You must complete your education about puppy education before you get your puppy. All behavior, temperament, and training problems are so easily preventable, if only you know how.
The very best way to educate yourself—about puppy raising and training, and how to prevent the many common and utterly predictable problems that you will soon face—is to go and observe a SIRIUS® Puppy I Class and to talk to the participants after class. Puppy owners are usually more than forthcoming when chatting about the behavior, training, and temperament problems that they have already encountered with their young puppydog.
In our ongoing attempt to educate prospective puppy owners before they get their puppies, SIRIUS® Puppy Training has convinced Dr. Ian Dunbar to allow us to offer his book, BEFORE You Get Your Puppy, for FREE.
You may download Dr. Dunbar's BEFORE You Get Your Puppy in two PDF versions:
Text-only (566
KB)
Entire
Book w/ Images (29.2
MB)
If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area (within the 3-digit
ZIP Code area range of 940 to 951), you may obtain a FREE
copy of BEFORE You Get Your Puppy by mailing a stamped
($1.52) and self-addressed, 6"x9" envelope to:
SIRIUS Puppy Training
2140 Shattuck Avenue #2406
Berkeley CA 94704
Additionally, you will receive a FREE copy of Dr. Dunbar's AFTER You Get Your Puppy when you register your pup for a SIRIUS® Puppy I Class. Please note, to participate in puppy classes, puppies must be less than 18 weeks of age at the time of their first session.
If you do not know how to assess your prospective puppy's behavioral development, your puppy could well be severely developmentally retarded before you bring him home to live with you (by eight weeks of age). An eight-week-old puppy should be well-socialized to people (especially children, men, and strangers) and thoroughly accustomed to living in a home environment, i.e., he must have been raised indoors and not in a kennel. Additionally, by eight weeks of age, your prospective puppy should be housetrained and chewtoy-trained, and at the very least, taught to come, sit, lie down, and roll over on request.
If you do not know how to raise and train a puppy, he will most certainly develop a number of behavior, temperament, and training problems.
Many owners begin to notice their puppy's housesoiling and chewing mistakes by the time he is four to five months old, whereupon the pup is characteristically relegated outdoors. Natural inquisitiveness prompts the lonely pup to dig, bark, and escape in his quest for some form of occupational therapy to pass the time of day in solitary confinement. Once the neighbors complain about the dog's incessant barking and periodic escapes, the dog is often further confined to a garage or basement. Usually though, this is only a temporary measure until the dog is surrendered to a local animal shelter to play the lotto of life. Fewer than 25 percent of surrendered dogs are adopted, of which about half are returned as soon as the new owners discover their adopted adolescent's annoying problems.
Without a doubt, behavior, temperament, and training problems are the most prevalent terminal illnesses for pet dogs. You may easily prevent these common and predictable problems if you know what to expect and if you know what to do. Please read BEFORE You Get Your Puppy.
ARE YOU LOOKING FOR A PUPPY? -> New Puppy Behavior Blueprint
