Control Unleashed: The Puppy Program

by Leslie McDevitt

Control The Puppy Program Control The Puppy Program

Genres: Dogs, Nonfiction, Reference

292 pages, Paperback

Published September 1, 2015

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aaaah, I love CU so much! I just reread this puppy book because I'm hoping to have my own puppy soon. The first time I opened it was last year when Faith and I had just had an abysmal JWW run at a local trial, and I was sitting in the car with her, trying not to cry, while we waited for Standard. I ended up in tears (but not the I'm-a-crap-handler-and-my-dog-is-a-crap-dog ones that had been threatening) because right on the first few pages, Leslie McDevitt told me exactly what I needed to hear: that as owners, trainers, and handlers, we need to love, honor, and appreciate our dogs for who they are. This whole book continually makes me feel better about my dog and more connected to the way her mind works.

This puppy program has some fantastic advice and games for puppies (and adult dogs, as Faith could tell you) that I can't wait to try out with a puppy. I adore Leslie's writing style and the anecdotes she shares about her own dogs and her students' dogs to illustrate the games. If you have a dog, read this book!

[Sher · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the most interesting dog training book I have ever read. It gets a 5, because the woman has some brilliant ideas and quite novel approaches to dog training. The organizational structure of the book is odd. It begins with explaining so many theories and doesn't put the theories into practice until later in the book, so I had to reference back and forth --it wasn't a book that reads well beginning to end- though I did it this way. The book is for training of performance dogs --such as frisbee dogs or agility dogs, and the book is for puppies. The most fascinating technique in the book is based on what is called the Premark principle-- if you call an animal away from something it wants but you let it return to what it wants, then it will recall very swiftly and reliably-- just because some of the time it gets to go right back to what it was doing. It works. She was sections on how to calm the puppy with massage, look aways, and zen. Leave it training. Training to place. Down. How to meet strangers. The brilliant approach is to learn how to read your puppy and construct a special program just for your pup. Her observations on problems because of puppy arousal levels was very helpful. If you have trained dogs before, you will love these new ideas. If you haven't , you and your puppy will get some fabulous techniques and ideas from this book!

[Elle Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

dog mom things

[Hugo's Mom · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are a lot of good tips in Control Unleashed: The Puppy Program, but unfortunately it's so horribly organized it's hard to have the patience to find them. McDevitt is constantly referencing later chapters to the point that you wonder why she didn't change the layout so that cross references aren't necessary. The first 10 chapters easily are a muddy introduction. Honestly this type of book just drives me back to tried and true Don't Shoot the Dog. I was hoping for help to start a field dog, but I'm going to need to keep looking elsewhere I think. I need a decoder ring to pull things together from this book. Perhaps I could cut the spine and reorganize it myself, but it wasn't that great and I'm not that devoted.

[Aggis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book - focuses on mostly preventative games

The layout is odd at times in the way the book itself is laid out but the information is so useful that I’m not removing a star

[ThDogs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Where the other book was dense and technical and aimed at instructors, this book was easily understood and aimed at performance puppy owners. It was still dense, there is a LOT of information covered in this book but it is all split up into handy dandy chapters to quickly flick back to if you need a refresher.

I think this may be the first time I have read a book so narrowly focused on performance puppies. It was an interesting read as someone who has performance dogs but has never had a performance PUPPY (one day?).

I much prefer the way this book is written as the jargon is minimal, the explanations detailed yet deceptively simple and straight foreward. I love the subtle high quality moments of marking head turns instead of full body turns, the importance of subtle cues, the examples on how to tailor an exercise differently in response to different dog personality types.

i did miss the way the original CU had things split up by "lesson one" (although i understand this runs the risk of making the flexible training prescriptive) and I wish the contents had a section which just listed the games much like the original CU.

Improving on the original CU, the photos and examples of each exercise were much clearer to follow along with a lot less assumed knowledge. You don't know what foundational skill you are missing until you are taught it after all.

There is one chapter, the prevention of reactivity chapter, which ended up making me cry. The example scenario hit a little too close to home with the pushy instructor in a position of power forcing you to train in ways you do not want to train. However this did lead to a nice conversation with Leslie where she clarified that if she were to write this section today, she would start by empowering people to know that they can leave. No need to stick around to prove ourselves or to socialise our dogs, but to be able to leave and still get a performance dog.

I liked the small ring prep details around lead removals and the box game, I didn't quite understand this game in the original CU but reading it again in puppy CU - I get it out. In Australia we don't use this sort of fencing so some of the environmental cue is lost but I can still see it as a beneficial mobile training space.

All up, this was also a very enjoyable book. Lots of overlap with the original CU and yet at the same time its a different perspective and angle with additional information relating exclusively to puppies (or brand new rescue dogs).

This is making it very hard to decide which one to buy for my personal reference library...

[Danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone getting a puppy should start reading this book immediately. Leslie outlines how to raise a well-rounded pup through engaging activities that set the stage for more of the behaviors you want to see from your puppy. Her methods are rewards based and founded in research on how dogs learn. Follow the advice of this book and you will have a great family dog in your life, better than you could ever imagine. Also, most of these games and activities can still be applicable to older dogs you don't have to miss out even if you don't have a puppy!

[Mari · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few interesting and new ideas I haven't seen in other dog training books. But overall, repetitive information and is quite wordy.

[Kris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started to read this book because I have a fairly difficult australian shepherd puppy who needs more than the typical puppy training, and this book came highly recommended.

People should realize that Leslie McDevitt is a dog trainer of the highest level, and this book is more about training dogs who do agility and other forms of show/work. She has written a previous book where she talks about her "control unleashed" program, and so she refers to that quite a bit. She also does this thing where she talks about various parts of puppy training early on, but refers to various specific games and training tools that are only listed toward the end of the book. I found this somewhat of an odd way to do things, but it worked out well enough.

There are definite things that I have learned in this book that I haven't learned in any other situation. I do feel like I will be able to use the ideas to help train our dog in a better way than I have so far, even if we don't plan to go as far as agility training (at least, for show, etc.). I totally enjoyed the case studies of a variety of dog issues concerning why a certain dog would behave in a certain way, and how training helped when you truly understand the "why" of the dogs behavior.

[Kristen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book! I still have a lot I need and want to work on with both of my pups! McDevitt explains things very clearly and doesn't make you feel guilty about any issues you may be having with your pup. My favorite quote from the book: "I am always telling students with Border Collies that don't care much for other dogs, it's so common for Border Collies to not like other dogs, especially females, that we even have a name for it--BCBS (Border Collie Bitch Syndrome). And we didn't get these dogs for them to have a fabulous time playing with other dogs, did we? We got them because we like the breed and it suits our competition needs well."

[Nadeen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved Control Unleashed for its principals and insights but, quite honestly, it took some time to get through it. This new Puppy version is much better written and contains equally valuable information. I finished it just when my new puppy arrived and I am rereading a few chapters as we speak.