Dunbar - Before & After Getting Your Puppy

N EW W ORLD L IBRARY
N OVATO, C ALIFORNIA

Copyright 2004 by Dr. Ian Dunbar

Before & After Getting Your Puppy combines the books Before You Get Your Puppy and After You Get Your Puppy, which were originally published in 2001 by James & Kenneth Publishers. These titles remain available in paperback from:

James & Kenneth Publishers
2140 Shattuck Avenue #2406
Berkeley, California 94704
1-800-784-5531
www.jamesandkenneth.com

Cover design by Mary Ann Casler
Interior design and typography by Tona Pearce Myers

All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, or other without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

Photo Credits: Darlene Bishop, page 14; Kelly Gorman, page 35; Wayne Hightower: pages 26, 27; Carmen Noradunghian, pages 67, 159; Jennifer Bassing, pages 101, 104, 130, 146; Jamie Dunbar, pages 173, 175, 180, 190; Fisher Houtz, page 77; Mimi WheiPing Lou, page 163; Jennifer Messer, pages 192, 193; Sue Pearson, page 78.All other photographs taken by the author.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Dunbar, Ian, 1947

Before & after getting your puppy : the positive approach to raising a happy, healthy, and well-behaved dog / Ian Dunbar.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-57731-455-4 (paper over board : alk. paper)

1. DogsTraining. 2. DogsBehavior. 3. Puppies. 4. Dogs. I.Title:

Before and after getting your puppy. II.Title.

SF431.D77 2004

636.7'0887dc22

2004002055

First printing, May 2004

ISBN 978-1-57731-455-4

Printed in Canada on 100% postconsumer waste recycled paper

Distributed to the trade by Publishers Group West

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

CHAPTER THREE
THE FIRST DEVELOPMENTAL DEADLINE

CHAPTER FOUR
THE SECOND DEVELOPMENTAL DEADLINE

CHAPTER FIVE
THE THIRD DEVELOPMENTAL DEADLINE

CHAPTER SIX
THE FOURTH DEVELOPMENTAL DEADLINE

CHAPTER SEVEN
THE FIFTH DEVELOPMENTAL DEADLINE

CHAPTER EIGHT
THE SIXTH DEVELOPMENTAL DEADLINE

T o all truly exceptional dog breeders, who care as much (if not more) about their dogs physical and mental health as they do about their dogs coat color and conformation.

To all knowledgeable veterinarians, who understand the crucially important role of early socialization and training in preventing predictable behavior and temperament problems.

To all caring and responsible puppy owners, who do their very best to choose, raise, and train their puppies to be good-natured and well-mannered companions.

And to all overworked pet dog trainers, shelter staff and volunteers, and animal rescue organizations, who try their best to solve the many problems created by other dog breeders, veterinarians, and dog owners who fail to grasp the big picture.

H uge thanks go to Dr. Bruce Boehringer, Jane Stevenson, and Janes dad for their extremely constructive and critical reviews of my original manuscript, which more than sufficiently pointed out its shortcomings. Thank you all! This book is a complete rewrite. I am especially indebted to Jane for her unwavering enthusiasm and encouragement from the very whelping of this prospective puppy owner education project.

Most of my books are published by James & Kenneth a small independent puppy publisher. Whereas James & Kenneth books are extremely well respected within the dog training profession, they are not well known by the dog-owning public. I am absolutely delighted that such a quality publishing house as New World Library decided to offer this combined hardback edition, which will help spread the word to a much wider audience, thus improving the lives of many more dogs and their owners.

A very, very special thank you to Jason Gardner, my editor at New World, who was the instigator, and has been the driving force, behind this book. Every page has benefited substantially not only from Jasons sharp editing pencil but also from his educated insight into dogs. From the very start of this project, it was obvious to me that Jason must enjoy sharing life with a dog. His many editorial changes champion the viewpoint of dogs and their owners.

Never before has my writing been subjected to such thorough and ruthless editing. The end result, though, is a book devoid of irrelevant material, preachy dogma, and other wooly waffle. Instead it overflows with a wealth of extremely useful and extremely important preventative, how-to, puppy-raising information. Thank you, Bruce. Thank you, Jane. Thank you, Janes dad.And especially thank you, Jason.

S adly, the majority of puppies fail to live long enough to enjoy their second birthday. They suffer from the terminal illness of being unwanted failing to live up to the promise and expectation of the LassieBenjiEddie dream. Instead they develop a number of utterly predictable behavior, training, and temperament problems and are surrendered to animal shelters to play lotto with their lives. Many people blame irresponsible ownership for this tragic situation. I would cite lack of know-how. Most prospective puppy owners are simply unaware of the problems that lie ahead; unfortunately, they have little idea how to prevent or resolve them. Ironically, the demise of many dogs stems from novice owners following misleading, erroneous, and in some cases downright bad advice from out-of-date training books.

Dog owners lack of know-how has to be the responsibility of all doggy professionals, including dog breeders, trainers, veterinarians, animal control officers, and shelter personnel. It is the fault of dog professionals like myself, who have failed to adequately advertise the much easier, quicker, gentler, and altogether more effective and efficient way of raising and training puppies.

In defense of pet professionals like myself, the past two decades have witnessed a revolution in the applied behavioral sciences. Many pet professionals (and hence most dog owners) are simply unaware of the many radical advances in pet dog training and behavior modification.

Only twenty years ago, training was delayed until dogs were six months to a year old, training meant teaching only obedience drills, training was conducted primarily on-leash with repeated leash corrections, behavior modification was largely restricted to punishing dogs for making mistakes, and using food lures and rewards was taboo.

The purpose of this book is to inform pet professionals and prospective and existing puppy owners that puppy training can be quick, easy, and a lot of fun. All serious adult dog behavior, training, and temperament problems can be prevented quite easily with early socialization and lure/reward, puppy-friendly puppy training techniques.