[Teprophopay]

I'm looking for good training books ,
books with a lot of dog breeds in them,
books about the following breeds:
Australian cattle dogs
American pit bull terriers
Rotties
Presa Canarios
Patterdale terriers

and if there are any good books about bsl!

[WhonyGataxott]

Training/Behavioral texts:
Control Unleashed This is seriously one of the best training books ever. Even dogs without issues can benefit from the stuff in here. I'm rereading it again right now.
CU - The Puppy Program

BAT - IMO the applications for the stuff in this book are really far and wide. It works very well in conjunction with CU stuff too.

Shaping Success - I found this book very very useful. Its a really good training text even if you aren't into agility. I love her emphasis on a training journal and being honest to yourself about your dog and your skills and being fair to your dog. The appendices especially were really useful. And one of the biggest pluses to this book is that she discusses in the appendix on head halter use how to wean your dog off the training tool and no longer need it. Obviously this can be extrapolated to any training tool and I think this is something a lot of training texts, word of mouth, classes, etc. are lacking in focus on.

Schutzhund Obedience - Even if you aren't into the sport, this book is indispensible in how it discusses going about training obedience. Specifically the importance of very good foundational work. I kind of think some of the proofing parts may not be needed if you do foundational stuff right and some of the "proofing" techniques are really outdated (i.e. discussion of ruff grabbing and stuff... when a good prong correction would be more clear. Which they do have good stuff on how to properly use a prong for proofing in here!) and if you are versed in training at all it is very easy to see how you can use the information in here to apply to your preferred reward toys, use it with clicker/vocal marker training, and blend it with other positive training like CU or Susan Garretts techniques to proof in an easier manner for you and your dog.

Schutzhund - good overview of the sport, liked the discussion about different breeds and how they used a variety of breeds for the book's pics. A lot of the training methods are pretty dated nowadays though. I think its a useful read, but be sure to pick up some Balbanov, Ellis, etc. stuff to balance the view on training techniques!

Power of Postive Dog training - This is an excellent training book for pet owners. I don't necesarily aggree with everything she puts forth and I think she's a little militantly "positive," but overall she gives a very very good program for building a pet you can really enjoy living with. I especially liked the worksheets for daily training that she has in here because I think that is a pretty important part of things that might be hard for some pet owners to get in the habit of.

On Talking Terms with Dogs - Calming Signals - Everyone who owns a dog and most people who don't should read this book. Its small, has lots of good pics, and has essential information in here about dog communication.

Ruff Love - Basically Susan Garrett's version of a NILIF program. A lot of people reviewed it as too harsh, etc. and while there is stuff I let my dogs do and see no reason to stop letting them do (i.e. furniture/bed priveleges) overall I think its a very good guide about building a better working relationship and not setting your dog up to fail. Again her emphasis on record keeping about training progress is I think very useful.

The Other End of the Leash - More a scientific behavioral text than anything else. I think every dog owner should and own this and read it more than once. It explains the fundamental differences between us and our dogs and how we confuse them and etc. by those fundamental differences. This makes it easier to communicate effectively with your dog and understand why dogs do what they do. Patricia McConnell is a great author/behaviorist... I love how she gives oodles and oodles of on the job examples and plan to read more of her books.

Don't Shoot the Dog - This applies to a hell of a lot more than just dogs. This is a really, really interesting and useful text. Its heavily about psychology and conditioning, etc.

Culture Clash - I gotta be honest, I think Jean Donaldson comes off as a total militant bitch. That said there is a lot of useful information in this book and it is worth reading.

I have a fairly big list of other books on training/behavior/etc. that I'd like to get and read eventually, this is only what I've read thus far. Always plenty to learn!

Dog Breeds:
Encyclopedia of Dog Breeds
Honestly aside from the above general dog breed book and other like it, I'm not too impressed by most breed specific books. IMO a lot of breed books present oversimplified, not fully realistic views of the breeds that show less than stellar examples of the breeds they are portraying. Most are coffee table books at best. Aside from the classics by the old dogmen like the Colby history book and Diane Jessup's book The Working APBT to name a couple, and stuff like that I say good luck.

[drexigordiche]

Gladiator dogs is a good one