Training Belgian Malinois
Articles will come as I have time to write and post them. Do you have anything you'd like to contribute? Please feel free to make suggestions to my lists; I'd love to discover something new and interesting to read.
Reading List
Sport Dog Training
The AWMA Belgian Malinois Forum is a great place to learn about training methods, breeding, bloodlines, and to post your questions. Some of the best Malinois trainers in this country read and post to the AWMA forum. Conversations occasionally get heated, but the overall vibe is friendly and open. A membership to the AWMA will get you access to post to the forum (reading is free) and the AWMA magazine. It's well worth the $30.
Terri Arnold's "Steppin' Up To Success" is an amazing step-by-step obedience training manual for sport dogs. Arnold is one of the most successful people in the world of AKC obedience. Her methods are fun, fair, and produce wonderfully happy, animated, fast obedience dogs. If you want to make the obedience points, memorize this book. The book is a three part series. Book One is priceless, Book Two is good, Book Three gets into exercises pretty specific to AKC obedience and may not be of as much interest to IPO or other protection sport people.
General Training, Behavior and Breeding
Ray and Lorna Coppinger wrote the book "Dogs: Their Evolution and History", and changed the way I think about many dog-related topics. The book covers some pretty weighty topics in a way that is still accessible to the average reader. The Coppinger's are serious scientists, but also serious dog people. This book's beginning premise is that dogs are not wolves and probably not even evolved directly from them. Their alternate theory makes much more sense of dog behavior than the prevailing, "dogs are just domesticated wolves" theory.
"The Dog's Mind: Understanding Your Dog's Behavior" by Dr. Bruce Fogle is a rather heavy read, but it contains some really fascinating information. It will take a while to make it through the book, but you will come away with some really cool information that is available, but hard to find elsewhere, like- which colors can dogs see? It's not black and white, I can tell you that. There are many scientific studies that dog trainers don't usually run across; this book contains some of the information gathered through those studies.
"Excel-Erated Learning: Explaining in Plain English How Dogs Learn and How Best to Teach Them" by Pamela J. Reid is a great book. Easy to read and designed for dog trainers, it will get you thinking.
"Don't Shoot The Dog" by Karen Pryor is a classic book about positive reinforcement. The book is not about dog training; the examples are mostly human and dolphin (Pryor is a dolphin trainer) and the goal is more to improve human on human relations. But the book does apply very well to our relationships with our dogs, too. The book will make you believe you can get rid of leashes and pinch collars and train your dog with pure love and affection, and be a better person for it. Try that for a while, and then come back down to earth. Pryor really glosses over the extensive use of negative punishment that is required to make her positive methods effective. Unless you plan to move your dog into a goldfish bowl, don't take her scathing criticism of (positive) punishment too seriously.
"Toughness Training for Life: A Revolutionary Program for Maximizing Health, Happiness, and Productivity" by James E. Loehr is a great book for athletes, human and canine. Loerh is a sports psychologist who works with very high-level human athletes. His book talks about how stress can be used to strengthen the mind and body. This is super information for sport dog training, especially the protection sports.
The Housebreaking Bible - A friend and I are working on a new site that is all about housebreaking puppies and dogs. It covers potty schedules, crate training, doggy doors, supervision and puppy proofing, picking an outdoor potty area, papertraining, litter box training and problem solving. It's a very useful site right now and we will continue to add content as the site grows.