Book Review: For The Love of A Dog

Since mommy is the reader in our family, I am going to let her write this post. I am going to go take a nap by the fire. –Jack

If you have a dog and want to understand why they may do the things that they do –then I would HIGHLY recommend this book.  It is a nice balance of entertaining stories and education. You will get a new understanding of your dogs behavior.  You will learn what your dog is “trying” to tell you and you will probably feel bad that you didn’t “get it” all of this time!  We, at Leash Your Fitness,  like  the part in the book where she says “Dogs also need exercise, but I think we too often think about physical exercise and ignore the importance of mental exercise.”  She goes on to say that “…the same old walk around the neighborhood isn’t it”  That is why we incorporate dog commands throughout all of our classes to make the dog physically AND mentally tired because we have taken the advice of dog trainers and behaviorists in developing our classes.

Patricia McConnell is a  Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist and has her PhD in Zoology. Her studies included  researching dog behavior and communication between professional trainers and working domestic animals.  She has extensive experience and knowledge on everything dog.  Because of this Knowles, this is one of those books that you want to keep for a reference as she goes over many behavioral issues and explains in a gentle way why the dog may be doing it and how to fix it.  She explains the difference between dog emotions versus people emotions,  which is a very controversial subject but all of us dog owners are convinced that dogs have emotions no matter what the scientist say! (and Paticia McConnell is on our side)

This book is a nice balance of stories, education and facts that will make you a better dog owner.  Although I read this book quite some time ago, I don’t think it made me cry as most dog books do!

For the Love a Dog by Patricia B. McConnell gets 2 thumbs!