Behavior Adjustment Training: Techniques for Dogs

I agree with reviews that say setting up the practice with someone else and their dog is not practical. However the material on reading your dog and biting thresholds is excellent and helped my dog enormously. The softer approach has been more effective.

I would not recommend this book for the common dog owner. It is written for dog trainers and reads like a science text book.
We are having trouble with resource guarding with our dog. After reading the first four chapters, I checked the index. Resource guarding is supposed to be addressed on page 231, but it’s actually Horse Training and The Evolution if BAT. Not helpful at all.

I found the book extremely useful for my reactive dog. My dog became reactive towards dogs due to a negative experience with another dog. He didn’t get hurt but the less than 10 second experience was traumatic enough for him to change and become anxious and fearful towards other dogs. In his mind, that incident concluded that all dogs are bad and a danger to him. I was already familiar with positive training methods but I turned to this book as another resource, as another tool to use for my dog. I appreciated the author’s detail about dog behavior and the reasoning behind her methods. I read the book from start to finish first and then I started implementing the methods on our daily walks. I find that practice makes perfect and changing my dog’s behavior and providing him with choices and the tools he needs to feel safe takes time and patience. There were times when my timing was off or I had to adjust the distance accordingly, or I was progressing too fast for what was comfortable for my dog. I made sure I took the time to make the adjustments as necessary. This isn’t a quick fix book or something that you see results within a day or 2 with. It takes time as you adjust and as your dog adjusts. For us, it took us over a year but he’s a much happier and far less anxious dog. He is much more confident and knows that he has the tools to adjust as necessary to keep him in the safe zone.

Grisha Stewart, MA, CPDT-KA is a dog trainer and international seminar presenter who specializes in empowerment and dog reactivity. Her book Behavior Adjustment Training 2.0 is a great guide to reactive behavior in dogs. Within this book she shares how her personal experience with her own dog, Peanut, shaped her understanding of how dogs see their world. Grisha’s perspectives in this book gives tactical tools to help you as both the owner or as a trainer that is dealing with reactive behavior in dogs. Grisha gives you step by step guides to show you how to empower the dog to make choices that will help them acclimate to the world around them. I encourage you to really soak in every page of this book in order to discover all the enlightening gems on dog behavior. MA, CPDT-KA is a dog trainer and international seminar presenter who specializes in empowerment and dog reactivity

Brand new book, easy to follow.

Genial, sowohl inhaltlich als auch vom Aufbau. Eins der besten Bücher, dass ich je über Hundeerziehung gelesen habe. Die dort beschriebenen Maßnahmen haben meiner Schäferhündin extrem besser geholfen als die üblichen Ratschläge. Wer nach einem Weg sucht, mit seinem Hund auf nicht aversive Weise zu arbeiten und Hundebegnungen positiv zu gestalten, dem sei dieses Buch ans Herz gelegt. Schade, dass es in Deutschland kaum Hubdetrainer gibt, die BAT kennen bzw. danach arbeiten.

Great book, really helps you understand what your dog is going through and how to help him. Some great photo charts in there. Her protocol is a lot of work to actually do to get your dog less reactive, but it works. You’ll likely need to hire a professional still to help you or at least have another person or 2 help. Quite the commitment to carry through this plan but even if you’re not able to dedicate this amount of time/effort, it still helps you understand why your dog is reactive. She is also in the school of thought of positive reinforcement 🙂