The Dog Whisperer: Beginning and Intermediate Dog Training

I've never had a Dog before, so I've been trying to learn read and watch as much as I can about raising well behaved Puppy.I'm halfway through Mr. Owens' book which is an excelent read, BTW I highly reccomend it. But I have mixed feelings on this DVD's.It certainly "shows" you phisically how you should perform in front of your dog to accomplish specific behaviors; watching this is always helpful. The DVD is divided in chapters that each teach a specific behavior (sit, come, leave it, etc) each lasting probably 5 minutes. There is not a "play all" button, so at the end of each behavior you have to select the next behavior from the menu to keep watching... kind of annoying.All excersices are very biased in the sense that all dogs perform as expected. You only see what happens when the dog performs as expected. On occasions the dog fails and they say to go back and restart where the dog was successful, but they never show or teach you what to do if the dog wanders away, or gets overexcited or losses interest, etc etc.At the end of each behavior chapter they recap what you have learned, but they are the same reccomendations for every chapter, so after watching a couple, it becomes repetitive (that may be the intention) and end up being boring.I would like to see a new release of the DVD with more "what to do in case your dog..." cases. I think Mr. Owens has much more to teach than the material that was chosen for this DVD. It is not his fault, he is dog trainer; not a DVD director. He should probably fire his editor and find a better one for his next DVD.In summary, I think there are more good things than bad with this DVD. If this is the first time you are training a dog, you should get this DVD... you will learn something, eventhough you could have learned a lot more if this DVD was properly done. But for 16 bucks I think it is not a bad deal.

Luckily, I read some of the other reviews before I ordered this DVD. I understood the difference between this "Dog Whisperer" and Cesar Millan. Both are excellent. This one is more for training than correcting behavior. I found it very helpful. My puppy has learned SIT, DOWN and is working on STAY (doing well)... all based on the information shown on this DVD. I also ordered clickers from Paul Owens, because he shows how to do clicker training; and they are good (and very inexpensive compared with ones from the pet stores). I recommend it. Just be aware, before you order, that this is TRAINING (as it says), not Cesar Millan-style behavior correction/rehabilitation.The only thing I thought was a little "off" was the parts of the DVD that are "from the dog's perspective". It was cute the first time I saw the first one, but it got annoying after a while. But you can just skip that part. Also, it would be good if, in the next version, Paul Owens shows some slow motion or many more repetitions so you can really get the process he's doing. Also, it seemed to me that some of the dogs he was using were not new to the task he was teaching them, but I could be wrong. Also, it would be helpful if there were more specifics to puppies. The walking he shows is with a pretty large dog and he shows giving the dog treats as he walks along. Can't exactly do that with a puppy unless I want to walk all bent over to get treats to the little guy. (Also there is a lot of info on the DVD about how to use treats successfully.)All in all, though, I give this DVD at least 4 out of 5 stars. It's helpful.

When my girlfriend and I adopted our puppy a couple weeks ago, she was already reading Cesar religiously. I don't doubt that he knows a thing or two about dogs, but what I wanted was more practical training guides so that we could take advantage of our puppy's trainability early on. After hours searching, I found that this DVD had the better reviews and decided to take a chance on it.I won't say that this DVD has all the bells and whistles, or is even laid out in the best format, because its not. However, what it lacks there, it makes up for with actual training materials. We had tried training the puppy using Milan's book with almost no success, but the video clips on the DVD had our little girl following the "sit," "stay," and "come" commands within 15 minutes. My girlfriend, who mocked me at first for getting this DVD (it is a little hokey, especially the animated short film included), now uses it every day. We have only really gone into the basics of training so far, but there is also a whole division with more advanced tricks and games to play with your dog. We are very eagerly looking forward to using that in the near future as our puppy continues to learn.

When I first watched this DVD, I thought the training described seemed too simplistic to possibly be effective. However, my mind was changed instantly when I taught my puppy "down" for the first time in about 30 seconds using Paul's techniques (seriously!). On the second try, she was down and happy about it and anxious to try it again and again. Although the production quality may not quite be at the level it could be, the teaching is so extraordinary that I would say this is a "must have" for anyone with a dog and a pulse rate. Even after formal training in a more traditional style, we've gone back and retrained our dog using Paul's methods and cannot believe how much more responsive she is and how much more fun we're having together. I HIGHLY recommend all of Paul's DVDs. His enthusiasm is infectious and his love for dogs is obvious. Don't take the simplicity and brevity of the segments to mean they are less effective. Just watch them more times so that you don't miss the details. Take it from someone who has read dozens of books on the topic and viewed many DVDs as well, there is not a better approach to training than positive reinforcement and clicker training.