Head of the pack
By: Christina Potter
Publisher: Aperture Press
Publication date: August 2017
ISSBN: 978-0997302097
Reviewed by: Ellen Feld
Revision Date: March 19, 2018
Dog trainer and author Christina Potter, in her third book in the “Chester Gigolo” series, offers a book that is a lot of fun to read and, more importantly, gives readers a lot of helpful information about dog training. dogs.
Head of the pack It is divided into sixteen chapters that examine various aspects of the world of dogs that will help you train your dog. The book begins with an introduction that shares how much dogs enjoy human companionship and how it works best when both dog and human understand each other. So how do you improve your ability to communicate with your dog? That’s what the book is about.
Right away, in the first chapter, the author offered me advice that appealed to me and made me want to read the rest of the book. “Blur the lines between playing and training, and you have a dog that will be happy to work with you at any time.” From there, go on to explain that you should be firm but not too firm. How? She uses a spaghetti noodle analogy that works perfectly to express her point of view. The chapters are quite short, most are three or four pages long, and everything is very easy to understand.
Head of the pack it is “written” by Chester Gigolo, a Berger Picard, and is an intelligent dog. Chester shares his training experience on a wide range of topics, from knowing what each breed has been bred for (and using that knowledge to select the right dog, as well as using his innate instincts to advantage when training) to how often he is what to give treats and even what kind of treats work best. And unlike many dog training manuals that offer advice in a dry and boring way, Chester is quite fun and entertaining. He animates each chapter with comments, for example, when he talks about receiving treats, “Go to the kitchen, load delicious treats, in your hands, not in your belly, and let’s get started.”
There is a lot of useful information in this book that both first-time dog owners and more advanced canine fanatics will learn from. What I particularly appreciated is that the author not only shared her views and said “it works for me, it will work for you.” Rather, it backs up its claims with research from around the world, pointing out the researchers / institutions / journals, how the tests were conducted, and the results. While I have owned dogs my entire life and like to think that I know what I do when I train, I definitely learned a lot from this book. Did you know that wagging the tail doesn’t always mean that a dog is happy? What about the grunts? For tricks, the author advises using your dog’s breed to help determine which tricks will be easiest for your dog to learn, and then continues with several real-life examples showing how different breeds react to the same situation. And speaking of tricks, chapter ten (right in the middle of the book) is dedicated to trick training. There are 25 tricks dissected in such a way that, again, it is easy to see how to teach each trick. Most are also accompanied by an image of a dog performing the trick. I “tried on dogs” several of the tricks with my dog Rocco (a dachshund / yorkie mix who is adorable but not the brightest bulb in the pack), and he was able to follow my lead and do the tricks. That in itself is worth the price of this book!
