rewrite their entire history, but I do hope this was enough to pique your interest and maybe you'll give a few chapters of the book a chance! Even if you still hate pitbulls, it's a very interesting and compelling read on their history, and breaks down all the reasons why they fell out of favor in the public eye. I love dogs and thought I knew a lot about them and I was truly surprised by all the info!

This is awesome! Congrats on being such an awesome dog parent and not just forcing her to suffer through it, getting more and more fearful every time. We are working on nail trims now and it’s going really well. We use this book — have you used it before?

Cooperative Care: 7 Steps to Stress-Free Husbandry

Looks like you may have used a training acronym. For those unfamiliar, here's some of the common ones:

BAT is Behavior Adjustment Training - a method from Grisha Stewart that involves allowing the dog to investigate the trigger on their own terms. There's a book on it.

CC is Counter Conditioning - creating a positive association with something by rewarding when your dog sees something. Think Pavlov.

DS is Desensitization - similar to counter conditioning in that you expose your dog to the trigger (while your dog is under threshold) so they can get used to it.

LAD is Look and Dismiss - Marking and rewarding when your dog sees a trigger and dismisses it.

LAT is Look at That - Marking and rewarding when your dog sees a trigger and does not react.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/reactivedogs) if you have any questions or concerns.

You’ve gotten some very bad advice here, which you should ignore. Forget about being “alpha of the pack.” And do not flip your dog over on her back and say “no.” Those approaches are going to make things worse. You'll mess up your dog and mess up your relationship with her.

The common dog-jargon term for the behavior you’re describing is “resource guarding.” The best book on the subject is Jean Donaldson’s Mine! You should buy it or get it from your library (or via interlibrary loan). Also check out this blog post by Patricia McConnell.

No, she won't grow out of it, and will likely get worse without intervention. I had a terv who did this as a puppy, and I was able to completely fix it.

Here's what NOT to do - don't take her food away, don't stick your hands in her face while she's eating, don't try to mess with her. These things will all increase anxiety and make her not trust you while she's eating. This causes resource guarding to worsen. Those things are all common things suggested to puppy owners, but they're incorrect and potentially dangerous advice.

What you should do is techniques similar to this. That technique will reduce stress in the puppy leading to less guarding. This book is also a great resource on resource guarding.

It's fixable at 13 weeks, but you need to address it correctly. I would definitely advise getting a trainer involved too, as you should be getting professional advice, not just taking training advice from reddit.

A few things:

• Muzzle training

• Find a groomer who can help you

• While you have those other two pieces in place, work on cooperative care. Highly recommend Deb Jone's book, Seven Steps to Stress-Free Husbandry.

While it's not ideal to put him over threshold while you work on grooming and handling, it's also not healthy or pleasant to have mats. Sending him to a groomer in a muzzle will help buy you time and separate your training from the act of going over his stress threshold.

Looks like you may have used a training acronym. For those unfamiliar, here's some of the common ones:

BAT is Behavior Adjustment Training - a method from Grisha Stewart that involves allowing the dog to investigate the trigger on their own terms. There's a book on it.

CC is Counter Conditioning - creating a positive association with something by rewarding when your dog sees something. Think Pavlov.

DS is Desensitization - similar to counter conditioning in that you expose your dog to the trigger (while your dog is under threshold) so they can get used to it.

LAD is Look and Dismiss - Marking and rewarding when your dog sees a trigger and dismisses it.

LAT is Look at That - Marking and rewarding when your dog sees a trigger and does not react.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/reactivedogs) if you have any questions or concerns.

Looks like you may have used a training acronym. For those unfamiliar, here's some of the common ones:

BAT is Behavior Adjustment Training - a method from Grisha Stewart that involves allowing the dog to investigate the trigger on their own terms. There's a book on it.

CC is Counter Conditioning - creating a positive association with something by rewarding when your dog sees something. Think Pavlov.

DS is Desensitization - similar to counter conditioning in that you expose your dog to the trigger (while your dog is under threshold) so they can get used to it.

LAD is Look and Dismiss - Marking and rewarding when your dog sees a trigger and dismisses it.

LAT is Look at That - Marking and rewarding when your dog sees a trigger and does not react.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/reactivedogs) if you have any questions or concerns.

Looks like you may have used a training acronym. For those unfamiliar, here's some of the common ones:

BAT is Behavior Adjustment Training - a method from Grisha Stewart that involves allowing the dog to investigate the trigger on their own terms. There's a book on it.

CC is Counter Conditioning - creating a positive association with something by rewarding when your dog sees something. Think Pavlov.

