Puppy Primer by Brenda Scidmore & Patricia McConnell

Sometimes you think you have enough knowledge to go it alone but you don't. I finally pulled out my books to determine what we were doing wrong on the house training front. Turns out when you give the dogs free run of the house you have to introduce the rooms one by one and use each room as a play place, eating place etc. so that the dog associated it with the living space. Dogs don't have the same map in their head of what constitutes a house as we do. That is where we messed up with the basement and the guest bedroom, we were giving her access to it but not using it as living space so in her mind she was not going in the living space. I refreshed myself on some other concepts in the Puppy Primer which I highly recommend to everyone.

http://www.amazon.com/Puppy-Primer-Patricia-B-McConnell/dp/1891767135

Patricia McConnell is one of my favorite trainers and I think I have all her books. I really like how she promotes a relationship with the dog as well as understanding the dogs body language and communicating through body language. However, just like with anything else there are certain things she advocates which I think are misguided. For instance I don't like startling the dog with something like a book flying out from the environment. I don't want a dog to be afraid of its environment. I've seen to many rescues who suffer from fears created by misguided advice. There are better ways to train a dog.

Another book that I'm going through is

Family Friendly Dog Training: A Six Week Program for You and Your Dog

by Patricia McConnell and Aimee Moore