Natural Dog Training
December 19, 2009 by Jim Trainer
Filed under Books And News
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Natural Dog Training is about how dogs see the world and what this means in regards to training. The first part of this book presents a new theory for the social behavior of canines, featuring the drive to hunt, not the pack instincts, as seminal to canine behavior. The second part reinterprets how dogs actually learn. The third section presents exercises and handling techniques to put this theory into practice with a puppy. The final section sets forth a training program with a special emphasis on coming when called. more info
Look elsewhere
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
This book is very poorly written and relies heavily on the use of choke chains and pinch collars (& the author clearly tacitly supports shock collars). While the author may not use them for punishment, the bottom line is that he uses them – and all the fallout that is associated with their use may well come along for the ride.
The idea itself has much to offer. It dismisses dominance/alpha theory (and well it should; those ideas are outdated and misguided) and offers an alternative to food training that focuses more on redirecting a dog’s ENERGY (versus just behavior) and bonding through PLAY (rather than food). It is great for my high-drive Border Collie mix, and my brain-in-her-nose Beagle mix is also responding. It is also easy to incorporate into positive reinforcment methods for a blended, whole-dog approach.
But the book itself is a disaster. More enlightened, humane, and – frankly – readable proponents of this theory/method are Neil Sattin and Lee Charles Kelley. Find their web sites instead.
Best Training Book I’ve Read
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I must say that for those reviewers who complain about the use of corrections or prong collars etc, you’ve obviously missed the whole point of the book. This book is not based or focused on using correction techniques. If you use corrections simply to suppress a dog’s behavior, then yes, you will cause behavior problems and possible aggression as well. But that is not what Kevin is recommending or teaching in his book. The entire premise and theory is based on building and controlling a dog’s drive, not correcting a dog to suppress them in order to create a desired behavior. I’ve worked in the correction based methodology before, and believe me, it’s an entirely different world than what is being taught in this book.
I’ve used dominance based training, as well as positive reinforcement and clicker training. Neither of those methodologies got me the results I wanted. Sure, they both worked to a degree. Dominance training created dogs that were under control, but they sure weren’t happy. And there was always that undertone of fear and tension between us. Positive reinforcement and clicker training worked great when we were working. But it would all fall apart in the real world when there were more interesting things to do. Not to say they didn’t retain some of what they learned. But they just weren’t reliable when using only positive reinforcement methods. I guess if I had continued doing it for the next 10 years, then maybe they would finally be reliable all the time. But once I began using Kevin’s techniques, I started seeing an instant transformation in my dogs. They started going from confused and disinterested, to paying attention and being happy to work with me. And it really was almost immediate.
I believe that all forms of training have something positive you can take away from them. Although I’ve learned that dominance training has little or nothing that I would want to continue using. But natural dog training has and continues to transform my relationship with my dogs. And I am convinced that it can do the same for most people.
It is fair to say that every dog is different, and that there will be dogs that may require a different form of training, or creative elaborations on Kevin’s techniques. But I would also say that I have yet to find any other philosophy that works as well for as many dogs as this one.
Any training model will probably work if you dedicate yourself to it. But I think that Kevin’s philosophy and techniques provide a way to get the results you want, while respecting and honoring the dog’s true nature and spirit, instead of trying to suppress it. And that’s why I recommend this book more so than anything else I’ve come across.
Will transform how you see and train your dog
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I read this book and the whole time felt like Behan was really onto something but just didn’t know how to communicate it. Thankfully, others have figured out how to say it and it is well worth the time it takes to understand it. Read this book and then spend a lot of time on Lee Charles Kelley’s blogsite ([...]) and on Neil Sattin’s website ([...]). Four stars instead of five because his writing style is so opaque.
many pearls, loved this book
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
this is a great book, a canine psychology book, a training book, an everything book. I’ve read and done alot (agilty, freestlye, clicker,obdience, hunting) and in this book there is something for everyone who loves and lives with dogs.
Kevin Behan has a gift…
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
…However, this book must be carefully read and pondered in order to ‘get’ his pearls of wisdom. My copy is full of underlined and highlighted passages which I have read over and over. I believe K. B. is a true advocate for dogs and has a great deal to offer all of us who have dogs in our lives. Even though there is no perfect dog trainer/behaviorist, and one would do well to study others’ philosophies and techniques, he is at the top of his profession and in a class by himself. That said, I have to wonder where his editor was before this book got to print. It really is irritating to sift through so many misspelled words, poor punctuation, run-on sentences, and the like. Also, I wonder if Mr. Behan could have benefited from someone’s help in the task of getting his wonderful ideas translated into printed words with a more concise organization to them. I have wished that the book included an index and/or boxes in the page margins with key points outlined. I hope I haven’t put off anyone from getting this book because the information in it is just exceptional.
