There is no one effective, foolproof method of training your dog. So how do you know which method is best? Do you consult an academically trained behaviorist, an obedience trainer, or your uncle who has had dogs all his life? There are several points the training community can agree on. First, dogs are social animals. They were born and bred to serve and please humans. Their lives are forever tied to ours. Second, the social rules that dogs live by are different from ours... and simpler. Dogs need to adjust their native social rules to align better with ours.

Quite a lot of training happens simply through the dog observing the humans around it. Some dogs, however, respect their social ranking in the home but don't know how to fill it. And some dogs find themselves in a role that doesn't fit their personality or circumstance. This book will focus on these two groups.

Dominance and punishment have no part to play in modern dog handling. Realistically, though, can a dog become integrated solely through receiving positive rewards? Positive reinforcement plays a major role, and consequences play a supporting role in creating a balance that works. With this training method, the consequences do nothing more than making a dog uncomfortable. Every living being seeks to retreat from discomfort. That is what enables the dog to voluntarily change its behavior. In short, the handler's job is not to force the better behavior; it is to make the unwanted behavior uncomfortable so that the dog decides to move to a new behavior as a Willing Partner.