Oscar's Book Club

A lot of the reading that I have done about puppy training and care has been online. I am a huge bookworm too, so I have read a few puppy books (though I haven't read as many as I'd like, since it's so much cheaper to do my research online). If I had my way, I'd have a whole library of dog books!

A coworker lent me How to Raise the Perfect Dog by Cesar Millan. It was the first dog book that I read.  He discusses raising puppies and uses several puppies of different breeds that he raised as case studies.  One of the dogs he focused on was a miniature schnauzer, so I was excited to read the book, thinking that I would learn a lot.  I thought it was an okay read, but after finishing it, I didn't feel like I really picked up much practical knowledge. Maybe it was because I had already done a lot of reading on basic puppy care online before picking up the book and Cesar did not really go too much into training techniques. If he has a book geared more towards training (which I'm sure he must, since there is so much Cesar Millan stuff out there) then I might consider reading that to see if it would be more useful.

The other book I have read so far is My Smart Puppy by Brian Kilcommons and Sarah Wilson. I really liked this book and am in the middle of re-reading it. They provide a good basic discussion of dog training, and outline how to teach your puppy a lot of very useful commands, which they break into three different levels of difficulty. I liked that they didn't just outline the techniques, but also have somewhat of a "troubleshooting" section after each one, where they outline common obstacles that owners face in teaching the puppy a particular command and provide suggested solutions. I used the techniques in the book to teach Oscar the Sit, Come and Down commands before we ever made it to puppy class. They also have helpful pictures and tips, which was great.  I'd definitely recommend this book as a very good source of useful and basic training information. There is also a My Smart Puppy website which has lots of information on it (though you have to pay for full access - I just stick with the freebie articles).  The book also comes with a training DVD (which, ironically, Oscar chewed up).

I would really like to find another training book, but I'm looking for a good one that is geared towards miniature schnauzers. If any of you have found a good one, let me know. I'll be sure to post if I find a book that I'd recommend!