Review: For the Love of a Dog

For the Love of a Dog, by Patricia McConnell

I think Patricia McConnell is my hero. This is only the second book of hers that I have read, but I loved it just as much as The Other End of the Leash and would recommend For the Love of a Dog heartily to all dog owners.

For the Love of a Dog focuses intently on the exchange of emotions between humans and their dogs. It is less of a training book and more of a emotional manual for navigating the feelings of dogs. And I found it to be an indispensable guide to the sentiments and desires of our canine companions.

In my months of reading dog books, one of the big warnings that often comes from trainers is the danger of applying “human” emotions to dogs. While I do think there is a danger in treating our dogs like humans, or believing that they think like humans, the dangers of anthropomorphism are often more subtle than we are cultured to expect. McConnell writes well about this injunction of anthropomorphizing our animals. She points out that we are often quick to assign base emotions to our dogs–feelings like anger, rage, and possessiveness–but we are reluctant to say that dogs can have finer feelings, like devotion, grief, and joy. This is a great loss, McConnell says, and it undermines our emotional intelligence with our dogs.

McConnell demonstrates the fine balance between interpreting canine emotion and falsely applying human feelings. Her expertise as a dog trainer and animal behaviorist is applied to teach her readers how to know the difference. I feel like I have a much deeper appreciation of the emotional complexities of dogs and I am more reluctant to underestimate them after having read this book.

As I’ve mentioned before, McConnell is a great writer and I always enjoy reading her generous stories about the dogs she’s worked with and life with her own dogs on her Wisconsin farm. I think this book should be required reading for anyone who shares their life with a dog and wants to know more about what is going on inside. McConnell’s wisdom and advice have the potential to transform the ways that we interact with our dogs. For the Love of a Dog provides a strong reminder that, when we are interacting with our dogs, rigid training regimens and stubborn mindsets are far less valuable than humility and insight.

Happy weekend!

Review: The Other End of the Leash

The Other End of the Leash, by Patricia McConnell.

If you keep up with any dog training blogs or if you read dog training books, you’re bound to hear positive buzz around the name Patricia McConnell. Having read The Other End of the Leash, I can attest that this buzz is well deserved.

This book is a beautiful journey through the mind of your canine and it’s a much-needed reminder that our behavior around our dogs may be sending the entirely wrong signals. McConnell has a degree in animal behavioral science and her solid academic background often breaks through in the text. Yet she presents her findings with grace and ease, making her research and the behavioral principles displayed applicable to those of us who don’t have a Ph.D. in science.

McConnell also shares lots of insightful anecdotes about her experience with troubled dogs and their troublesome owners. These stories illuminate many of the positive training principles that she recommends. I also deeply enjoyed her heart-warming stories about her own dogs, a pack of border collies and a Great Pyrenees, who help her run her sheep farm in rural Wisconsin.

I was especially impressed with McConnell’s skill as a writer. There are not many books about dogs can boast such excellent, clear, and enjoyable prose. As an English major and a self-described literary snob, I found a lot of joy in this aspect of the book, too. It’s rare to find a great dog trainer who is also a skillful writer. McConnell, gratefully, is both.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants an inspiring and informational introduction into the world of canine behavior. After just a few chapters, McConnell will have you quickly evaluating your own postures and tones with your dog. It’s a beautiful book; I would certainly read it again.

If you can’t tell, I now count myself a loyal McConnell fan. I am eager to read the rest of her books, but in the meantime, I am gratified to that McConnell keeps a fairly regular blog by the same title as her book: The Other End of the Leash. The blog, like this book, come highly recommended by me.