Understanding Your Dog For Dummies

by ;
Edition: 1st
Format: Paperback
Pub. Date: 2007-05-29
Publisher(s): For Dummies
List Price: $19.44

Buy New

Usually Ships in 2-3 Business Days
$18.51

Rent Book

Select for Price
There was a problem. Please try again later.

Used Book

We're Sorry
Sold Out

eBook

We're Sorry
Not Available

How Marketplace Works:

  • This item is offered by an independent seller and not shipped from our warehouse
  • Item details like edition and cover design may differ from our description; see seller's comments before ordering.
  • Sellers much confirm and ship within two business days; otherwise, the order will be cancelled and refunded.
  • Marketplace purchases cannot be returned to eCampus.com. Contact the seller directly for inquiries; if no response within two days, contact customer service.
  • Additional shipping costs apply to Marketplace purchases. Review shipping costs at checkout.

Summary

If you're feeling overwhelmed by the prospect of getting a dog or nervous about caring for the one you've already brought home, now you can relax. Understanding Your Dog for Dummies helps you recognize not only why your dog behaves the way she does, but in a way that enables you to parlay that into a well-behaved companion who listens (and sits, and speaks, and comes, etc.). Whether your pooch is a mixed breed or purebred, she has a distinct identity that makes her unique. The first step in understanding your dog is to respect the honorable task she was originally bred for and to identify how these inbred impulses influence her personality and behavior. In essence, you need to speak her language if you expect her to learn to understand yours. Understanding Your Dog for Dummies gives you everything you need to learn to understand your pooch's unique dialect of "Doglish"-and shows you how to take on the role as pack leader to give your dog the cues, guidance, and consistency she needs to shape and develop good behaviors. Inside you'll discover how to: Read your dog's body language Communicate with your dog Interpret your dog's breed-specific traits Correct dog-behavior-gone-bad Counter anxiety-based behavior Understand and resolve aggressive behavior And so much more! Think of this book as Doglish 101-a prerequisite for every human member of your dog's family. Now, let the training begin!

Author Biography

Stanley Coren is best known to the public for his popular books on dogs and on general psychological issues. However, within the scientific world, he’s also a highly respected scientist, a Professor of Psychology at the University of British Columbia, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
His engaging writing style and his broad knowledge about the behavior of dogs and people have made his books The Intelligence of Dogs, Why We Love the Dogs We Do, What Do Dogs Know?, How to Speak Dog, The Pawprints of History, How Dogs Think, Why Do Dogs Have Wet Noses?, and Why Does My Dog Do That? all bestsellers.
Roger Caras, President of the ASPCA, and himself a bestselling author of dog books, noted “Stanley Coren has an incredible gift — the ability to take the most complex matters and make it all seem so simple and clear.” Perhaps this is why Coren was named Writer of the Year by the International Positive Dog Training Association and is a sought-after contributor to a number of national dog and pet magazines, including Pets Magazine, Modern Dog, AnimalSense, Dog and Puppy Basics, and AKC Gazette.
Many professional associations have recognized Coren’s work with service dogs, and he’s received awards from several major police dog organizations, including the California Canine Narcotic Dog Association and the British Columbia Police Canine Association. His work with and knowledge of dogs has often caught the attention of the media, and he’s been the subject of feature articles in People Magazine, USA Today, Time Magazine, Maclean’s, US News & World Report, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Washington Post, and others. His affable manner has also made him a popular guest with the broadcast media, and he’s been featured on numerous television programs, including Oprah, Larry King Live, Dateline, 20/20, Maurie Povich, Good Morning America, Charlie Rose, and the Today Show. He currently hosts the national TV series Good Dog! in Canada.

Sarah Hodgson, president of Simply Sarah Incorporated, has been a trainer of dogs and their people in Westchester, New York, and Southern Connecticut for more than 20 years. She’s the author of eight dog-training books, including Puppies For Dummies, Dog Tricks For Dummies, Puppies Raising & Training Diary For Dummies, Teach Yourself Visually Dog Training, You and Your Puppy (co-authored with James DeBitetto), DogPerfect, 2nd Edition, PuppyPerfect, and Miss Sarah’s Guide to Etiquette for Dogs & Their People. In addition, Sarah has produced two videos, patented a dog training leash (the Teaching Lead), and invented many other products to simplify the shared lives of dogs and people.
Sarah is frequently featured as a dog training specialist on network television, radio, and print media, including The New York Times, NBC, CBS, Animal Planet (Disney syndicate), FOX, CNN, WOR, Hollywood Pets, Parenthood magazine, and others. She has worked with many famous persons’ dogs, including TV personality Katie Couric, actors Richard Gere, Glenn Close, Chazz Palminteri, Chevy Chase, and Lucie Arnaz; business moguls George Soros, Tommy Hilfiger, Tommy Mottola, and Michael Fuchs; and sport greats Bobby Valentine and Alan Houston.
In addition, Sarah is a behavior consultant and education facilitator at the Adopt-A-Dog shelter in Armonk, New York, where she holds training and socialization programs, conditioning each of the dogs within a fully decorated home environment before their formal adoption.

