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149 reviews for:
Zak George's Dog Training Revolution: The Complete Guide to Raising the Perfect Pet with Love
Dina Roth Port, Zak George
4.12 AVERAGE
149 reviews for:
Zak George's Dog Training Revolution: The Complete Guide to Raising the Perfect Pet with Love
Dina Roth Port, Zak George
4.12 AVERAGE
Great book to read especially for beginners! Great to have the audio book version as well. Examples are great too! I like to refer reference this book.
informative
Super informative book for any new dog owner!
hopeful
informative
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
Required reading for anyone with a dog of any age!
Very informative and clear. Can’t wait to put these lessons to full use. The YouTube videos are a great supplement to the content in the book as well.
I find Zak’s training videos to be incredibly helpful, so I wanted to have a print copy to consult for reference. This way I don’t have to scroll through a bunch of videos to find the moment I’m looking for. I think his training philosophy is fantastic and his suggestions very practical, and look forward to trying them out when we get our next dog.
slow-paced
I feel I should preface this with "I am a force free trainer" as I am aware the author is in a lot of internet fights and I don't want my review mistaken as part of that.
I read this book because I see it recommended all that time, but I have also seen the author's videos (so much flooding of the dogs) and I was hoping that perhaps it was a case of "Do As I Say Not As I Do" and the book would prove better than his videos. It did not - the methods described within are not modern day positive reinforcement methods and I found his approach very outdated, coercive and structured around compliance. This book is regressive not revolutionary. The methods within are based on negative punishment, nagging and compliance.
The first 119 pages weren't bad and the book was floating around 3-3.5 stars.
I liked the names of his dogs and thought it was interesting that he came from the"trick dog to dog trainer pipeline". I was surprised to see no references to any certifications as part of becoming a professional dog trainer. This lack of external learning explains a LOT of the problems I had with the book. This is clearly a self-taught dog trainer who never recieved a solid foundation in the training methods he claims to be using.
I like how when discussing potential homes he did not forbid people in apartments, families with children or those who work full time from having dogs - instead he speaks about ways to make it work and went into a nice bit of detail.
I found the section on the different sources of dogs (breeders, rescues, puppies, adults) to be pretty reasonable as it went over both options and didn't try to shame either. I found his claims that breeds did not matter as much as the individual dog because it is both true and not true. More respect could have been given to the importance of considering breed traits and not just energy levels (which lead into his obsession with exercise as the solution to most things)
There was one particular paragraph in choosing a puppy where he talks about their eyes and body language that I thought was quite well done.
The bringing them home, the socialising section and the mythbusting sections were done well enough, nothing mindblowing but nothing particularly negative. Very stock standard sections of the book.
That was the end of the 3.5 star content.
He harped on about his youtube follower account way too much, as if social media influence is a measure of the quality of dog training? Still a lack of qualifications mentioned, I'm not even sure he's ever taken any kind of professional lesson on r+ which would explain why he is so compulsive and forceful. The website listed in the book does not exist.
The book started to wobble in the training principles sections, where in "consistency" he talks about forcing responses and never letting a dog not respond. “You have made a request now see it through and make sure you get the result you want” is the exact words he uses in an example about recall. He mistakes the TRAINER being consistent in r+ with consistent compliance from the dog. He does not once talk about REASONS a dog might not respond: exercise too difficult, dog too distracted, dog genuinely didn't hear, dog is feeling unwell or experience an emotion preventing a response. Instead he just tells you to force compliance from the dog - including using a lead to make the dog come.
"Yes and No Training" - a main tenant of Zak George's method is the No Reward Marker, a method that uses Negative Punishment. Balanced trainers pair the NRM with a collar correction, Zak pairs with with witholding a reward or access to something. Modern day r+ trainers do not use a NRM, it is considered outdated because it relies on forcing the dog to respond via coercion, builds frustration, raises stress levels and is just all around a clumsy method of forcing the dog to comply. If ZG had taken some professional r+ dog training courses I would hope his entire methodology wouldn't rely on this! Later on in the book he has training set ups around "stealing" that rely on setting the dog up to fail so that he may withold the item the dog wants.
