We have published several articles recently on teaching or training your dog to follow commands. This week we have decided to show you the importance of turning to the past as a source of information on this topic. It’s not hard to find the latest and greatest techniques and devices to aid you in training your dog, but maybe we all need to learn some time tested fundamentals to dog education in general.
Through the magic of Google Books we came across a small informational booklet from the year 1902 entitled “Practical Dog Education” by Thomas C. Abbott. Although this text is over a hundred years old, it contains some of the most insightful and truthful information on successfully training a dog that we have come across. It is a fairly quick read at only 37 pages but contains a good amount of information that rings just as true today as it did at the turn of the century.
Although this book is geared more towards training a dog to be a sporting companion, it contains tons of great ideas concerning dog training in general. It includes methods of teaching your dog commands as well as an excellent philosophy on the act of training overall. The language used is definitely dated but still very understandable and relevant for today.
Mr. Abbot covers several very important ideas including patience, love, and the fact that all dogs are different and will learn in different ways. The book takes you through the fundamentals of training an animal to respond to your commands and focuses on building trust and bonding. Within its pages even the most experienced trainer may be able to learn a thing or two that might have been lost somewhere in the flurry of current dog training techniques and practices.
 | It is very critical to take advantage of any amount of information you can absorb in order to train a dog successfully and without doing something incorrectly that could prove detrimental. Sometimes we forget to look to the past for tips and information on a subject we are learning about. Often, in this day of lighting fast technology, we tend to overlook older sources of information and consider them outdated or impractical. But the truth is we could all probably learn a lot from Thomas C. Abbott and the words he wrote concerning a subject that was very near to his heart over 100 years ago. |
You can read the short book below or find it on Google Books.
| Russ Barker never quite realized that a book from 1902 could provide such valuable information today but now he does and is sharing that information with our readers. Russ is a humble farm boy who left his home world to fight for the rebellion and learn to use the force. When he is not doing that, he writes weekly blog articles for Dog Tag Art, a group of pet owners and lovers who have created a socially responsible company with pet safety in mind. They hand make personalized dog tags for dogs and let their customers show off their artistic side. These one-of-a-kind custom dog tags are super stylish and fully protect pets by displaying vital information and contacts so they can return safely home when lost. |  |