Table of Contents

Introductionp. 1
About This Bookp. 1
Conventions Used in This Bookp. 2
What You're Not to Readp. 2
Foolish Assumptionsp. 2
How This Book Is Organizedp. 3
The Fascinating World of Dogsp. 3
Embracing Your Dog's Identityp. 3
Doggie Delinquencyp. 3
Dogs Don't Misbehave: Misperceptions and Solutionsp. 4
The Part of Tensp. 4
Icons Used in This Bookp. 4
Where to Go from Herep. 5
The Fascinating World of Dogsp. 7
A Dog for Life: Dog Psychology 101p. 9
Is Your Dog a Wolf in Sheep's Clothing?p. 9
People and dogs: Parallel evolutionp. 9
Personalityp. 10
Sensory overloadp. 10
Age Influencesp. 11
Influencing Your Dog's Learningp. 12
Ain't Misbehaving!p. 13
Why dogs act outp. 13
Dissecting daily frustrationsp. 14
When reality bites: Inside canine aggressionp. 14
Understanding Your Dogp. 15
How Dogs Came to Be Dogsp. 15
In the beginningp. 16
First move, wolvesp. 17
Second move, humansp. 18
Perpetual puppiesp. 19
Behavioral Traits Bred in the Bonep. 22
Curing the Dog with an Overdeveloped Chasing Instinctp. 23
Understanding Your Dog's Sex Lifep. 25
The truth about spaying and neuteringp. 27
Now or later? The best age to spay or neuter a dogp. 28
Communicating with Your Dogp. 29
An English to Doglish Translationp. 29
Seeing Eye to Eyep. 30
Interpreting Vocal Tones and Intonationsp. 33
Making the Most of What You Sayp. 34
Listen to Your Dog's Voicep. 34
Reading Body Talkp. 38
The ups and downs of the earsp. 42
Facial signalsp. 43
Tail talkp. 44
Seeing Life from Your Dog's Perspectivep. 47
Like Person, Like Dog (Similarities and Differences)p. 47
Your Dog Needs Affectionp. 48
Group identityp. 49
Using reflection and praise to influence behaviorp. 50
How Hierarchy Differs from Democracyp. 51
It's in their genesp. 52
Asserting benevolent authorityp. 54
Establishing your social statusp. 57
Reinforcing Good Mannersp. 60
Embracing Your Dog's Identityp. 61
Identifying Your Dog's Individualityp. 63
Identifying Your Dog's Personalityp. 64
The Puppy Personality Testp. 65
Preparing for the testp. 65
Giving the testp. 67
Evaluating Your Adult Dogp. 76
Scoring the personality testsp. 77
Interpreting the personality testsp. 78
Interpreting Your Dog's Breed-Specific Traitsp. 83
What Are Dog Breeds?p. 83
A New Breed of Dog Classificationp. 84
Sporting dogsp. 85
Houndsp. 86
Working dogsp. 88
Terriersp. 89
Toy dogsp. 90
Herding dogsp. 90
Nonsporting dogsp. 91
Predicting Behavior from Breedp. 91
Intelligence and learning abilityp. 92
Dominance and territorialityp. 92
Sociabilityp. 93
Emotional reactivityp. 93
Energy levelp. 94
Sensory Perceptionsp. 95
Sight, Psychology, and Survivalp. 95
Are dogs colorblind?p. 96
Do dogs have night vision?p. 97
What about vision on the move?p. 98
Hearing the Worldp. 99
Hearing capacities in comparisonp. 99
Breeds, genetics, and deafnessp. 100
What a Dog's Nose Knowsp. 103
Born to sniffp. 103
Your dog's unique nosep. 104
Meeting the Needs of Your Growing Puppyp. 107
Creating a Lifelong Bondp. 107
Meeting your puppy's needsp. 108
Providing early lessonsp. 109
Conditioningp. 110
Preventing Problemsp. 112
Aggressive puppyp. 112
Hyper puppyp. 113
Timid puppyp. 113
Socializing Your Puppyp. 114
Creating a positive associationp. 117
Exploring placesp. 118
Meeting other peoplep. 119
Exposing to soundsp. 120
Introducing objectsp. 121
Meeting other animalsp. 122
Reading and Communicating as Your Dog Agesp. 123
Discovering Your Dog's True Agep. 123
Battling an Aging Bodyp. 125
Diminishing Awarenessp. 127
When hearing fadesp. 127
When vision fadesp. 130
Remembering the Aging Mindp. 133
Alzheimer's disease in dogs?p. 133
Solutions for a fading mindp. 134
Doggie Delinquencyp. 137
Inspiring Behavior with Motivational Techniquesp. 139
Choosing Training Tools and Gadgetsp. 140
Collarsp. 141
Leashesp. 142
Clicker-happy trainingp. 146
Targetingp. 148
Magical learning toolsp. 149
Using a Reward Systemp. 150
Treats and toysp. 150
Mealsp. 152
Tailoring Your Rewards to Your Dog's Personalityp. 153
Assertivep. 153
Fearfulp. 154
Rescue dogsp. 155
Shaping Behaviorsp. 156
Luring with foodp. 156