He uses an outdated approach to leave it training - relying on negative punishment and extinction - instead of a modern day r+ approach that uses errorless training. Which is an instantly successful method.
In a different book by a balanced trainer who falsely advertised their book as r+, I said in my review something like "If you need a lead to train recall in an empty room with a puppy, you should not be writing books on dog training". That stands for this book too. The lead is there because he will use it to force a response to ensure compliance out of a dog.
Step 1 of teaching sit uses his NRM correction. This is a dog that does not know sit, and he is advocating for corrections at step 1. I have met balanced trainers who use punishment tools that are more kind and considerate than this. Set the dog up to succeed! Do not nag failure! At this point the book plummeted to a 1 star.
We have teaching dogs to not rush doors by closing doors in their faces. Rather than using a lure to reset the dog and start over at an easier level.
I'd give negative stars in the lead walking section if I could. Zak George's lead walking method consists of marching back and forth outside the house and when the dog starts pulling or "even seems like she is going to" to say No and suddenly stop walking (so the dog administers a self correction from the sudden stop!). You are then advised to abruptly change directions (which would administer another lead correction from the lack of warning to the dog!). Bloody awful method of lead walking when we have r+ methods such as the circle method, positive-lead-pressure-training, BAT leash skills, Grisha Stewart's lead handling youtube series if videos are your thing.
A sticking point but he claims head collars are humane but prong collars are not. They both function the same way (physical discomfort when the dog pulls or moves fast), they both have similar side effects (neck/head injury when jerked harshly or improperly fitted) and they are both constantly affecting the dog (requiring no handler input). Why he is okay with the former but not the latter?
Hilarious moment when it talks about authentic positive trainers, and trainers who only pay lip service to r+ methods. Considering the sheer amount of compulsion happening in this book. Although I do suspect a lot of this is his utter lack of education and I assume he thinks, because he wrote this book, that he knows all he needs to know about r+ not realising how out of date his methods are! Sure in 2005 he would probably count as an r+ trainer. But not in 2016 when this was published and especially not in 2024 when I am reviewing this and keep seeing it recommended in r+ groups.
The behavioral section of the book is completely lacking in solutions and not once does he recommend r+ specialists for each of the behaviors. He blames behavioural problems on exercise. i neglected to mention that throughout this entire book he harps on about exercise as the solution to nearly everything. It reminded me of Cesar Milan and making a dog convenient by simply making them tired and never addressing their underlying needs or emotions.
His solution to reactivity was just to recommend his god awful lead walking exercise. Nothing about behavioural modification, thresholds, speaking to a vet behaviourist, pattern games, counter conditioning (i dont think he knows what this is? he didn't mention it once)....nothing.
I would give negative stars if I could for his judgement about behavioural medication and that everything should be resolved with training except in cases of self harm. Behavioural medication is not an item of last resort and is to be used in conjunction with training. Behavioural medication is used to improve quality of life and increase a dog's ability to cope while learning. This is also a topic that is outside of his lane as a social media influencer. If he had taken any kind of certification to give himself professional dog trainer skillets and ensure his foundation was up to scratch, I'm sure this section would be much more understanding and sympathetic.
For Separation Anxiety he offered solutions that would be far more likely to make a dog worse. Separation distress is a behavioural emergency. I'd recommend looking into the authors Julie Naismith or Malena DeMartini.
His resource guarding section starts out positive for a second then switches to compulsive games around taking the food bowl and making the dog accept it. Then setting them up to fail situations so he can body block them and administer his NRM correction. No understanding of how to build the positive bank and how to handle a genuine resource guarding method using reward placement and methods. It is yet another exercise built around compliance.
His aggression section was thank god completely meaningless and didn't talk about training, just waffled on about how dominance has been debunked.
and on a design level, I found the write style pretty standard but the complete lack of diagrams to illustrate his points made it a painful read.
Zak George's methods and book reminded me of balanced trainers who claim to be r+ first but as soon as something isn't correct they resort to force (something Zak himself brought up as a negative of their methods despite taking this exact approach himself!).
