Best Way to Train Your Gun Dog: The Delmar Smith Method

by Bill Tarrant

Book Overview

Expert instructions in the training method of Delmar Smith, winner of ten national championships, are supplmented with photographs of the fine points and problem situations. Smith relates his secrets... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679507507
• ISBN13: 9780679507505
• Release Date: June 1977
• Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.2" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Best Way to Train Your Dog : The Delmar Smith Method

I hunt quail in South Texas with pointers and setters. Next fall will mark my 35th hunting year; hunting behind birddogs. I currently own 3 Elhew pointers and 2 English Setters. Over the last 35 years I have had the pleasure to share my life and quail hunting adventures with well over 40 dogs, mostly pointers. Mr. Tarrant has put into words the wisdom of a man who not only understands birddogs but reinforces the common sense psycology of dog training. This book explains exactly what every bird hunter who hunts over a brace of dogs needs to read each year prior to bird season. Not only are the methods humane they are eaisly understood by the dog, which is the most important element in dog training and bird hunting. Mr. Delmar Smith is to dog training as what Thomas Edision was to the light bulb. I wish Delmar was still conducting training seminars; the next best thing is reading this book !

Best Way to Train Your Gun Dog

Since getting a GSP puppy I have read several training books. This one was recommended by the breeder I bought the dog from. It is by far the best book I have read yet. It is written so an average joe can understand it. I highly recomend it if you are trying to train a gun dog. Bill Tarrant has a way with words that makes you want to keep reading. And the photos that go with the writting leave no doubt about what should be done.

Excellent for beginners, too. Insightful and humerous.

I had never trained a bird dog before, but this book led me step by step. The results have been fantastic. Delmar Smith looks at training from the dog's point of view. Not only is it an excellent resource, but it is enjoyable to read.

First-rate, a classic, the "bible" of bird dog training.

Bill Tarrant followed Delmar Smith around the world for years studying his dog training methods before writing this book. As the Gun Dog Editor for Field and Stream, and as a man who had interviewed every sporting dog trainer in America, Tarrant knew Smith to be the the best dog trainer alive. Tarrant was amazed at Smith's gentle and country-wise methods that worked without hitting, striking or kicking the dog, or in any other way hurting him or dampening the dog's enthusiasm. Smith's comtemporaries in the field of bird dog training were known for their common use of brute force to train dogs. Delmar Smith says of his inhumane peers, "People who've gotta use those things don't have no fertilizer in their plot. They're stunted." Tarrant goes on to say, "And that's why Delmar's the best friend a dog ever had. He's proven a humane trainer can win on a sometimes inhumane circuit. ... Delmar figures God put dogs here to work--and man! Getting them to work together is Delmar's genius." The many reprintings of this book since it's original appearance in 1977 proves Tarrant's assessment of Smith is correct: "In every game there's a man who knows it all. And in every game there's a man who tells all he knows. How rare to find both men one and the same. We do in Delmar." Multitudes of dog owners use this book as their "bible." Copies of the book that are old, page worn and falling apart from constant use, are often presented to Delmar for his autograph at his kennels in Edmond, Oklahoma, or in his travels around the Country. The book is delightful, full of humor and insight into Delmar Smith, a genuine character and great lover of animals; and a man of incalculable wisdom about the natural world. A must read for all bird dog owners, and for anyone who wants to know more about a dog's natural ability to search and find, and to work at complex tasks with a human partner.