The Other End of the Leash: Why We Do What We Do Around Dogs

McConnell is a great writer, fun, and the stories she tells about her experiences with both dogs and humans are incredible--insightful and moving. Her understandings about the underlying science of human-animal relationships are also awesome.

As you can tell, I really love this book.


This is 'The' authoritative source for canine behavior   June 11, 2002
 290 out of 296 found this review helpful

Owning an embarrassing number of dog training/behavior books and having kept Border Collies for a long time, I feel qualified to say that if you only bought one book on canine behavior, this would be it. Dr. McConnell provides a clear and lucid explanation of why dogs behave and respond as they do -- all the while being careful to make note of the ambiguities and idiosyncratic nature of both canine and human behavior. There are no 'magic formulas' here. But there are many guidelines and explanations of why some things tend to work, while others tend not to. The strength of this book is that it provides an understanding of why dogs respond, allowing the reader to refine his/her behaviors to better communicate with dogs. This focus on human behavior and how dogs interpret it provides unusual insight into effective interaction and training. Extensive experience and academic preparation in animal behavior and communication have provided McConnell with an exceptional understanding of how much of what we do in interacting with dogs is actually counter-productive because dogs see the world quite differently than primates do. Changing some of my behaviors after reading this book, I could almost see my three Border Collies thinking, "Well, about time you figured that out."