I’m a Swedish dog trainer and author who love training dogs in a fun, positive, and force-free way. I got my first Golden retriever in 2005 and learnt a lot about dog training and especially clicker training. When a friend gave me a dummy I really started to enjoy gun dog training and realized that there weren’t many people who trained gun dogs in a force-free way so I took all my knowledge from my reward-based obedience training and translated it into gun dog training, discussed training methods with a lot of people, held classes in force-free gun dog training and eventually collected all my thoughts and training advice into a book together with my friend Lena Gunnarsson.
I wrote...
Retrieving for All Occasions
By
Elsa Blomster,
Lena Gunnarsson
What is my book about?
The book is about force free gun dog training. However, it’s not just for gun dogs, any pet dog could find lots of useful ideas on recall, stopping at a distance, walking to heel and training principles that can be used no matter what you want to teach your dog. For people interested in gun dog training you’ll of course also find lots of training advice on how to teach your dog a great delivery to hand, casting, marked retrieves, and so on.
Who wouldn’t want to be able to stop their dog 100 meters away – knowing that the dog stops or comes back because it knows that it is more worthwhile to be with their handler than to run off on their own?
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The Books I Picked & Why
Don't Shoot the Dog: The Art of Teaching and Training
By
Karen Pryor
Why this book?
This book summarizes how both dogs, humans, and other species learn in a very understandable and interesting way. It’s a great book to start with no matter what type of training you want to do with your dog. I’d even say it’s a book for everyone to read, even if they don’t have dogs since several of the examples in the book focuses on human behavior – how to get rid of unwanted behavior, from sloppy roommates to barking dogs, training Olympic teams and how to buy gifts and give compliments.
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Agility Right from the Start
By
Eva Bertilsson,
Emelie Johnson Vegh
Why this book?
If you want to train and compete in agility, this is the book for you. Using positive, reward-based methods the authors teach you how to teach your dog everything it needs to know when it comes to agility. And of course, you’ll also learn lots of training techniques that you can use to teach your dog other things as well.
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Animal Assisted Interventions: Professionals Embrace the Power of the Dog
By
Sara Karlberg,
Helena Eriksson
Why this book?
This book moved me to tears after just reading a couple of pages. The authors describe lots of cases where dogs (and their handlers) have helped people in their lives – calming students, giving elderly people hope, and making them want to do things again. If you want to work together with your dog and help other people in f ex schools, old age care centers, etc. this is a great book. It takes you through the basics of what the dog needs to know, how to teach it, and lots of things to think about when you choose a dog trainer to help you educate your dog.
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The New Click to Calm: Solutions for All Dogs in a Challenging World
By
Emma Parsons
Why this book?
This book has saved and helped so many dogs. Having a reactive or aggressive dog is very difficult, in this book you’ll get lots of training advice on how to help your dog. Your dog doesn’t have to have severe issues for you to find this book helpful – it’s so much easier to start training before the problem has escalated. You’ll get advice on calmly escorting your dog away before trouble arises, stopping resource guarding (ex-food guarding), and dealing with dogs barking at the door.
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Mission Control: Training the High Drive Dog
By
Jane Ardern
Why this book?
Training high drive, energetic dogs is a lot of fun, but also challenging. In this book, you get advice on how to channel that energy into the training and behavior you want, no matter what type of training you’re interested in: gun dog work, agility, basic obedience, etc. You’ll learn how to teach your dog to be steady, stop barking and spinning when he gets frustrated and focus on you. All of the course uses reward-based, positive methods.
