Training of thousands of puppies over many years!
Educating Alice is the only puppy book available in the UK that is based on the real-life training of a real puppy. All the others I’ve read are based on an invented, composite puppy. Alice is real, and the success in raising her is evident even more in her daily life than in the qualifications earned and the trophies won. The Education of Alice was founded on the lessons learned during the training of thousands of puppies over many years.
By the age of 4 years, Alice achieved the highest levels of working dog in the UK having qualified Companion Dog Excellent-CD Ex, Utility Dog Excellent-UD Ex, Working Dog Excellent-WD Ex, and Tracking Dog Excellent-TD Ex and also obtained her first Expert Tracking Dog diploma from the UK Tracking Dog Association.
Educating Alice
Why did I write a book on puppy training?
Because after 37 years of training dogs and 30 odd years training people to train their own puppies it was abundantly obvious that someone had to write a comprehensive one. All the books already on the market started the narrative far too late. For instance, none discussed whether you should get a puppy in the first place, what breed of puppy is best suited to your family circumstances and lifestyle, and how and where to source a well-bred, healthy puppy.
As a result of this missing information, people often go into puppy ownership without a clear idea of the true cost of owning a puppy in the first year and throughout its life. The financial outlay is significant and goes way beyond feeding and vet bills…the investment in time is even more significant.
There are many popular books on raising a puppy which are heavy in colour pictures and are happy to provide you with a lot of general information but are incredibly light in providing any detailed information.
What qualifies me to write a puppy training book?
37 years of dog training experience as a professional handler/trainer – 30 training owners and their puppies in classes – 20 years dealing with behavioural problems in dogs (almost all of which could have been avoided by educating the puppy!) – 17 years training puppies in the KC Good Citizen Dog Scheme – A degree in Canine Behaviour and Training – Setting up and heading the UK Defence Animal Centre’s Military Working Dog Puppy Development Programme. I think these things testify to a reasonable level of expertise.
But please, before purchasing any puppy book, research the author’s credentials and their experience training puppies. Then check when they last did any hands-on training with puppies. My most recent experience was gained two hours ago with the last of 50 puppies trained this week. This has been pretty much the same most weekends since 2001. That’s a lot of puppies and a lot of experience.
Educating Alice
Why should I buy Educating Alice rather than a different book?
I won’t claim that you only need one book to give you a good knowledge of raising a puppy; in fact, I would advise against it. Buying two or three books and reading them thoroughly is the sensible thing to do and will give you slightly different views on training your puppy.
No book is perfect, but at the end of your reading, I am confident that Educating Alice will have given you a vast amount of important information that the others don’t even mention and will become the book that you regularly refer to whilst educating your own puppy.
The choice is yours. Choose wisely; there’s a great deal at stake.
About
The Importance of Puppy Training Classes
Can you just buy Educating Alice and not bother with training classes? I wouldn’t advise that. Educating Alice gives you all the necessary information to train your puppy, but joining a reputable training class, run by a skilled, experienced trainer is an essential part of developing a well-balanced, confident, happy pup.
As you’ve guessed, this book sets out the pros and cons of different training schemes and training establishments. It also explains the points to be considered when selecting a trainer. Yet more things no other puppy book does.
There is no way I can train every puppy. But there are hundreds of trainers out there, some excellent, some good, some average, and some downright incompetent. Reading Educating Alice will help you choose the right trainer and training school.
35 Years of Experience
Our Youtube Channel
You can follow Alice’s training and the training of Alice’s pups, Jellybean, Peanut, and Ajax on the Educating Alice YouTube Channel.
She has produced an outstanding litter of puppies who are now 7 months old and are progressing well in their working and life skills training. You can follow Alice, Jellybean, and Peanut on Alice’s YouTube channel!