6 Books Every Dog Owner Should Read

17 Nov 6 Books Every Dog Owner Should Read

Here’s a great article that appeared in Mother Nature Network by Jaymi Heimbuch about several must-read books for anyone who has ever wondered how a dog’s brain works; or more importantly, how it differs from your own; 6 Books Every Dog Owner Should Read:

Millions of us have dogs as household companions or have working dogs that we depend on to get tasks done. But how much do we really know about these faithful companions? How much do we really understand about how they take in information and view the world, about why they react the way they do to other people or animals, or even about which training methods work best and why?

For me, it took adopting a very smart, very active, and very sensitive dog to really get it. The things that worked well with my bemused and obliging Labrador just didn’t work with this newly adopted border collie-heeler cross. The stuff I learned watching dog training shows on television certainly didn’t work either. To build a relationship with this dog, I needed to learn everything from how he sees the world to how I use my body to communicate. In that endeavor to retrain myself so that I could train this dog, I learned that the vast majority of dog owners out there really haven’t a clue about how to live with dogs. We think we do — but mostly, we don’t. Dogs have learned to live with us, to understand us and bend to our wishes to a far greater extent than we have ever really bothered to understand them.

Until now.

In the last few decades, science has taken a deeper look at our constant companions and we have learned an incredible amount about how dogs experience the world, interpret it, and how we can help them understand us better to avoid conflicts (usually in the form of teeth sinking into skin).

In finding success with training my own dog, I’ve come across some invaluable reading material. These books have made all the difference in helping me finally “get it” when it comes to understanding dogs and formulating my approach to training. These books have been just as important as the help of two wonderful trainers in changing how I communicate with my dog so that he learns what I’m asking for, I learn what he’s asking for, and we all live happily ever after. And I wish so much that I’d have known all this when I had my bemused and obliging Labrador — he would have appreciated it! If you love dogs, have a dog, or are thinking about getting one, the following books are must-read material.

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