Can anyone give me an idea as to the best books to train a 14 month GSP with a very short attention span.
I thought I was getting somewhere a few weeks ago - Oscar seemed to be very slightly calmer, but we seem to have gone backwards and his energy levels are through the roof and he's manic again.

The books I'm looking at are:
1. Chill Out Fido!: How to Calm Your Dog by Nan Kene Arthur (this one has a pic of a GSP on the front so I thought it might be a clue)
2. When Pigs Fly: Training Success with Impossible Dogs by Jane Killion
3. My Dog Pulls. What Do I Do? by Turid Rugaas
4. Don't Shoot the Dog!: The New Art of Teaching... by Karen Pryor

Would be grateful for some reviews.

Can recommend the Karen Pryor one.

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I'd also recommend The Culture Clash by Jean Donaldson.

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Both Don't Shoot The Dog and The Culture Clash are absolutely essential reading, but they might be slightly more theoretical than you want at the moment.

Of the books on your list I'd be tempted to suggest giving When Pigs Fly a go; it'll give you the basics of clicker training, but it will also show you ways in which you might be able to address your dog's high levels of distraction.

Click to Calm by Emma Parsons is another book that often gets mentioned in this context.

Your Oscar is gorgeous!

I have recently started to read click to calm and would recommend it. The book is primarily to help calm aggression/nervousness in dogs, but could just as easily be applied to calming down over excitement!

hey, bonus! :--)

yes, its one of the reasons that i *Love!* this book - it is so flexible in application, and the techniques once learned are so easily transferred to other scenarios.
for a very laid-out cookbook approach, i would use LEVELS TRAINING - see dragonflyllama.com
all my best,
--- terry

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terry pride, APDT-Aus, apdt#1827, CVA, TDF
*wolves R wolves, dogs R dogs, + primates R us.*
tmp, sept-2007

I have a similar problem with my 10 1/2 month old BC...she isnt like it always, just in certain environments...

#1 on your list - I have this book and would recommend. It has some exercises in it which you can start straight away. most are common sense, but nice to have them detailed in this way and some suggestions I hadnt thougt of.

I also have both Click to Calm (as mentioned above) and Control Unleashed by Leslie McDevitt. Both excellent books. The click to calm book, as 'bruciebonus' said, is primarily aimed at fearful/aggressive dogs, but the techniques can quite easily be used for over-excitement.

Control Unleashed was originally developed to help dogs to be calm in the performance dog sport environment (like agility or flyball etc) but I have found this to be so useful - I only wish I had got it earlier!

It is slightly wordy and I would suggest taking the time to read the first couple of chapters to set the context, but after that you can kind of dip in and out of the chapters. The nice thing is that the methods are structured like games, so the dog has fun learning them and they are all aimed at teaching self-control. I love the 'Look at That! game - it is brill.

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Thanks for all your help, I've just got to decide which to get first.