Dog Training Books for Guardians
A list to keep track of books that I find myself frequently recommending to dog guardians who want to learn more about positive reinforcement training in order to have a better relationship with their dogs.
created by d_Iffer
last updated July, 2026
Comments
This is so perfect for my job!!! Thanks for throwing this list together
d_IfferOP
I'm curious now. What's your job?
Animal caretaking, I specialize in senior animals and reactive dogs. Takes a lot of patience and I only practice positive reinforcement when implementing any training.
d_IfferOP
That's awesome! I adopted an extremely reactive dog from the shelter, and I had to learn a LOT really quickly. It eventually led to me becoming a KPA-CTP. Although there is a lot of good free information online, it's the wild west, and by the the time that you know enough to easily discern good training information from bad training information, you already know so much. I know that many people may not prefer to learn about dog training from books (vs classes, workshops, videos, etc), but, for me, books provide a lot of information when you want to do a deeper dive and/or are on a shoestring budget, and at least most books have to go through some sort of editing and publishing vetting (and I'm biased because obviously I love reading books).
It is kind of like the wild west, you have to really be able to figure out someoneās agenda. Unfortunately thereās a lot of people who put together workbooks/webinars as a cash grab and it ends up spreading super harmful information. Iām working on expanding my book knowledge on animal behavior in general so this list was perfect
d_IfferOP
There are other books that I think are very good, but that I wouldn't necessarily recommend to clients, since they're more oriented towards professionals, or very committed guardians who might have a specific challenge (eg Malina DeMartini-Price's book for separation anxiety; super helpful but way too long in comparison to Lili Chin's book for body language: Canine Body Language: A Photographic Guide; Stress Factor in Dogs by Kristina Spaulding). I really enjoyed Stress Factor in Dogs, but it is a little bit more dense since it summarizes what is known from current (as of the publishing) primary source material. I have spent too much money on Dogwise.com when they have sales :sweat_smile:
