In article ,
Susan wrote:
My experience thus far is the best trainers refuse to produce books and
DVDs because books and DVDs are inferior to qualified in-person
training.

My experience has been that they don't have time or the
interest or, frankly, the charisma, but there are some
excellent training and behavior DVDs out there. I'm
particularly fond of Ian Dunbar's stuff. I like Jean
Donaldson but she really needs a crazy filter. There are
a lot of very, very good books but you're not going to find
them sorting through the mountains of stuff on amazon.com or
by asking the guy who posts with his hands down his pants
for help.

Some here say it is unwise to get anything from Sullivan and Milan.

I haven't seen anyone say that. I have seen people say it's
unwise to get the wrong things from them. I don't like the
fact that Milan frames everything around the question of
who's in charge - I think that leads to some really moronic
behavior on the part of less experienced dog owners and even
some very experienced dog owners (that meathead refugee from
AOL who apparently sees every behavior and training question
as the dog thinking it's in charge, for example).

Do any of you out there know of quality training materials *FOR NOVICES*
that I haven't seen? I'd love to know about them.

Go spend some time browsing dogwise.com, come back with
questions you might have. There's a lot of good stuff out
there. I like Burch and Bailey's "How Dogs Learn" as
foundational stuff. I don't believe that books that
basically lay out training flow charts are particularly
worthwhile - they can leave you up a creek if the dog does
something unexpected and I think they kind of discourage you
from really paying attention to the dog.

Also, I don't quite believe that there are no decent
trainers where you are. Might be true, probably isn't.
Dig a little.
--
Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis -

Prouder than ever to be a member of the reality-based community