Media Recommendations

This section is dedicated to the Media  of  Training and dog stories that I found compelling .

Training Books:

There are dozens and dozens of dog training books that have been published over the years.   I have owned quite a few of them.  I have two major criteria in judging a book on dog training.  One, is it simple to carry out the training methods.  The second is, are the training methods humane and effective.  

If the training method takes three hands, involve complex rope setups, or a lot of other equipment, I’m not interested.   I have found the more complex the method, the more likely something will go wrong.  Things seem to go wrong plenty even when things are kept simple.   

The first book that I’m going to recommend is: The Ultimate Guide to Bird Dog Training by Jerome B. Robinson.   I like this book because it covers a lot of topics.   It gives you alternative ways of teaching your dog.  And most of the methods covered are simple to carry out.  It is written for the novice but a more experienced person could find it useful as well.  The only  problem I have with the book is one page where a nasty spike collar is shown. It is recommended  to break a stubborn dog from breaking at the flush and shot.   The particular collar shown would be more at home on a gladiator.  Otherwise it is a very useful and interesting book.

The second book that I found interesting is: Training the Versatile Hunting Dog by Chuck Johnson. It was the first book that I  found that dealt with training on both land and water.  It also has a section on tracking training.  It’s too bad the pictures are in black and white.  The author lives in Montana and the black and white pictures don’t do the landscape justice.  It is a comprehensive look at training the versatile type of pointing dog.  

Another book geared to training the versatile type of pointer is: How to Have the Best Trained Gun Dog by Joan Bailey.   Joan uses  German training techniques to train without the use of electronics.   I like her book because it is a no-nonsense approach to teaching fundamentals.  The training methods in this book were developed by people who devoted their lives to the training of versatile dogs.  

Training Videos:

I am only going to recommend two training videos.   The sad fact is a lot of training videos  aren’t very good.   The two I’m going to recommend are very good.  The first is: Great Beginnings by George Hickox.   You get your moneys worth with this video.   It is 52 minutes long without much fluff to waste your time.   Fairly comprehensive and well done.  Easy for a beginner to understand.    

The second training video is Whoa, Dog. Whoa!  by Mark Payton, Sr.  It only covers the topic of Whoa training and  does it superbly.  It is well worth the money.   

Great Dog Stories:

Merle’s Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog by Ted Kerasote.    What a fabulous story about a man and a dog that was found wandering around the desert.  Highly recommended;  it is well written,  entertaining, interesting,  and it will pull on your heart-strings.  A must read for anyone who truly loves dogs.

Champion Dog: Prince Tom by Jean Clute and Tom Fritz.   This is an amazing story of a fortuitous decision to get a dog from humble origins. Which dog, Prince Tom  turned out to be an amazing champion. It is well worth the time spent reading it.  The book has been around since the fifty’s,  but it can still be found.