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How to Raise the Perfect Dog: Through Puppyhood and Beyond by Cesar Millan, Melissa Jo Peltier
elizkacz's review against another edition
4.0
While there's no step-by-step plan to follow in raising a puppy, Cesar gives good advice in how to assert ourselves in our canine family members. It is a motivational book and I find inspiration within its pages. I can even see my adult dog reacting to the changes.
smalltownbookmom's review against another edition
3.0
Helpful tips to raising a balanced puppy :) Wish I had read it sooner.
gossamer_lens's review against another edition
3.0
is my dog perfect now? NO... sadly not. But she is fun and we love her and are working on things that need to be. This book is great for new dog owners.
tawntawn's review against another edition
4.0
This is not a step by step book about how to train your puppy, its more of an overview on how to choose the right puppy for you and an introduction on Cesar Milllan's philosophy of dog psychology. I found it helpful and insightful being a first time dog owner. A step by step training guide would sure be nice, though.
dajenny's review against another edition
2.0
Eh. This was ok, I suppose, though I felt as though the first half of the book really should be titled "How to Choose the Perfect Dog". He spends an inordinate amount of time describing his process for selecting the four puppies he was going to raise as he wrote this book, and, while somewhat interesting, not everyone is starting with the (expensive!) purebred, perfect-temperament puppy.
The second half of the book had some more practical advice, but I found it too general. He states things in a matter-of-fact, "if you do this, then your dog will respond like this" kind of way, with no kind of advice on how to handle things if your dog does something different.
The amount of time, energy, and dollars he expects the average person to spend on their dog seemed extreme to me as well. We take good care of our puppy and we give him the attention he needs, but at the end of the day, he is a dog, not a person. Cesar talks about building agility courses or obstacle courses in the backyard. A few times, he says that no medical bill is too high when it comes to the well-being of our dogs. At one point, he says something to the effect of "the one moral outrage is that there are so many unwanted dogs" (I returned the book to the library, so I can't give the exact quote), and another time he compares raising a dog to raising a kid (though he does admit that parenting is the more difficult of the two tasks). I know this mindset is held by many dog-people, and I probably should expect it from somebody who makes his living the way Cesar does, but it doesn't fit with our family or lifestyle.
The second half of the book had some more practical advice, but I found it too general. He states things in a matter-of-fact, "if you do this, then your dog will respond like this" kind of way, with no kind of advice on how to handle things if your dog does something different.
The amount of time, energy, and dollars he expects the average person to spend on their dog seemed extreme to me as well. We take good care of our puppy and we give him the attention he needs, but at the end of the day, he is a dog, not a person. Cesar talks about building agility courses or obstacle courses in the backyard. A few times, he says that no medical bill is too high when it comes to the well-being of our dogs. At one point, he says something to the effect of "the one moral outrage is that there are so many unwanted dogs" (I returned the book to the library, so I can't give the exact quote), and another time he compares raising a dog to raising a kid (though he does admit that parenting is the more difficult of the two tasks). I know this mindset is held by many dog-people, and I probably should expect it from somebody who makes his living the way Cesar does, but it doesn't fit with our family or lifestyle.
littlebookontheprairie's review against another edition
5.0
This book was exactly what I was looking for. It was everything I needed to learn/know and more.
pottsmonica's review against another edition
3.0
I'm not sure about his theories, but some of his advise sounded good, and this was an easy, informative read.
megpie0702's review against another edition
4.0
Good resource for training.
I’ve always found Ceaser to be impressive with how he trains his dogs and they fully respect him. I learned many tricks during this book, but I do feel like what he writes makes it sound very easy to completely control the situations, and it isn’t. Some of that frustrated me while reading. Overall, I found this book helpful.
I’ve always found Ceaser to be impressive with how he trains his dogs and they fully respect him. I learned many tricks during this book, but I do feel like what he writes makes it sound very easy to completely control the situations, and it isn’t. Some of that frustrated me while reading. Overall, I found this book helpful.