Best. Training. Book. EVER.
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Positive reinforcement trainers talk about how food is a primary reinforcer and always reference how clicker style food based training has trained everything from cats to orca whales. But how many of you require an orca whale to live with you and be naturally obedient in YOUR human world 24-7? And yes you might live with a cat, but do you really require your cat to be outside with you daily and still be mindful of you and responsive to cues? Marker training with treats is a wonderful way to teach a dog a specific behavior, but do clicker trainers really require me as a dog guardian to click and treat my dog forever? Kevin Behan’s book taught me how to take my dog’s natural prey instincts, in other words, the very instincts that make her a DOG, and channel them into being with me. So even in our day-to-day, she is allowed to fully and joyfully engage in her natural doggy instincts AS WELL AS be with me as a well-behaved member of society. In fact, the training teaches her that the ultimate fulfillment for her natural instincts comes when she is fully focused on me.
Case in point: this morning while I was walking around our local park during the sanctioned off leash hours, my Belgian Malinois mix got a little bored with just walking around, so she wanted instead to be stimulated and energized by DOING OBEDIENCE WORK. I knew that was what she wanted because she kept naturally heeling on my left, looking up at me, asking me with her eyes, CAN WE WORK? CAN WE WORK? So I engaged her in some formal off leash heeling, some recalls, some down during recalls. The whole time she was powerfully driving into me and fully engaged. The obedience work, in other words, was like a play session for her.
There is NOTHING punitive about this training style. Perhaps the word “correction” is used poorly. I would liken it more to teaching a dog the natural danger boundaries, and that the most fulfilling, most joyful, most rewarding, most drive-flowing scenario is to be focused to her handler, whether the dog is plastered to your left side, or 50 yards away in a long sit, or even just meandering around off leash with you.
To me, this is the ultimate reward for any dog – to fully feel like she is allowed to be a dog. And yet because her joy and drive flow is fullest when she is focused on you as the handler, she will always be a fantastic dog to live with. Courteous, friendly, happy, responsive, hardworking, playful and calm. We owe our magnificent dogs that much.
Great Book don’t take me wrong
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I have now been reading this book for about three weeks and can’t get through it. It’s content is of very high interest and surely some “AHA” exclamations from me when I am getting the point. It is a great book for people who are more interested in reading then getting a few picture hints. There are no illustrations in this book what so ever and I probably finding it a bit boring as it feels like I am reading a novel and not a dog training book. So if you are like me and likes a bit of illustrations don’t go for this book, If you like reading only you will love this book.
Returned the book for a refund
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
I received this book two days ago and am returning it for a refund today. This is the first time I’ve ever returned anything to Amazon. The author’s prose is almost unreadable. The book is full of typos and non sequiturs. There wasn’t what I expected… a detailed step by step program for training your dog. Instead there were ramblings about dogs’ wolf ancestry, it’s prey instincts/behaviors and other filler verbiage to compose a book that could be in my opinion much briefer. And at a price of almost $25 this added insult to injury.
Mind Blowing Perspective
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This book has change the way I look at and understand my dogs. This isn’t the kind of book you can read in one weekend – I find that I need time for the ideas and theories to soak in fully, then I will re-read again. Even if you don’t intend to train your dog using Behan’s methods, the dog training community should be giving credence to his understanding of dogs and how they feel. This book and Suzanne Clothiers “Bones Would Rain From the Sky” should be the most read books on dog training – or more importantly understanding dog’s feelings and how to use that understanding to build a better relationship with your pets.
Interesting theory…
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
This training guide has an interesting theory about dog behaivour being based entirely on the hunting drive, but I don’t agree with some of the methods.
Ten years ago, I trained a dog using the “shock” method (corrections on the leash and an electrical shock collar) and will never use it again. I feel that is is abusive. I was training the dog with a trainer that charged close to $2,000.00 to teach me how to abuse my dog. Any time you jerk a leash against a dogs neck you are risking cervical injury. My dog, Bear, continued to have severe behavior problems that I now know were due to these antiquated training methods.
I finally had a behavior specialist (doggie psycologist) come to my house to work with the dogs. She recommended the following books and helped me with some basic positive-reinforcement training methods. Bear’s behaviour improved that afternoon. We recently lost hime to renal failure, and at the time of his death, he was the most gentle dog I’ve ever known.
I would recommend “The Dog Whisperer” and “The Culture Clash” (Jean Donaldson) for training without punishment.