AKC Star Puppy

A Positive Behavioral Approach to Puppy Training

By: Mary Burch

Narrated by: Sarah Kuklis

AKC S.T.A.R. Puppy is about much more than teaching the basics such as sit, down and come. It includes practical information about introducing your puppy to the world, house-training (including using a crate), health care, advice from nationally recognized breed experts, what to expect at every developmental stage and the right time to start home and group training.

You’ll learn how to apply the science of “applied behavior analysis” to make your training efforts more successful. This user-friendly audiobook explains how to reinforce behaviors you like and how to avoid common mistakes including inadvertently encouraging undesirable behaviors, how to teach complex behaviors by using step-by-step techniques and how to reduce fear and anxiety in your puppy.

If you and your puppy learn the twenty essential S.T.A.R. skills, you can receive a certificate and the gold S.T.A.R. medal from AKC and be well on your way to other exciting activities and a lifetime of fun!

©2013 Dogwise Publishing (P)2025 Dogwise Publishing

Out of Date Training Methods

2.75 stars - If you were already planning on reading this book, the audiobook is a great option. It is well done and the narrator is engaging. However, if you're deciding whether to read this book, I cannot recommend it. The information about the AKC Star Puppy program is fine and accurate. However, the training methods recommended are out of date and imply that aversive methods are acceptable for adult dogs. Even for puppies, they state slip collars are acceptable, which they are not as they choke puppies. Most concerning is that their socialization information is incredibly out of date and will have the opposite effect of the goal. For example, they still recommend passing the puppy in class and having new humans bribe puppy with treats instead of tossing them to puppy. There also is no choice or consent in their training recommendations, meaning puppy won't grow up to be a problem-solver, will be less happy, and maybe develop anxiety. For example, they suggest holding a small puppy while other people pet them, which doesn't teach the puppy to enjoy pets but rather that they have no other choice causing them to develop learned helplessness. While I am grateful Dogwise Publishing is offering more and more audiobooks, I am disappointed that they are offering ones with such out of date methods that are no longer based on science that's been around for many years now. Lastly, the training in the book is unclear and vague and it's unlikely someone would be successful training a puppy with this book alone. For example, there's something they call task analysis, though it doesn't analyze anything, which really is ideas for how to advance the skill and proof it in the face of distractions. That's great in theory, but it doesn't tell you how to do it, just lists the next skill to practice. As it's written, it's a solid companion to an AKC Star Puppy class, but not an effective book to read on its own. The audiobook was well done and the narrator did a solid job, but it's not up to the quality I've come to expect of Dogwise Publishing. Thank you to Dogwise Publishing for providing me with a review copy of this audiobook. All opinions are my own.