Welcoming Your Puppy from Planet Dog: How to Go Beyond Training and Raise Your Best Friend

Written in a fresh, warm voice loaded with empathy, Welcoming Your Puppy from Planet Dog lights the path to a relaxed, happy interspecies household

“I truly LOVE this book. If I were . . . getting a new puppy, I’d read it twice, and still keep it within reach every day.”
— Dr. Patricia McConnell, applied animal behaviorist, speaker, and author of The Other End of the Leash and The Puppy Primer

After a decade of guiding people who’ve just added a puppy to the family, dog trainer Kathy Callahan has learned a fundamental truth: at some point every one of them feels overwhelmed. When they seek out expertise, they’re flooded with impossibly detailed advice, conflicting opinions, and a surprising number of techniques that seem unkind.

In contrast, Callahan reassures owners that success flows not from nailing an intimidating list of disciplinary tactics, but from adopting a mindset of “trusted guide” rather than “master.” The key to great training is recognizing that we have essentially kidnapped these puppies from their own vastly different culture. Using an easy-to-grasp “Planet Dog / Planet Human” concept, Callahan dives into the puppy essentials, including:

• how to prepare your house (and yourself) for puppyhood
• potty training, chewing, jumping, and other challenges
• how to train with fun, not fear
• why it might seem your puppy “just doesn’t listen”
• navigating puppyhood with young kids, cats, and/or other dogs
• what to do if there’s household disagreement on things like whether dogs belong on furniture

In fun-to-read chapters filled with empathy for both the beleaguered humans and their confused puppies, Welcoming Your Puppy from Planet Dog paves the way for a rewarding friendship between a relaxed, well-prepared human and a canine family member who’s happily at ease in our world.