Using pressure points to directp. 157
Modeling as an examplep. 158
Helping Your Dog Learn from Everyday Livingp. 159
Consistency Countsp. 159
Monitoring Human Behaviorp. 161
Living with Kids and Dogsp. 163
Avoidance 101p. 166
Soothing your dog's fearp. 166
When discipline instills fearp. 167
The ingredients of a good correctionp. 168
Happy Training, Happy Tailsp. 171
I'm the Leader! Follow Me!p. 171
Whoever is in front is in chargep. 172
Permission trainingp. 175
Meeting and greetingp. 175
Teaching Impulse Controlp. 176
Verbal discouragementsp. 176
Teaching the downp. 178
Stayp. 179
Settle downp. 180
Reconnectionp. 181
The indispensable "Come"p. 181
Off-leash controlp. 183
Dogs Don't Misbehave: Misperceptions and Solutionsp. 185
Addressing and Solving Problem Behaviorp. 187
Personal Philosophy and the Problem Dogp. 187
Denning Your Dogp. 191
Silencing Excessive Barkingp. 192
Dogs that bark at neighborsp. 193
Excessive barking in the yardp. 194
Other nuisance barkingp. 195
Barking in the carp. 196
Chewingp. 196
Putting a Damper on Jumpingp. 197
Greeting Jumpingp. 198
Company jumpingp. 199
Housetrainingp. 200
The housetraining routinep. 201
When accidents happenp. 202
Countering Anxiety-Based Behaviorp. 205
The Face of Fearp. 205
Using social skills to resolve conflictp. 207
Recognizing signs of stressp. 208
The Leaky Dog Syndromep. 209
Stopping the leakp. 210
Curbing Separation Anxietyp. 211
How it all beginsp. 213
Solving isolation and anxiety problemsp. 214
Soothing Fears and Phobiasp. 216
Playing through fearp. 218
Working through fearp. 219
Understanding and Resolving Aggressive Behaviorp. 221
Recognizing the Signsp. 221
Reading body languagep. 222
Evaluating aggressive tendenciesp. 223
Factoring in Breed Traitsp. 224
Ruling Out Medical Factorsp. 226
Identifying Different Types of Aggressionp. 229
Dominance aggressionp. 229
Possessive aggressionp. 231
Fear-based aggressionp. 233
Territorial aggressionp. 233
Predatory aggressionp. 233
Maternal aggressionp. 234
Controlling Aggressionp. 235
Preventing Aggressionp. 237
Figuring Out Whether Neutering Helpsp. 238
The Part of Tensp. 241
Ten Forms of Silent Communicationp. 243
Eye Contactp. 243
Body Posturep. 245
Touchp. 245
Your Demeanorp. 246
Unresponsivenessp. 246
Mirrored Motionp. 247
Looking at Your Dog Lessp. 247
Hand Signalsp. 248
Body Positionp. 248
Lure Touchingp. 248
Ten Common Misunderstandingsp. 249
Every Dog Wants to Be Leader of the Packp. 249
A Wagging Tail Means a Happy and Friendly Dogp. 250
Dogs Understand Human Languagep. 250
A Fearful Dog Won't Bitep. 251
Dogs Know When They've Done Wrongp. 251
Dogs Sometimes Behave Out of Spitep. 252
Dogs Hate Catsp. 252
Dogs Like It When You Hug Themp. 253
Your Stress Has No Effect on Your Dogp. 253
Dogs' Licks Are Kissesp. 254
Ten Ways to Become Your Dog's Leaderp. 255
Control the Resourcesp. 255
Teach Your Dog to Mind Her Mannersp. 255
Reserve High Places for Humansp. 256
Emphasize Your Right of Wayp. 256
Use Time-Outs to Control Unruly Behaviorp. 257
Empathizep. 258
Organize Space and Activitiesp. 259
Practice Full Body Handlingp. 259
Restore Predictabilityp. 260
Highlight the Positivep. 260
Indexp. 261
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

An electronic version of this book is available through VitalSource.

This book is viewable on PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and most smartphones.

By purchasing, you will be able to view this book online, as well as download it, for the chosen number of days.

Digital License

You are licensing a digital product for a set duration. Durations are set forth in the product description, with "Lifetime" typically meaning five (5) years of online access and permanent download to a supported device. All licenses are non-transferable.

More details can be found here.

A downloadable version of this book is available through the eCampus Reader or compatible Adobe readers.

Applications are available on iOS, Android, PC, Mac, and Windows Mobile platforms.

Please view the compatibility matrix prior to purchase.