DS is Desensitization - similar to counter conditioning in that you expose your dog to the trigger (while your dog is under threshold) so they can get used to it.

LAD is Look and Dismiss - Marking and rewarding when your dog sees a trigger and dismisses it.

LAT is Look at That - Marking and rewarding when your dog sees a trigger and does not react.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/reactivedogs) if you have any questions or concerns.

Looks like you may have used a training acronym. For those unfamiliar, here's some of the common ones:

BAT is Behavior Adjustment Training - a method from Grisha Stewart that involves allowing the dog to investigate the trigger on their own terms. There's a book on it.

CC is Counter Conditioning - creating a positive association with something by rewarding when your dog sees something. Think Pavlov.

DS is Desensitization - similar to counter conditioning in that you expose your dog to the trigger (while your dog is under threshold) so they can get used to it.

LAD is Look and Dismiss - Marking and rewarding when your dog sees a trigger and dismisses it.

LAT is Look at That - Marking and rewarding when your dog sees a trigger and does not react.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/reactivedogs) if you have any questions or concerns.

Looks like you may have used a training acronym. For those unfamiliar, here's some of the common ones:

BAT is Behavior Adjustment Training - a method from Grisha Stewart that involves allowing the dog to investigate the trigger on their own terms. There's a book on it.

CC is Counter Conditioning - creating a positive association with something by rewarding when your dog sees something. Think Pavlov.

DS is Desensitization - similar to counter conditioning in that you expose your dog to the trigger (while your dog is under threshold) so they can get used to it.

LAD is Look and Dismiss - Marking and rewarding when your dog sees a trigger and dismisses it.

LAT is Look at That - Marking and rewarding when your dog sees a trigger and does not react.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/reactivedogs) if you have any questions or concerns.

Looks like you may have used a training acronym. For those unfamiliar, here's some of the common ones:

BAT is Behavior Adjustment Training - a method from Grisha Stewart that involves allowing the dog to investigate the trigger on their own terms. There's a book on it.

CC is Counter Conditioning - creating a positive association with something by rewarding when your dog sees something. Think Pavlov.

DS is Desensitization - similar to counter conditioning in that you expose your dog to the trigger (while your dog is under threshold) so they can get used to it.

LAD is Look and Dismiss - Marking and rewarding when your dog sees a trigger and dismisses it.

LAT is Look at That - Marking and rewarding when your dog sees a trigger and does not react.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/reactivedogs) if you have any questions or concerns.

I would start on cooperative care. This will build the trust and buy in for the behavior you want. Nail trimming should not result in bleeding with any regularity. She was taking too much off the nails. The quick needs time to recede.

The first thing is when a dog snaps at you you back the fuck off and reassess.

This kind of fear usually requires us to take an approach where we teach the dog what to do and use both operant and classical conditioning to teach them to consent to handling.

Dr Deb Jones just published a really good book on the subject, which you can find here.

Here is a video by Ken Ramirez, a leading expert in animal training, demonstrating what husbandry training can look like

There is a huge body of work on this subject, Chirag Patel is another person to look into if you're interested.

Cutting back nails is generally painful and not effective. Look into cooperative care and desensitization to nail trims. Your vet may want to discuss medication and/or referral to a behaviorist for more guidance.

Check out the book Cooperative Care by Deb Jones. The book goes over the best way to train dogs to accept grooming.

In the meantime, I’d find a new vet. Banfield kinda sucks, most of the time. It’s a chain so there’s some individuals working there who are good, however as a whole, it’s not great. Look for one who is fear free certified. They are usually better at handling pets who are scared of the vet.

And don’t feel bad. You are not a bad owner, you’re just struggling, and it’s ok to struggle and ask for help. A bad owner would just give up and not get her nails trimmed at all.

Looks like you may have used a training acronym. For those unfamiliar, here's some of the common ones:

BAT is Behavior Adjustment Training - a method from Grisha Stewart that involves allowing the dog to investigate the trigger on their own terms. There's a book on it.

CC is Counter Conditioning - creating a positive association with something by rewarding when your dog sees something. Think Pavlov.

DS is Desensitization - similar to counter conditioning in that you expose your dog to the trigger (while your dog is under threshold) so they can get used to it.

LAD is Look and Dismiss - Marking and rewarding when your dog sees a trigger and dismisses it.

LAT is Look at That - Marking and rewarding when your dog sees a trigger and does not react.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/reactivedogs) if you have any questions or concerns.

Looks like you may have used a training acronym. For those unfamiliar, here's some of the common ones:

BAT is Behavior Adjustment Training - a method from Grisha Stewart that involves allowing the dog to investigate the trigger on their own terms. There's a book on it.

