[.ca] Puppies For Dummies (ISBN 0470037172)

not that helpful:
This book tends to over simplify everything. It speeds through many areas that you really need information about and trys to cover everything about puppies which is impossible. If you want an overview book, pick it up. if your looking for targeted info on how to train your puppy move on.

Thank you Sarah Hodgson!:
I am a first-time dog owner, having always had cats which required no training. I was getting very frustrated with my puppy and my three-year-old, especially when my puppy turned 5 months and started to really jump and nip. This book was informative and gave me lots of good tips on dog-rearing and helping the dog to get along with my kids. Yes, it is broad, but it is a great start and good for people, like me, who just want to do some basic training. If you want to do more advanced training, then you would probably want to get another book later on. I would definitely recommend this book to first-time puppy parents.

Great for new owners:
I recommend this book for all new owners of dogs. Sarah explains everything simply and quickly with lots of humor. One lady told me she had no time to read a book, her elementary school daughter read the book first (and then she did).

Don't Even Bother...:
Okay, the book did have some pretty cool pointers and techniques. But the bottom line is...the lady tells you to ignore your puppy! Throughout the whole book all she talks about is ignore your puppy if he does this, ignore your puppy if he does that... C'mon! They need to feel some love too! It didn't go into detail about a single aspect of puppy training...well for the exeption of ignoring the pup that is! Basically, I feel like it was just a super long summary of raising an ignored puppy. Kind of sad actually...

A solid reference for positive reinforcement training:
After getting a puppy in December, I picked up this book, hoping it would provide me with information on just what I needed to do to have a happy, healthy, well-trained dog. Happily, it does. Covering just about every aspect of dealing with a puppy, I've already started using some of the information in the book. The index is well organized as well, making it easy to look up information as necessary. Now, if only the puppy were as user friendly! *grin*