Zak's forceful methods is primarily psychological force and removing choices, but he dips into using the lead to force responses and apply corrections (carefully worded not to appear as such). His main quadrant is negative punishment through NRMs to force a desired response and he never takes into consideration the dog's perspective or a more holistic approach to have the enthusiastic cooperation of the dog. It is all built around compliance using coercion.
I read this book because I see it recommended all that time, but I have also seen the author's videos (so much flooding of the dogs) and I was hoping that perhaps it was a case of "Do As I Say Not As I Do" and the book would prove better than his videos. It did not - the methods described within are not modern day positive reinforcement methods and I found his approach very outdated, coercive and structured around compliance. This book is regressive not revolutionary. The methods within are based on negative punishment, nagging and compliance.
The first 119 pages weren't bad and the book was floating around 3-3.5 stars.
I liked the names of his dogs and thought it was interesting that he came from the"trick dog to dog trainer pipeline". I was surprised to see no references to any certifications as part of becoming a professional dog trainer. This lack of external learning explains a LOT of the problems I had with the book. This is clearly a self-taught dog trainer who never recieved a solid foundation in the training methods he claims to be using.
I like how when discussing potential homes he did not forbid people in apartments, families with children or those who work full time from having dogs - instead he speaks about ways to make it work and went into a nice bit of detail.
I found the section on the different sources of dogs (breeders, rescues, puppies, adults) to be pretty reasonable as it went over both options and didn't try to shame either. I found his claims that breeds did not matter as much as the individual dog because it is both true and not true. More respect could have been given to the importance of considering breed traits and not just energy levels (which lead into his obsession with exercise as the solution to most things)
There was one particular paragraph in choosing a puppy where he talks about their eyes and body language that I thought was quite well done.
The bringing them home, the socialising section and the mythbusting sections were done well enough, nothing mindblowing but nothing particularly negative. Very stock standard sections of the book.
That was the end of the 3.5 star content.
He harped on about his youtube follower account way too much, as if social media influence is a measure of the quality of dog training? Still a lack of qualifications mentioned, I'm not even sure he's ever taken any kind of professional lesson on r+ which would explain why he is so compulsive and forceful. The website listed in the book does not exist.
The book started to wobble in the training principles sections, where in "consistency" he talks about forcing responses and never letting a dog not respond. “You have made a request now see it through and make sure you get the result you want” is the exact words he uses in an example about recall. He mistakes the TRAINER being consistent in r+ with consistent compliance from the dog. He does not once talk about REASONS a dog might not respond: exercise too difficult, dog too distracted, dog genuinely didn't hear, dog is feeling unwell or experience an emotion preventing a response. Instead he just tells you to force compliance from the dog - including using a lead to make the dog come.
"Yes and No Training" - a main tenant of Zak George's method is the No Reward Marker, a method that uses Negative Punishment. Balanced trainers pair the NRM with a collar correction, Zak pairs with with witholding a reward or access to something. Modern day r+ trainers do not use a NRM, it is considered outdated because it relies on forcing the dog to respond via coercion, builds frustration, raises stress levels and is just all around a clumsy method of forcing the dog to comply. If ZG had taken some professional r+ dog training courses I would hope his entire methodology wouldn't rely on this! Later on in the book he has training set ups around "stealing" that rely on setting the dog up to fail so that he may withold the item the dog wants.
He uses an outdated approach to leave it training - relying on negative punishment and extinction - instead of a modern day r+ approach that uses errorless training. Which is an instantly successful method.
In a different book by a balanced trainer who falsely advertised their book as r+, I said in my review something like "If you need a lead to train recall in an empty room with a puppy, you should not be writing books on dog training". That stands for this book too. The lead is there because he will use it to force a response to ensure compliance out of a dog.
Step 1 of teaching sit uses his NRM correction. This is a dog that does not know sit, and he is advocating for corrections at step 1. I have met balanced trainers who use punishment tools that are more kind and considerate than this. Set the dog up to succeed! Do not nag failure! At this point the book plummeted to a 1 star.
We have teaching dogs to not rush doors by closing doors in their faces. Rather than using a lure to reset the dog and start over at an easier level.
