Decoding Your Dog

If you're like me - and if you're reading this blog I think we can guess that you are - we are among the more than 90% of owners who consider their dog a member of the family. This is wonderful except it does come with a caveat: dogs are another species, speak a different language, and try very hard to learn our language. They are masters at learning our body language. The human animal has not been as proficient at learning theirs and in the past have trained them with choke collars, prong collars, electronic collars, pushing them around, hitting them, a veritable litany of what amounts to animal abuse. Many of us have long since moved forward to a kinder, gentler and certainly more effective world. As much as we know, there is always more to learn. Certainly there are things to learn about dogs before you bring one home. 

To facilitate this learning, Veterinary Behaviorists, the Board Certified members of the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists, have compiled a book for everyone who has, or plans to have, a dog. Whether you've had dogs all of your life or are about to acquire your first dog, there is something here for everyone, written by veterinary specialists in the field.

Mahalo and his Parrot friend, Gala, kissing. Photo courtesy
Loren Jensen-Carter

Editors Debra Horowitz, DVM DACVB and John Ciribassi, DVM DACVB and Steve Dale have compiled an easy-to-read volume of information and step-by-step ways to help you and your dog get through behavior problems such as separation anxiety, house training and much, much more in 14 chapters that you will read and read again.

Positive training plays a big part in this book. There is research to back up their information. 

It is appalling to think that more dogs die of behavior problems because they are relinquished to shelters, than any single disease. Go ahead, read that sentence again.  It's important. It's far better to work out the issues in a positive manner and build the human-animal bond rather than break it.

Karma in the Snow
Photo Courtesy: Veronique Schejtman

This book should be on every dog owner, or potential dog owner's shelf. 

Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in January 2014, it is 384 pages filled with information you and your dog need.  It is reasonably priced in your choice of Hardcover, Paperback or e-book. Personally, I prefer to have a "real" book edition of a reference book so I can hold it in my hands and flip through the page or use the index to find what I need long after I've read it from cover-to-cover

If you can't wait another minute to read it, here's a link to the book on Amazon:

amzn.to/1zyAb9n

NOTE:  I received only a review copy of this book. I have NOT been monetarily compensated. The review is my own based upon reading the book.