Introduction

The steadily increasing interest in the obedience trained dog has made it necessary for the amateur to seek assistance in order to learn the best approved methods of training his dog in this type of work. Such knowledge is necessary not alone for the purpose of training the dog for obedient deportment in the home, but also for the purpose of enabling the average owner to compete with his dog in organized obedience test competitions.

Almost from the moment that the American Kennel Club recognized all such training to the extent of adopting rules and regulations for it, many books, written primarily to instruct along the general lines of feeding, care and management, included information on training in more or less understandable form. And while, specifically, the training lessons contained in these books differed a great deal, in the aggregate they were commendable in bringing to the public attention the fact that training by amateurs, under the right auspices, was not only possible but highly desirable.

However, some of this earlier counsel, as well as some that has since followed, failed in certain respects to accomplish its aim for this reason alone: Without any doubt at all, the writers knew their subject but they did not know how to teach it. Only in a very small percentage of human beings does knowledge go hand in hand with the ability to impart it. Knowledge is commendable: teaching an art acquired by all too few. Consequently, when we come upon a man possessed of knowledge gained from long and intensive experience plus the faculty for teaching it as it should be taught, then we have a man whose words should be heeded, and whose lessons can be learned.

Such a man is the author of this book. He is a practical trainer of dogs for sport and for war service; whose work has included Red Cross carriers (messages and ammunition), police service, motion picture and stage performers and leaders of the blind. He has met with conspicuous success in training dogs in all of these capacities, and he has taught uncounted hundreds of others to train dogs as well.

Hans Tossutti received his own education in Europe. One of the organizers of the blind-leading school in Potsdam, Germany, and police-service dog guide and instructor in Berlin, he made his ring debut under that highest world authority, the late Captain von Stephanitz. Upon arriving in this country seventeen years ago, he became the first organizer of dog training in classes, when he established the New England Training School for Dogs in Boston in 1928.  Here he subsequently held the record for having trained under his direction what is believed to be the largest number of dogs on this side. His American record shows more than 3,000 dogs schooled in his classes, and more than 200 personally trained, while many of his pupils are now accredited American Kennel Club judges.

 

  One of the early training classes (1933) of the New England Training School for Dogs, conducted by the author.

Mr. Tossutti's system of training is by no means onesided, that is, it is not adaptable merely to a limited number of breeds. Though some breeds he considers more fitted for training temperamentally than others, still, practically every breed of dog has been trained by him at one time or another. Most famous of all was probably his own Shepherd, Bodo vonder Mueritz, known the country over from 1925 to 1932 in motion picture work.
 
In 1940, by virtue of his experience, the author was appointed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as instructor for the Department of Education, Division of University Extension courses. Several clubs have adopted his training system with the greatest success, while his exhibition at Eastern Dog Club shows have been copied throughout the country. His original system which he brought from abroad, he adjusted skillfully to American conditions and to this fact must be attributed some measure of his success.

There is little doubt that the people of the United States need further education in the training and handling of dogs. Such an education lies between the covers of this book.  It is a firm though intensely humane type of edit cation, devoid of whipping and hunger punishments; devoid also of forcing the dog beyond his inborn capabilities yet taking advantage of them to the full.

 
  THE 1936 BEGINNERS CLASS OF THE NEW ENGLAND TRAINING SCHOOL FOR DOGS

Founded in 1928 and conducted by Hans Tossutti, this school in 1937 became the New England Dog Training Club. 1. Miss K. Wcllman now the club's president. 2. Mr. F. Belleviau, well known deaf mute. 3. Miss A. Trerraine, club secretary. 4. Mr. W. Emerson, with Toni. 5. In background, .Mrs. E. Tumquist.   Director Tossutti stands at the extreme right.
 
This is a book not for casual reading if maximum benefits are to accrue. Rather is it for study, word by word and lesson by lesson, in gradual and successive progress from the simplest to the most advanced exercises, all of which can be acquired by the dog of average intelligence when handled in the right way.
EDITOR

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