Control Unleashed: The Puppy Program

Gives insight into what the puppy is thinking and responding to.

I have been teaching positive and effective Puppy K classes for over 35 years. This training, developed by Leslie McDevitt is about to, honestly, revolutionized my curriculum. In this book, is a program full of suggestions, exercises, skills and easy to understand philosophies ... helping owners who are training dogs with trouble focusing and impulse control problems. Honestly, I purchased this book and joined some online Control Unleashed groups... and I am SO tickled with these simple, contemporary ways to help my current "problem" dog be the best he can be. VERY EASY, not time-consuming, relationship building, GAME CHANGING.

I really enjoyed reading this book. In order to get the maximum benefits from it though, you should definitely read it more than once and start highlighting or making notes of the games you want to play with your dog. The book has really good training advice and games to play with your pet, with a focus on agility. However, I found the tips and games in this book a bit difficult to utilize since they were sort of scattered all over the place. I had a hard time remembering which chapter to turn back to in order to refresh my memory about how to play a certain game. It would have been nice if all of the games in the book where listed in one, easy to access area.Nonetheless, this book is a very solid book. It taught me all about the premack principle, which I effectively use with my dog all the time. The games are also fun. Both me and my dog learned a lot from them even though we don't do any agility at all. Despite its poor organization, it's still a really good book and worth every penny I paid.

I bought this book based on other Amazon user's feedback, and boy am I glad I did! This is a remarkable approach to raising a puppy, and one that I wish was better known. The author is clearly very experienced, and has multitudes of stories to illustrate concepts and/ or techniques. It is not a rigid framework of obedience tactics, but rather a celebration of your dog as an individual; a system of discovering what motivates him, what scares him, what excites him, what distracts him... and teaching him how to make positive behavior choices when faced with the unpredictability of life. It is not a quick program, and it requires daily integration of her various games to reinforce positive behaviors. However, it's one of the more balanced approaches that I've found to dog training, and it allows each dog to be different, and be themselves ... resulting in a happy, mentally sound PARTNER, capable of making decisions and choices about their behavior-not an anxious, suppressed, obedience machine.

This book was recommended by my dog trainer. I have an almost three year old dog that needs some help to relax around strangers. He's just not a fan of having them in his home. This book is helping me better understand what is motivating his behavior, how my actions influence it and healthy ways for us to co-exist. My trainer recommended the puppy version because she said it was written second and includes everything in the first book, plus additional information on raising your puppy. Between using the knowledge from this book, the expert help from my trainer and some additional resources she recommended, in a few short weeks, I see huge improvement in my dogs level of calmness. We have a long road ahead of us to let him mix with company, but I am seeing positive results already. I wish veterinarians would know about this book and recommend it!

The author, Leslie McDevitt, really is on target with so many things about dog behavior. I can see and understand many more things than I did before reading this book. I wish I had known about Control Unleashed earlier, when we got our puppies. It would have made everything easier for them and for me. Ms.McDevitt makes the training natural, non-threatening and fun. I am using her approach to fill in the holes in our puppy training, even though the puppies are now 11 months old. They don't even realize that I am still working on training...and we are having fun with it. Her degree of experience enables her to explain why some things work sometimes and what to do when they don't work. The book is an easy read, and is hard to put down. I will be re-reading this book, perhaps several times, as there is so much of value to remember and apply. Thank you Leslie McDevitt for a very special book.

The information is wonderful and easy to understand. The photos are charming and fun to see. The book I find is family friendly easy to use for everyone

We brought home a 3 month old mutt rescue and bought this book at the recommendation of our vet to help us help him calm his little puppy nerves and get used to life with us. It was INDESPENSIBLE. I read everything I could about bringing home a dog, and while I learned a zillion things about puppy pop psychology, I didn't learn what I could do about teaching a pup to learn self confidence around people and other dogs.We saw a change almost immediately after working through pieces of McDevitt's book. Mat training (giving the dog a safe place to be calm), the fundamentals of using a clicker for immediate reinforcement, and the how-to behind letting your pup solve problems himself to let him enter the outside world confidently were really lifesavers for us and him. Totally great.

Had a lot of great training tips and explained training theory in great depth. Great for first time dog owner.

excellent book

Absolutely fantastic book. So we'll detailed and easy to read. The author has clearly put a lot of work into this. Highly recommended for Pros and Owners alike!

This book is about double the price of other dog training books. I found it rambling and difficult to follow and gave up on it.

prompt delivery. Great book.