Barking Up the Right Tree: The Science and Practice of Positive Dog Training

When Dr. Ian Dunbar introduced his SIRIUS® Puppy Training in 1982, dog training mostly comprised punishing adult dogs for bad habits and lack of compliance. Dunbar focused on verbally cuing and creatively luring to achieve desirable behavior and using “life rewards” — sniffing, walking, play with dogs, and interactive games — to reinforce speedy compliance and good habits from the outset. His “dog’s point of view” approach revolutionized the field, and today there are few trainers who have not been strongly influenced by it.

While positive reinforcement is now widely adopted, this new book details how other reward-training techniques have strayed from Dunbar’s original, quick and easy, highly effective lure-reward approach for teaching dogs ESL, in which we can verbally cue specific responses, offer heartfelt praise for success, and give guidance when dogs err. With Dunbar’s method, we can teach dogs when and where to eliminate, what to chew, when and for how long to bark, and when and how to appropriately let off steam.

Barking Up the Right Tree offers proof that aversive punishment seldom works to eliminate undesirable behavior or to get the dog back on track. Dunbar presents numerous nonaversive yet highly effective solutions for misbehavior and noncompliance — simply by using the words you teach, and without even raising your voice.

The culmination of fifty-plus years at the vanguard of dog behavioral science, Barking Up the Right Tree is an indispensable guide for anyone who wants harmonious, two-way communication with a calm, confident, well-behaved, happy canine companion.

What experts are saying about Barking Up the Right Tree:
“In this wise and funny book, Ian Dunbar unpacks how he teaches dogs ESL. But what he’s also doing is teaching people DSL — dog as a second language. Dunbar has been speaking it for decades, and it’s a pleasure to hear him translate dogs for us again.”
— Alexandra Horowitz, New York Times bestselling author of Inside of a Dog and The Year of the Puppy

“Dr. Ian Dunbar took dog training from the dark ages, transforming the approach of many that followed from punitive to positive. His new book, Barking Up the Right Tree, draws on five decades of experience to offer specific, effective, and proven dog-centered techniques for a calm, well-behaved, happy pup.”
— Jennifer Nosek, editor of Modern Dog

“A powerful, convincing love song to happy, reward-based training. Any trainer looking for help convincing a client not to use aversive methods just needs to memorize Dunbar’s science-filled, client-tested, master-class chapter on punishment.”
— Kathy Callahan, author of 101 Rescue Puppies and Welcoming Your Puppy from Planet Dog

DR. IAN DUNBAR is a veterinarian and animal behaviorist who developed the SIRIUS® Puppy Training method in 1982, which revolutionized how puppies and dogs were trained. His unique lure-reward, off-leash training techniques provided an alternative to leash jerks, alpha rollovers, training collars, and other aversive means. SIRIUS techniques and philosophy have influenced almost all dog trainers worldwide. Dunbar is the author of numerous bestselling books, including Before and After Getting Your Puppy, How to Teach a New Dog Old Tricks, and Doctor Dunbar’s Good Little Dog Book. He lives in Berkeley, California.