This is a non-regulation training guide that is fun to read and fun to work with. A book that dispels the notion that training your dog must be difficult, or must be done by an expert, or that you need a PhD in animal psychology to even try.

Joe Camp spent almost thirty years absorbing and applying (with his own dogs) the ways and means of the finest trainer who ever lived, and he's compiled the essence into simple yet magical answers for you. This is not a book to train for the show ring, or for graded obedience in the traditional sense. The purpose of this book is to teach you to get real control of your dog, have terrific communication, and have fun at the same time.

If you've never had a true understanding of communication with your dog, this book will change your life. And your dog's!

Read the introduction below:

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Introduction

Training your dog is simply a matter of love and logic. And real communication. And the purpose of this book is to make you comfortable with that fact so you will be able to have terrific communication with your dog throughout his or her life. Without a bunch of experts telling you that you must do it their way. It is a guide to what you need to do it your way.

It's really that simple. Common sense and compassion. You start by loving your dog, and being a good and trusted companion. Dogs want to please. They strive to please. You need only give them the opportunity in a structured environment, in a manner your pup can understand. If you take each one of the exercises in this book, in sequence, and work with your dog every day, yes, soon she will be able to do a lot of what Benji does in the movies; but more importantly she will rapidly begin to understand the process , and then virtually anything is possible. She will understand that when you speak to her it has meaning and she will be stretching to grasp that meaning, and to apply it. You will have an understanding of how to communicate with her; and how to extend her learning throughout her lifetime. Your dog will understand you and your wishes better, be controllable, and you'll both be a lot happier because she has a defined way to please you.

Some dogs will pick up these exercises quickly, others will take longer. Dogs are like us. Some are brilliant, some aren't. Some are stubborn, some aren't. Some are mischievous. Some aren't. All of this plays into the learning curve. Over the years, I've had many folks say, "Gee, I wish my dog was as smart as Benji." I'd say, "Odds are, he or she is." But those pups have never been asked to do everything that Benji is asked to do. Most dogs never have the opportunity to receive the extensive training that Benji gets. And with dogs - again, just like people - the more they learn, the faster they learn. And the more they learn, the more they want to learn. It becomes exponential.

I have no idea how this book compares to other books and other methods of training because, frankly, most of the books I've picked up are very tedious, and I never finish them. Not to say the methods are bad or wrong, it's just that training a companion animal is not academic, it's personal; and it's not rocket science. If the love, and thus the motivation, is there, it becomes very much a matter of developing communication by putting one foot in front of the other,   ie: common sense. Logic.

The content herein is not meant in any way to be a training guide for show animals. I know nothing about the show ring and all that goes on there. This book is designed for folks who love their companion animals and want to give them, not unlike children, an environment in which there can be communication, understanding, structure, compassion, growth, and trust.   My experience is not academic. It was not learned in a classroom. It has come from more years than I care to admit spent watching one of the world's greatest trainers for movies do his thing; and taking his compassion, his logic, his methods and applying them to my own dogs. And to the new Benji.

By necessity, much of what you'll find here relies on vocabulary. And comprehension of concept. Not mechanical rote memory training. The concept for Benji movies revolves around the dog being the emotional center of the story, not the people. In pre-Benji dog movies, for example, your heart was with the kid who had to get rid of the dog because he was eating the chickens. The dog was more or less a prop. In the Benji movies, your heart is with the dog and his struggle to overcome something that is very difficult for a real dog to accomplish. In a Benji movie, the people are the props. The dog must act . Express emotion. That's why I call it trial-and-error film-making. We often don't know exactly what we're going to do when the cameras roll until we're on the set doing it. Or, often, what we planned to do simply doesn't work so we have to change and re-design on the spot. We, therefore, must be able to talk to Benji, point out what needs to be done, and have her understand. That might sound bizarre to Pavlovians, but that's the way we do it and it works. And that's what you'll be doing soon.

One other thing I should explain: I'm not a professional trainer. I do not do it for a living. But I am a student of what works. Logic and common sense to a fault, I suppose. When Benji is preparing for a movie, she spends most of her time with Anne Gordon. Anne trains for a living, and like Frank Inn before her, she subscribes to and uses the very same concepts used in this book when she is working with Benji. And she's very good at what she does.

So, when you have been through this entire regimen with your pup, if you have paid as much attention as your pup has, you will, like me, be able to teach your dog just about anything that makes sense, developing your own ways to communicate as you go, because the training will be based upon logic, communication, and comprehension of concept. Not rules, or rote memory training. Not Pavolvian responses. The primary purpose of this book is to give you the understanding and tools to keep building your dog's vocabulary throughout her life. Yes, vocabulary! And as her vocabulary grows, she will be able to put those words together into differing phrases and sentences, just like a learning child. She will have the communication skills to understand the very nuances of your wishes. Which will bring you and your dog closer to each other, and that can only be a very good thing.

                                        Joe Camp

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