[.ca] The Loved Dog: The Playful, Nonaggressive Way to Teach ... (ISBN 1400154391)

I loved this book!:
I tried the techniques in this book on three different dogs who had received little to no training. Within a very short time, they were all happily performing Sit, Down and Come. I've never trained a dog before, so I was amazed at how effective the techniques were. And the dogs were so happy during the training! I also loved that this wasn't a straight training manual, but included some background stories about Tamar and how her methods developed. Instead of just referring to the book from time to time for specific training techniques, I read it cover to cover and couldn't put it down. I saw from her website that she has DVDs, too. I'm going to try those next.

Didn't work so well:
"You can't teach an old dog new tricks". Perhaps for this reason my dog didn't really cotton to the rules of this tome. I'd like to say it was the book; maybe it was the dog. Or, I suspect, a combination of both. Be forewarned: this doesn't work for every pooch.

A Very Big Disappointment!:
I was extremely disappointed with the book. It starts off as a biography of Tamar Geller, and spends too much time describing her experiences in Israel rather than giving concrete training help. And when she does get around to training, it is just very basic stuff which can be found in most modern positive training books today. I was also quite surprised when she advocated spraying a dog with water to stop barking. What is positive and nonaggressive about using a spray bottle? For an absolute beginner with no clue about how to train a dog, then it might be fine as a second or third book. But there are many others out there that give a much better overview with more details and descriptions. Even Dog Training for Dummies does a better job! I do NOT recommend this training book, unless someone is a fan of Tamar Geller and wishes to learn more about her. Serious dog trainers, even beginners who have already read a few books or taken a training class will already know everything that she provides.