The Ultimate Guide to Dog Training

Rating:
Summary: Good info; bad presentation.
Review: I am glad this book was purchased at a discount because it is so painful to read. The information is good, but it is presented in such a way as to drive off any thinking person. The book is written as a set of dialogs between "Uncle Matty" Margolis and his irritatingly stupid students. If these are real people, it is scary to think that they might be allowed to vote and drive cars. I found myself focusing on this aspect more than listening to what Mr. Margolis had to say in each lesson, which when one takes out the dialog, are actually pretty helpful. I suppose the problem is that once you've written one dog training book, there's not much else you can say on the subject. However, "Uncle Matty" needs to keep writing books (it's a living), and this is the result.

Rating:
Summary: Good info; bad presentation.
Review: I am glad this book was purchased at a discount because it is so painful to read. The information is good, but it is presented in such a way as to drive off any thinking person. The book is written as a set of dialogs between "Uncle Matty" Margolis and his irritatingly stupid students. If these are real people, it is scary to think that they might be allowed to vote and drive cars. I found myself focusing on this aspect more than listening to what Mr. Margolis had to say in each lesson, which when one takes out the dialog, are actually pretty helpful. I suppose the problem is that once you've written one dog training book, there's not much else you can say on the subject. However, "Uncle Matty" needs to keep writing books (it's a living), and this is the result.

Rating:
Summary: Not worth the $..
Review: I was in a hurry when I chose this book, now I wish I'd spent a little more time flipping through it. Each section begins with dialogue between Matty and the people/dogs he is working with. That part is completely pointless, and not even entertaining to me. Finally I realized I could skip half of each chapter to get to the meat. Still though, there is pointless ad-libbing through the actually instructions! By skipping, it only took me 45 minutes to get through this book. If you can manage that, there is some usefull advice. However, for such a thick book, I was very surprised that it only covered basic commands. I am still a little confused about how to train my dog! Definately not worthy of "The Ultimate Guide.." title.

Rating:
Summary: Good advice wrapped in mumbo jumbo
Review: My husband bought me this book for my birthday, seduced, no doubt, by the cute Jack Russel Terrier on the cover. A cheap trick by Uncle Matty, a relentless self-promoter. I found this book to be very poorly written. Time and time again I felt like throwing it out the window, but I was hungry for the information, so I stuck with it. There is so much inane, and completely useless "dialogue", between Uncle Matty and his bumbling, helpless clients, that the advice (with which I found no fault) gets lost. The book reads like a transcript of some instructional video, and perhaps it is, but that is nowhere stated. (At least you could ffw a video...) The book also seems to have a certain ideological bent, promoting the idea of non-traditional families and such. Being a Western Massachusetts liberal I don't need to be converted -- all I want is to train my dog! Not one to be proud of, Uncle Matty!

Rating:
Summary: Jerk and Shout? Quite the opposite
Review: The first reviewer obviously has not read this book - or at the least completely failed to understand it. I've been to two different obedience training classes with my dog and neither was nearly as helpful as Uncle Matty. I've recommended this book to several friends and all agree that it's the best dog training book ever. Uncle Matty knows dogs and he'll train you to understand them, as well.

Rating:
Summary: The Ultimate Guide to Dog Training
Review: The writing style was nauseating and it certainly isn't the ultimate guide to dog training.

Not worth buying

Rating:
Summary: The Same Old Yell at Your Dog and Jerk the Leash Stuff
Review: This book is packed with really wonderful training information (my excitable, lunging puppy has nearly mastered heel in 3 lessons) but don't buy it if you already own Good Dog, Bad Dog -- it contains EXACTLY the same training information, much to my chagrin! (I ended up returning this to Amazon for a refund.) I was looking forward to another Uncle Matty book. It would have been more useful if it had included some new takes on problem behavior -- jumping, mouthing, etc. But if you don't already own Good Dog, Bad Dog, it's a wonderful training tool.