Barking Up the Right Tree: The Science and Practice of Positive Dog Training [Hardcover]

“I am sureBarking Up the Right Treewill be celebrated as the bible of dog training.”
— Marc Bekoff, PhD, author ofThe Emotional Lives of AnimalsandDogs Demystified

When Dr. Ian Dunbar introduced his SIRIUS® Puppy Training in 1982, dog training mostly comprised punishing adult dogs for bad habits and lack of compliance. Dunbar focused on verbally cuing and creatively luring to achieve desirable behavior and using “life rewards” — sniffing, walking, play with dogs, and interactive games — to reinforce speedy compliance and good habits from the outset. His “dog’s point of view” approach revolutionized the field, and today there are few trainers who have not been strongly influenced by it.

While positive reinforcement is now widely adopted, this new book details how other reward-training techniques have strayed from Dunbar’s original, quick and easy, highly effective lure-reward approach for teaching dogs ESL, in which we can verbally cue specific responses, offer heartfelt praise for success, and give guidance when dogs err. With Dunbar’s method, we can teach dogswhen and whereto eliminate,whatto chew,when and for how longto bark, andwhen and howto appropriately let off steam.

Barking Up the Right Treeoffers proof thataversive punishment seldom worksto eliminate undesirable behavior or to get the dog back on track. Dunbar presents numerousnonaversive yet highly effective solutions for misbehavior and noncompliance — simply by using the words you teach, and without even raising your voice.

The culmination of fifty-plus years at the vanguard of dog behavioral science,Barking Up the Right Treeis an indispensable guide for anyone who wants harmonious, two-way communication with a calm, confident, well-behaved, happy canine companion.

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