DOG TRAINING BOOKS

DOG TRAINING BOOKS
When I started wanting to learn about dog training there weren’t any videos or seminars. It was before Al Gore invented the internet and there were very few books. Probably the favorite way to learn was to sneak around the trainer that was a known winner and to try to figure out how he taught such and such.

I loved books and gradually acquired some of the more popular ones of the time. This wasn’t as easy as it sounds since we couldn’t email an order to Amazon and have it in the house the next day. Okay, enough rambling and let’s get on with a list that won’t steer you astray.

The three early greats were:

Dog Obedience by Blanche Saunders
Blanche Saunders was Miss Dog Obedience Trainer if there was such a thing. She was in on Obedience Training from the outset and trained and taught classes throughout America, Canada, and South America.

Koehler Method of Dog Training by William Koehler
Bill Koehler instructed for the U.S. Army K9 Corps, many police forces, was chief trainer for Walt Disney Studios, and was Training Director for the world’s largest dog club of the time in California. It is said he personally supervised the training of over 15,000 dogs and his methods have been used to train at least a half-million more.

Expert Obedience Training for Dogs by Winifred G. Strickland
Winifred Strickland trained thousands of dogs and handlers and during the 70’s her accomplishments were outstanding. Only a few were, 101 Obedience Titles, 40 perfect scores, 40 CD titles, 43 CDX titles, 20 UD titles, 4 Tracking titles and more.

While these early trainers basically used the old style methods, they had tremendous experience and there is still a lot to be learned from their books. When you have the extraordinary experience of these trainers you acquire a special understanding of dogs. Don’t discount what can be learned from these Masters.

Continued in Part 2