I'd give negative stars in the lead walking section if I could. Zak George's lead walking method consists of marching back and forth outside the house and when the dog starts pulling or "even seems like she is going to" to say No and suddenly stop walking (so the dog administers a self correction from the sudden stop!). You are then advised to abruptly change directions (which would administer another lead correction from the lack of warning to the dog!). Bloody awful method of lead walking when we have r+ methods such as the circle method, positive-lead-pressure-training, BAT leash skills, Grisha Stewart's lead handling youtube series if videos are your thing.
A sticking point but he claims head collars are humane but prong collars are not. They both function the same way (physical discomfort when the dog pulls or moves fast), they both have similar side effects (neck/head injury when jerked harshly or improperly fitted) and they are both constantly affecting the dog (requiring no handler input). Why he is okay with the former but not the latter?
Hilarious moment when it talks about authentic positive trainers, and trainers who only pay lip service to r+ methods. Considering the sheer amount of compulsion happening in this book. Although I do suspect a lot of this is his utter lack of education and I assume he thinks, because he wrote this book, that he knows all he needs to know about r+ not realising how out of date his methods are! Sure in 2005 he would probably count as an r+ trainer. But not in 2016 when this was published and especially not in 2024 when I am reviewing this and keep seeing it recommended in r+ groups.
The behavioral section of the book is completely lacking in solutions and not once does he recommend r+ specialists for each of the behaviors. He blames behavioural problems on exercise. i neglected to mention that throughout this entire book he harps on about exercise as the solution to nearly everything. It reminded me of Cesar Milan and making a dog convenient by simply making them tired and never addressing their underlying needs or emotions.
His solution to reactivity was just to recommend his god awful lead walking exercise. Nothing about behavioural modification, thresholds, speaking to a vet behaviourist, pattern games, counter conditioning (i dont think he knows what this is? he didn't mention it once)....nothing.
I would give negative stars if I could for his judgement about behavioural medication and that everything should be resolved with training except in cases of self harm. Behavioural medication is not an item of last resort and is to be used in conjunction with training. Behavioural medication is used to improve quality of life and increase a dog's ability to cope while learning. This is also a topic that is outside of his lane as a social media influencer. If he had taken any kind of certification to give himself professional dog trainer skillets and ensure his foundation was up to scratch, I'm sure this section would be much more understanding and sympathetic.
For Separation Anxiety he offered solutions that would be far more likely to make a dog worse. Separation distress is a behavioural emergency. I'd recommend looking into the authors Julie Naismith or Malena DeMartini.
His resource guarding section starts out positive for a second then switches to compulsive games around taking the food bowl and making the dog accept it. Then setting them up to fail situations so he can body block them and administer his NRM correction. No understanding of how to build the positive bank and how to handle a genuine resource guarding method using reward placement and methods. It is yet another exercise built around compliance.
His aggression section was thank god completely meaningless and didn't talk about training, just waffled on about how dominance has been debunked.
and on a design level, I found the write style pretty standard but the complete lack of diagrams to illustrate his points made it a painful read.
Zak George's methods and book reminded me of balanced trainers who claim to be r+ first but as soon as something isn't correct they resort to force (something Zak himself brought up as a negative of their methods despite taking this exact approach himself!).
Zak's forceful methods is primarily psychological force and removing choices, but he dips into using the lead to force responses and apply corrections (carefully worded not to appear as such). His main quadrant is negative punishment through NRMs to force a desired response and he never takes into consideration the dog's perspective or a more holistic approach to have the enthusiastic cooperation of the dog. It is all built around compliance using coercion.
Multiple times, the way he phrased things reminded me of Cesar Milan, if Cesar were to stop using punishment tools one day but otherwise remain unchanged in his approach to training.
fast-paced
I read this book as a first time dog owner and it has been super helpful with taking care of and training my new pup. I love Zak's videos (they helped me calm down during my dog's first week home when I had no idea what I was doing and had new dog anxiety) and the book was just as easy going yet informative. I've filled it with tons of sticky notes and know it's going to be a number one resource as a dog owner.
informative
medium-paced
Zach George's Dog Training Revolution was such a fun and helpful read! As a new puppy parent, it gave me solid guidance while encouraging me to trust my instincts. I loved how it focused on gentle dog parenting and broke down why dominance-style training just doesn’t work. Super informative and enjoyable!