Now, in The Dog Whisperer, trainer Paul Owens offers a compassionate, nonviolent approach to dog training. His spiritual approach links sound training principles with intuitive and effective insights.

Owens' compassionate training methods will help you create an emotional bridge to "plug in" and create a deeper bond with your dog than you thought possible. The Dog Whisperer offers a truly humane, revolutionary, and common sense approach to raising and training your dog.

You will learn:
* Learn "dog speak" the body language and vocalizations needed to communicate with your dog.
* How to train your dog without jerking, hitting, kicking, shocking, or shaking
* How to turn affection, play, toys, praise, and social freedom into powerful rewards.
* Learn five ways to establish a leadership role so your dog will happily follow your lead.
* Eliminate behavioral problems such as jumping, barking, and digging.
* How easy and fun training can be when you use The Nine Ingredients of Reward-Based Dog Training and turn affection, play, toys, praise, and social freedom into powerful rewards.

The problem is that it best fits the person with ideal patience and ideal time-availability. It also best fits the person who does not have a very large, strong, determined, alpha-willed dog. There's really no secret here; education of animals (and people) includes both reward of desired behavior and negative reinforcement of unwanted behavior. It also depends in part on the genetic predisposition of the individual being trained. If there is enough time, and the dog is not a strong-willed alpha personality, working only with positive reinforcement can be effective. But many dog owners just don't have enough time, and some dogs are genetically aggressive, naturally domineering and stubbornly (even manipulatively) willful. My experience with dogs indicates that a few negative reinforcers are sometimes useful, and need not be harmful to the dog. For example, prong or choke callers need not be used harshly, but with dogs such as my 100 lb. male Bull Mastiff the extra control can sometimes be helpful because of his pulling strength and the toughness of his "bull" neck as he suddenly lunges after a bird or squirrel, etc.

The book's insightful comments on developmental psychology, explaining aspects of canine emotional and cognitive maturation at different ages are, alone, worth the book's price. Dogs, like children, best learn certain attitudes and behaviors during growth periods that occur at specific ages which the author outlines. He mentions, for example, that dogs are especially sensitive to negative input from eight to ten weeks of age, which is due to the type of brain development that occurs at this age. The author explains that negative-conditioning mistakes that occur at this age often require months or years to attempt to undo. Those of us who have adopted dogs that experienced unfortunate treatment during that age know that these "childhood" experiences in dogs often leave lasting behavioral scars that sometimes barely, if at all, can be undone.

Overall, this is an outstanding book, but the methods recommended work best for people with lots of time for patient training, and with dogs of relatively cooperative temperament.


A MUST have for anyone with a dog   February 18, 2000
 130 out of 141 found this review helpful

Paul Owens Nonviolint approach allows your dog to keep its personality. Where as the other methods break the dogs spirit. the old methods of controlling through domination is just that OLD. This book taught me many things I paid hundreds of dollers to learn by having a in-home-trainer,However this book continued on where my trainer left off. This book also helps you see things from the dogs mind of reasoning and understanding. I was able you use the lessons and get results in as little as 5 min. and as long as I practice what Paul tells us in this book I am a happy dog owner with a dog that obays me very well. There truly is no need for the old way of training and the proof is in this outstanding book. I can not praise this book enough. please if you are going to get a dog or have one already do yourself a favor and get this book.And please do not let any one tell you that those cruel training methods are better until you try this first, you will be amazed.I love the hide and seek game and the "find it" with my dog.


Recommended for people seeking a kinder approach   July 22, 2000
 44 out of 47 found this review helpful

I liked this book very much. Paul does a great job of conveying that the best results come from a basic understanding of how dogs view the world and how they learn. It is a huge stretch to getting the humans past thinking and acting as though the secret to training companion dogs is imposing your will on a dog and then correcting it for "disobeying". Without knowing any better, many, many people think that the ONLY way to train a dog is by teaching it to avoid corrections. I think that is killing an ant with an anvil and happily, many other dog owners do, too. The only criticism I have is that the book may have a narrow appeal. Some may be turned off by the spiritual overtones. I found that aspect refreshing myself. It's pretty hard to learn how to use a clicker well by reading a book, but I guess it won't hurt anyone if the human screws up, right? If I had a client who was "into" a holistic approach, this would be my first pick.


A Must Have   December 24, 1999
 41 out of 42 found this review helpful

This is a must have book for true animal lovers. Based on a philosophy of "Raise With Praise", Paul's approach is all about love... and let me tell you, it works! Paul covers every facet of caring for your dog, including: training, a truly healthy diet, and great insight into how dogs think.

I've read alot of books on dogs and this is by far the most original and compassionate approach I've seen. He really makes it fun! We trained our dog to sit, stay, come, crawl.. and absolutely had a blast doing it. His biggest asset seems to be that he really gets animals, he knows how they think and this has allowed him to develop a way to communicating with them that is positive and effective. Enjoy.


Extremist point of view!!! NOT a fast training method!   February 27, 2002
 41 out of 55 found this review helpful

This book allows for absolutely NO kind of correction in dog training..It teaches that the slightest correction is abuse!! It is very extremist.(Not that that is bad. Its good in the fact that it makes you aware that HURTFUL violence should NOT be a part of any dogs life.)

The methods taught in here would most likely benefit either a dog who has been sorely abused (and therefore cant take any correction) or a person who is extremely sensitive and wants to try a radical new approach in dog training. (Techniques in here take way longer than the normal "leash correction" training.. Do not get this book if you are looking for a way to get your dog trained in a few months!!!)

This book did provide good reading, and it does make good points in the fact that you should spend wonderful, decent, quality, loving time with your dog and prove to him you're there to protect him--BUT it goes in the opposite direction of the basic dog instinct. Anyone who has studied dogs of the wild, has learned of the "Alpha" dog--the one in the pact who "is in charge," giving security to the others in knowing there is someone there to lead them. This book contradicts that and says its NOT true--going against everything people have learned about typical dog pact roles!!! It states that there is no such thing as a "dominant dog" (except in emergency situations) and that in the household, you and your dog are "existing together as family", and you should never try to show dominance over it--undermining any power you have to show your dog that you are a capable leader for him to follow..setting the stage for your dog to start thinking that HE runs the show (and we know how aweful that can be!)!! Now, anyone with a dog knows that dominance and submissiveness ARE a part of a dogs pact life..and the human family is looked upon by the dog as part of his pact--someone HAS to be the dominant one.. and you dont be it, your dog will!!

This book is on lines with giving your dog rewards, rewards, rewards.. and praising him for every little thing. WHICH IS GOOD.. however, if a dog needs correcting for something, the book goes against it! You are not allowed to correct your dog for anything-- not even a tiny leash tug when your dog wanders the other way!!!! I highly disagree with the fact that you can't correct your dog. Dogs can and should be corrected..not abused, mind you.. but corrected. GOOD Correction, when done the right way, and not abusively (such as the terrible teaching of rubbing your dog's nose in excrement) is very helpful. I firmly believe lots of love, praise, and affection should be giving to your dogs (I baby my 2 adorable collies!!) and have never hurt them or hit them or any other drastic thing--but I would have never gotten them trained if I would have followed the techniques in this book and never corrected them! (Have you ever seen a dog jump in a rose bush twice? NO ..immediate correction has its place in a dogs life!!)

The good things about this book is the wonderful blanket teaching of being kind to your animal and respecting it, the wonderful chapter on nutrition that it includes (even recipes!!!), and the deep breathing/get in tune with your dog exercises!! For that I gave it 3 stars.. otherwise I would have given it 2