Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 21-25 of 157
 Some Good Info But Too Much Clutter June 25, 2007
Thomas Kraus
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
Frankly I wasn't able to read the book all the way through, I had trouble with the author spending a lot of effort unnecessarily slamming other training methods and theories, and in some instances talking down to the reader. Her theories should be able to stand on their own merits without bashing other theories. Organization is also lacking, often introducing things and then noting that follow up of the will occur later in the book. I tend to prefer starting on a subject and completing it within a given section. The chapters could generally stand some editing to allow the book to be used for easier reference by issue, given that this is for the most part a training guide.
While I agree with most of the author's training methods I also see the validity in other methods since there truly appears to no given method that out shines all of the others. I do like the positive reinforcement approach to dog training that most people are now practicing,and while the method presented is a good sound method of training dogs I don't see it being heads and shoulders above the rest. All in all this book could be a very good guide if it were made to be more positive, reorganized by content, and overall cut back by about 30%.
 Great Book! June 12, 2007
Kathryn K. Ozimek
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Chock full of great ideas for working with your dog. Best dog training book I've read (and I've read a lot of them)! Creative, effective solutions to your dog behavior problems.
Inspiring and Insightful May 25, 2007
Catherine Moser
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
One of the most insightful and intelligent books I have ever read, especially on the subject of dogs. By cutting through all the sentimentality and anthropomorphic qualities we attribute to our dogs, Jean Donaldson raises them to a more beautiful and infinitely more impressive level. Once you understand an animal's behavior, you're more apt to work with it than to simply try to fight it. I was especially glad for all the specifics and examples given in this book.
Your Dog Doesn't Think He's A Person May 20, 2007
Gallivan Burwell (New Orleans, La.)
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
I can't tell you how many times I've had a dog-owner tell me "My dog thinks he's person." They usually deliver this gem as if this is a good thing, while their. dog (mostly small and fuzzy) barks wildly, snaps, charges, wraps it's leash around my ankles while I walk my own well-trained dog (who is perfectly content being a dog). Occasionaly the dog-who-thinks-it's-a-person is constrained in a baby carriage. I have yet to meet one of these "person/dogs" who wasn't a total mess.
Well, your dog doesn't think he's a person. Jean Donaldson makes this perfectly clear in the 2nd edition of her ground-breaking book "The Culture Clash: A revolutionary new way to understanding the relationship between humans and domestic dogs." Donaldson fires a clean shot across the bow of our Disney-fication of dogs by stating right at the top that dogs are amoral scavenger-predators by nature, whose self-interest trumps any desire to please us. Human concepts of Good & Bad are lost on them. They are loveable aliens in our midst, who are best integrated into our households and society by understanding the huge differences our two species, not by papering over them.
Otherwise dogs suffer greatly at our hands, often winding up abandoned, in shelters, euthanized. Donaldson offers us an alternative to this deadly disconnect. By understanding how dogs learn we are able to teach them
(without jerking, and pulling, and punishing) how to best live in our society to our mutual benefit. "The Dog Whisperer," that fount of misinformation and discredited techniques, would be well-served to read this book, as would every dog owner, or anyone considering becoming one.
This book belongs on any dog owners book shelf! April 18, 2007
Angelica Steinker (Tampa, FL, USA)
2 out of 12 found this review helpful
Simply one of the best books ever written on dog training. A monumental work. Jean Donaldson is a goddess.
|
