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Dog Book Connection

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Here's a dog training tip from Sally's Angels

Wait is a life saver. Your pooch's life. When a dog learns to wait, then the chances of the dog's running out the front door and/or into the street become less. Practice this command everywhere. Wait for service dogs means don't cross this threshold or line. Wait in a room and don't come into the next, wait in the house while you go outside and leave the front door open, wait at the curb and don't go into the street, etc. For someone in a wheelchair, the dog needs to wait often.

Wait until the chair goes thorough the door first and then you are commanded to follow. Wait at the curb. Wait in the car, etc. Wait to be fed. Wait is a wonderful command for any dog owner.

 How do I train, you ask? Easy. Always use wait in your daily tasks. When you go on walks say wait when you come to a curb or a spot in the road where there needs to be caution. Say the command a few feet before you are ready to stop, then stop and make the dog stop. Do not use a flex leash to train on this one! A short training leash please. In public, I say "Wait" step, step, stop. "Good wait." "Sit." "Good Boy." (I usually have the dog sit at curbs for safety reasons while he is waiting). Have the dog at your side when you are walking in public.

Practice wait at the door or room by saying "wait" then walk away. Put the dog back when he starts to follow you across the threshold, and say "no" or "don't." Start slow. Have the dog wait at a threshold only for a few seconds at first before you say "Good Wait." Then, release the dog. The command for releasing the dog is "Release." But you could say anything, as long as it is consistent.

Repeat, repeat, repeat. This where a leash is the best training tool you have IN THE HOUSE. Periodically put the pooch on his/her leash in the house, and as you walk thorough a doorway say wait. You go through the doorway and the dog stays. Then release the dog to follow you with lots of hugs and pets. If you do it as part of your day, s/he will learn it fast. Let's say someone comes to your front door. Talk to the person on your porch and have your dog wait on the house side of the threshold (the door is open). Praise your dog off and on while s/he is waiting at the door. "Good wait. Good wait." Release your dog when you want him/her to leave the area. The more you do it, the longer s/he will learn to wait.

Wait is not a stay command. Stay is one spot. When you are confident that the dog knows wait then try a flexi-leash and teach him to wait when he is farther away from you.

 
 
 

About these reviews

You may be wondering why the reviews here are any different from the hundreds of "reviews" posted online. Notice the quotation marks?

I've been reviewing books for sites like Amazon for many years now, and it dismays me that Amazon found it necessary to post a minimum word count for reviews. It further dismays me that it's only 20 words. If that's all you have to say about a book, why bother?

And why waste everyone else's time with such drivel? As a reader of such reviews, I feel like I am being told that I do not matter. The flippancy of people who write these terse "reviews" is insulting to the authors also, I would suspect.

This sound bite blathering taking the place of any actual communication is increasingly a problem in our mindless, blog-posting Webosphere. Sadly, Google rewards such pointlessness as "content" so we just get more if this inanity.

The reviews I do will, contrary to emerging trends, actually tell you about the book. I always got an "A" on a book review I did as a kid (that's how I remember it anyhow, and it's my story so I'm sticking to it). A book review contains certain elements and has a logical structure. It informs the reader about the book.

A book review may also tell the reader whether the reviewer liked it, but revealing a reviewer's personal taste is not necessary for an informative book review.

About your reviewer

  • Books are a passion of mine. I read dozens of them each year, plus I listen to audio books.
  • Most of my "reading diet" consists of nonfiction. I think life is too short to use your limited reading time on material that has little or not substance. That leads into my next point...
  • In 1990, I stopped watching television. I have not missed it. At all.
  • I was first published as a preteen. I wrote an essay, and my teacher submitted it to the local paper.
  • For six years, I worked as an editor for a trade publication. I left that job in 2002, and still do freelance editing and authoring for that publication (and for other publications).
  • No book has emerged from my mind onto the best-seller list. So maybe I'm presumptuous in judging the work of others. Then again, I do more describing than judging in my reviews. And I have so many articles now published that I stopped counting them at 6,000. When did I stop? Probably another 6,000 articles ago! (It's been a while).
  • I have an engineering degree undergrad and an MBA. That helps explain my methodical approach toward reviews.
  • You probably don't know anybody who has made a perfect or near perfect score on a test of Standard Written English. I have. So, a credential for whatever it's worth.

About reading style

No, I do not "speed read" through these. That said, I do read at a fast rate. But, in contrast to speed reading, I read everything when I read a book for review.

Speed reading is a specialized type of reading that requires skipping text as you go. Using this technique, I've been able to consistently "max out" a speed reading machine at 2080 words per minute with 80% comprehension. This method is great if you are out to show how fast you can read. But I didn't use it in graduate school and I don't use it now. I think it takes the joy out of reading, and that pleasure is a big part of why I read to begin with.
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