**Please note that Dogwise does not endorse all of the training methods used in this book; it is a historical document and an early example of modern dog training.
Today's dog trainer can trace the roots of modern training to Training Dogs by Colonel Konrad Most. Written in Germany in 1910, Training Dogs influenced how both dogs and trainers were taught in Europe and the United States for the next 50 years! It contains valuable and historically significant information, a true classic.
21st century trainers and behaviorists will find it amazing to realize that early in the 20th century Konrad Most was using and applying behavioral training principles with dogs long before B.F. Skinner! Most also created systematic and scientific methods to teach trainers how to train dogs with his " Theory of Training." While Most's methods may be viewed as harsh by modern dog trainers, the theory behind it was revolutionary for it's time and it is still applied today.
Discover the roots of behavioral training
Seeing the world from a dog's point of view.
Utilizing instinctual behavior in training such as the prey drive.
Use of compulsion and inducements.
Use of primary and secondary reinforcers.
Learn how Most Taught
Obedience exercises including the recall, jumping and retrieving.
Guard and schutzhund training.
Reconnaissance and tracking; scent theory.
Water work for hunting dogs.
Dogs for the blind.
Here is what today's dog trainers say about Training Dogs
Most demonstrated an understanding of operant conditioning concepts such as primary and secondary reinforcement, shaping, fading and chaining 28 years before the publication of B.F. Skinner's The Behavior of Organisms. He differentiated between primary and secondary reinforcers. He used his voice and soft tones as secondary inducements, much the way some trainers use clicks today.
Mary Burch & Jon S. Bailey authors of How Dogs Learn
Although some of Most's methods seem archaic and harsh in this enlightened age of positive training, some of the theory he set forth was years ahead of its time. Knowing where training came from helps us appreciate where we are today.
Sheila Booth author of Purely Positive Training and co-author of Schutzhund Obedience Training in Drive
Konrad Most was a police dog, war dog and seeing-eye dog trainer in Germany for the first half of the 20th Century. He trained dogs in World Wars I AND II and created curricula for trainers. He was a researcher in the field of canine psychology and trained dogs for virtually every use during his long career.
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Foundation of Mordern Schutzhund/IPO
The original title of this book was, “Leitfaden für die abrichtung des polizei- u. schutzhundes mit psychologischen begründungen.” That translates into “Guide to the execution of the police u. Schutzhund with psychological reasons.” This book is important because it formed the foundation for modern day Schutzhund/IPO. Colonel Konrad Most was a “war dog” trainer. The dogs that he describes training in the book would be considered vicious/dangerous by modern day standards. The true intention of these dogs was to fight a human to the death. They could only be controlled, at most, by one handler and an alternate (in case the primary handler was killed). Additionally, some of the training methods that he describes would be considered animal abuse if used in the present day. Colonel Most goes to great lengths to describe and justify the psychological reasons to use the above mentioned methods. It is important to understand the origins of Schutzhund/IPO so that one can comprehend what new training techniques are attempting to produce.
