Finally: A dog training book that makes sense―for both dogs and humans―using positive reinforcement techniques based on animal behavioral science.
For generations, celebrity trainers have preached that dog owners must "dominate" dogs and have criticized people for daring to treat pets with affection.
How To Train Your Dog with Love + Science presents a modern and science-based approach to dog training, showing how behavior can be changed without coercion and force. Annie Grossman, a journalist-turned-dog trainer, breaks down what positive reinforcement actually is and makes the case that "good dog training" may even be a window into understanding ourselves.
Grossman offers building-block exercises and tips on how to train effectively using the reward-based methods she's honed over the last decade with clients at her Manhattan training center, School For The Dogs. Whether you've just brought a new dog into your home or you're wanting to teach an old one new tricks, How to Train Your Dog with Love + Science will help you consider what behaviors you want and help you to achieve your goals using techniques rooted in the science of behavior.
Woven into this lively how-to guide is the century-long history of positive reinforcement training, from Pavlov's dogs and Skinner's rats to today's apartment-dwelling dogs using Wifi-enabled devices.
By employing the easy-to-understand techniques laid out in this book, you will be able to train your dog to live confidently, comfortably, and happily in your world.
What experts are saying about How to Train Your Dog with Love + Science:
Every rescue and shelter should be giving away copies of this book. The easy-to-consume information about the science of learning is combined with relatable and interesting examples from Annie’s own experience living with dogs. It’s a dog training book, yes, but it is also a book that shines a light on the evolution of our own consciousness, and how it reinvents the world we live in―a world where our success and strength are rooted in our compassion and our knowledge. ― Debbie Jacobs, CPDT-KA, RBT, author of A Guide to Living With & Training a Fearful DogandDoes My Dog Need Prozac?
Annie and School For The Dogs taught my dogs, but mostly taught me. The school is really School For The Dogs and the People Who Love Them, and it is always the most cheerful place to go. Annie is an astonishingly good trainer who leads with compassion, and this book breaks down how that compassion and understanding unlocks behavior modification. You see dogs and people in sync, learning. You can palpably feel the love and see the physical results. If dogs play a significant role in your life, you need this book.― Maureen Johnson, #1 New York Timesbestselling author,human companion of School For The Dogs alumna Zelda and Dexy
Using the latest science and wonderful stories, Annie Grossman shows us how to allow dogs to express as much of their dogness as possible and have satisfying dog-appropriate lives without forcing them to do things they’d rather not do. When dogs feel safe and trust us, it’s a win-win for all―what could be better? ― Marc Bekoff, Ph.D., author of Dogs Demystified and The Emotional Lives of Animals
ANNIE GROSSMAN, CPDT-KA, KPA CTP, is a journalist-turned-animal trainer who has written about dogs for the New York Times and the Boston Globe, among other publications. Since 2011 she’s run School For The Dogs, an acclaimed training facility and retail store in Manhattan’s East Village. She also hosts the How to Train Your Dog With Love + Science podcast.
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How to Train Your Dog with Love + Science
How to Train Your Dog with Love and Science, by Annie Grossman (SourceBooks [Penguin Random House], 352 pp, 2024, $17.99) Review by Skye Anderson In a Word - Wow! The best book I have read in several years! I have been known to start writing a book review before finishing the book and even to suggest the Book of the Year very early in the year - but only for exceptional books. This is one such book! A non-fiction, how-to book that reads like a story and keeps you enthralled, a book you hate to put down. A book I used up an entire yellow highlighter on! I knew, after reading the Introduction, that I would love this book! (How many readers read the Introduction, or the Acknowledgements or the Preface, other than book reviewers like me?) Author Annie Grossman of School for the Dogs. . . School for the Dogs in NYC makes the love, and the science, and the psychology of dog training easy to understand and use at home (she even takes a stab at explaining the difference between habituation and sensitization). And, she is an entertaining author to boot! But then, I should have realized that with her background as a journalist (I find books written by reporters and journalists to be, on the whole, excellent reads and when I find a book that I like, I love to read everything that person has authored - just like I tell my undergraduates to take every course from your favorite professor that you can because you will learn the most from them! But I digress.) Who is Train Your Dog with Love and Science For? Ah, this took me a while to figure out and what I came up with is that Train is a resource book plus a textbook for serious dog people and a book for dog-trainers-in-training to discuss amongst themselves and with their mentors. It would also make a great book for undergraduates in a behavioral psychology course. Educators will be able to easily transfer the principles to their classrooms as Ah-ha! moments. Dear Reader, Take the Good Dog Training Pledge on page 283 and send it to Annie! Learning to be Brave in NYC Grossman's personality and sense of humor shines through so much that I'll wager there are dog trainer wanna-be's out in Idaho that wish they could fly to New York City to apprentice under Grossman! I know I would, if I were a few years younger. What Did I Like the Best? Author (left) and Business Partner Kate I noticed some of my favorite words: homunculus, halcyon, Mobius strip, minions and others. I liked how the author defined terms that needed defining, right after using them in the beginning of a chapter. I like how she kept referring to future chapters when appropriate and referring to previous chapters as well. I love her sense of humor and how she makes science easy - and gives the reader the stories of scientists in little bites as well as some anecdotes from her own life. I like how, rare in a non-fiction book, this book transitions into the next chapter so well, to keep you reading - and often with humor! Positive-Reinforcement Training - What's it All About? Training should be fun and it can be easy if reward-based methods are used. Grossman makes it fun and easy, too, to learn this method and to apply it in other situations in daily life. Excellent teachers and parents already (unknowingly) use a lot of rewards and reinforcement. What Would I Change? Author Grossman clearly states in the Intro that there are four parts to her book but the table of contents does not clearly reflect this and the last part of the introduction clearly points out parts three and four only. I found a few typos in a couple of chapters* but on the whole, it was well edited. My first thoughts that seven pages of pre-publication praise from leaders in the dog field was a bit much, even if I knew most of them but when I finally put the book down and reread those comments, I was a convert. A Gem I did eventually get used to the polka-dotted dogs on the cover, too! And I want to reiterate what a fun, engrossing, educational book this is. But here's a friendly warning: you will need a highlighter unless you like to take notes - so much of Annie's words are gems to remember. Now I am waiting for a play-by-play manual, a workbook! *perhaps more than one copy editor was used or, if one, they were interrupted mid-chapter.
