Deaf Dog Education Action Fund

Is this text "Too Small"?


What All Good Dogs Should Know

by Jack Volhard, et al

Jack Volhard has been a trainer for over 30 years. He has authored numerous books on dog training, including books for training trainers, and higher-level obedience training. Melissa Bartlett has more than 20 years of dog training experience and has authored and illustrated many articles and books on dog training.

This book is a good one for people who have just adopted their first dog or who want to enjoy the companionship of a well-mannered dog. The language is clear, descriptions are precise and the illustrations add humour and clarity to the text. Positive reinforcement training is used throughout the book.

The first chapters describe why training your dog is important and the early development of dogs. Further chapters on how dogs think and determining who has trained whom add to better understanding why dogs do what they do. The next chapters discuss and then describe clearly and precisely the steps needed to train a dog to housetrain, crate train, sit, stay, lie down, walk on a leash and come when called. The book concludes with chapters on dealing with undesirable behaviours like barking, chewing and digging. Each chapter concludes with a point form list of key concepts covered in the chapter.

Deaf dogs are not specifically mentioned in What All Good Dogs Should Know. However, the verbal cues and positive reinforcement training techniques need only a hand signal to be adapted to training a deaf dog. As a basic book on how to train a dog, any dog, this short (115 pages) book is a good starting point.



© Copyright DDEAF, 1998-2024