Reviewed by Kim Anisi for Readers' Favorite

People who plan on buying or adopting a puppy should definitely read a book like Puppy Training by Jane Wolfe before the puppy comes home. Puppies are very intelligent (well, it depends on the breed - some dogs are a bit dumb and slow) and learn quickly, so you want to make sure that they do not learn the wrong things and assume that bad behavior is acceptable. Whether your puppy ends up being a nightmare or an angel depends on you alone. You need to be the pack leader, the one who is in control - not the one whose shoes get eaten and who's pulled through the mud because the dog never learned to walk on the lead. This book shows you what you need to do, and what you shouldn't. Rubbing a puppy's nose in his own pee and poo if it ends up in the wrong place, for example, is NOT the way to house-train your puppy. The according chapter in this book easily shows readers what they need to do to successfully house-train a dog. From play-time to eating and sleeping, all aspects of life with a new puppy are covered.

I have worked for a retriever/Labrador breeder for almost a year now, and picked up Puppy Training by Jane Wolfe because I wanted to see whether I know enough and whether what I've learned in the past year corresponds with what other dog experts write. My boss is excellent and I've learned a lot about puppy training by a) listening to her when she told her clients about how to train puppies, and b) by being thrown into the deep end because my boss kept some puppies last year and someone (me) had to deal with them. The book almost reads like she was talking in it (my boss and the author are obviously two different people) and the information was spot on.

It's a great book for people who either plan on getting a puppy and would like to be well-prepared for what is ahead of them, and for people who want to work with dogs/puppies. For people like me, who already have some experience with puppies, the book is great to confirm what you've already learned and to add some or other tidbit of information. The book is written in a very approachable way and without any complicated terms that would only mean something to breeders. If you want to raise a good dog who actually listens to you and doesn't misbehave (much), then this book will give you all the tools you need.