CC is Counter Conditioning - creating a positive association with something by rewarding when your dog sees something. Think Pavlov.

DS is Desensitization - similar to counter conditioning in that you expose your dog to the trigger (while your dog is under threshold) so they can get used to it.

LAD is Look and Dismiss - Marking and rewarding when your dog sees a trigger and dismisses it.

LAT is Look at That - Marking and rewarding when your dog sees a trigger and does not react.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/reactivedogs) if you have any questions or concerns.

When you adopt a new dog, it's highly recommended to keep the pup away from stimulation as much as possible. This is a strategy known as the "two week shutdown." Don't go on long walks/hikes, don't introduce new people. Letting someone unfamiliar interact with her while you weren't home could have made her really scared. Just think about how scary it is if you're in a brand new place with people who don't speak your language, you just underwent a big surgery and all of a sudden another brand new person tries to hang out with you. It's a lot happening at once and can make a dog (and people) feel scared!

Basically, I would take it easy for a while. Let her get to know you, and get to know her. Let her settle in and relax before introducing her to other people. When other people come, give them treats to give her, but instruct them to ignore her. Let her come to them and don't pressure her. If she makes the choice to check out a guest, the guest can give her a treat.

Also, I highly recommend reading the book the Other End of the Leash by Patricia McConnell. It is accessible and will help you interpret your dog's behavior (e.g. defensiveness vs. offensiveness) and will help you teach people how to interact with your dog (e.g. staring into a dog's eyes and approaching them from the front is a sign of aggression from a canine perspective, and yet that's how most people greet dogs).

If she’s comfortable in her locked crate then it’s definitely localized to you leaving and sounds like a classic case of separation anxiety. Good news is your dog is so young that it’s a good time to train her!

You need to start desensitizing her to the event of you leaving. It’s literal baby steps too, like put her in crate and walk to the door. If no barking then reward. Then move on to you leaving and shutting the door then coming right back and rewarding if no barking. Then you move onto 1 minute, 3 minute, 5 minute, 10 minute etc. It’s a lot of work but the technique works if you’re diligent.

Read this short book of you haven’t, it will take about an hour to read.

I'll be Home Soon: How to Prevent and Treat Separation Anxiety. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1891767054/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_XS5D2MGNBEG2JKE66VTY

>Would it make sense to work with a dog behaviorist?

Yes, a vet behaviorist, because if your dog needs anxiety meds that would be the person who will prescribe them.

In the meantime, this booklet is a great guide on separation anxiety.

Here you go - Digital Version on Amazon

PDF Version

Check out r/puppy101. They have a nice wiki/FAQ page with guides to basic things such as house training. Also consider getting Sophia Yin's Perfect Puppy in 7 Days.

As for walking her outside: Ask your vet for guidance. At 9 weeks, the puppy will not have completed her shots and won't be fully protected, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's unsafe for her to walk. Disease risk varies by geographic location. My current dog went to all kinds of places at 9 weeks of age; we just avoided areas with a lot of random dog traffic. Here is the AVSAB position statement on puppy socialization.

Find a group "puppy kindergarten" class, the kind that meets once a week and gives you homework to practice. In the US, most such classes will allow puppies 9 weeks old with age-appropriate vaccinations.

Good luck with Luna.

Your dog sounds a lot like my dog. Getting over excited, and not respecting space is a form of reactivity, and it is a behavioral issue. It's a pain and a half to fix, and I am not going to pretend I am there yet. I have found BAT 2.0 to be the most effective thing, and we are making real progress with it. Anyway, yes, in an ideal world, your dog would be dog neutral, but you aren't there yet, and that is okay. Until then, you should keep your dog on leash in public areas, try to keep your distace from other dogs, and not do on leash greetings, all of which you did.

She dropped her leash. It was an accident, and mistakes happen. However, it is her fault. I wouldn't be mad that she made a mistake, however, I don't appreciate the fact that she wouldn't own up to it. It sounds like this is something that happens frequently, and she isn't doing anything to keep it from happening again.

Next time, I would have one person take the leash, and the other person intercept the oncoming dog. You can use an umbrella, or citronella spray (less painful) or pepper spray (more painful) to keep the other dog away. You do not know if the dog is friendly, so to keep your dog safe you want to keep the other dog away. You can even grab the leash and walk him back to the owner.

It wasn't your fault, but you could have prevented the incident.

I strongly recommend this book for desensitizing dogs to grooming, medical care, and any other reluctant tasks that need doing. It’s been really helpful for my dogs and I.

Check out this book, it has some really good tips on getting dogs acclimated to the vet and making it a more comfortable experience for everyone involved.