Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 26-30 of 169
 Fantastic! September 6, 2007
burgundydragon (St. Paul, MN)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Reading other peoples' reviews, I noticed that a common complaint is that this book talks too much about primates. Hey, humans are primates too! It's important to understand our own behaviors - why we do the things we do - just as it is important to understand our dogs' behaviors. This book made me hyper-aware of how I was acting around my dogs, how my good intentions were being misunderstood, and what we CAN do to communicate effectively with our four-legged friends.
This is not exactly a how-to reference manual, but McConnell does give some great suggestions for dealing with certain behaviors which I have used on my own dogs. I found this book to be engaging from cover to cover and recommend it to anyone who has a dog, is thinking about getting a dog, or knows someone who has a dog. In fact, I wish everyone who will come into contact with my dogs could read this book first :)
 Excellent, engaging, and clear August 11, 2007
Christopher Eagle (Los Angeles, CA)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
A funny, engaging, and sometimes eye-opening introduction to human-canine communication. This book is less about how dogs act, and more about how they perceive our actions. It is a great book for first time (and often long time) dog owners.
Just today, a man asked if he could pet my dog. He said he'd owned dogs all his life. I told him that he could, and he immediately leaned forward over my dog, grabbed his muzzle, looked full into his face and started smiling at him. After I got the idiot to let go (he looked very offended) I wanted to hit him in the face with a copy of this book. It should be a prerequisite read for owning a dog.
If you don't understand why this mans actions were so dangerous, please buy, borrow, or steal this book and read it before you even look at another dog!
A great read August 10, 2007
Laura C. Collins (Washington, DC)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
It's extremely heartening to find that even a certified animal behaviorist can be challenged by a pet's behavior--and to see the creative ways in which these behaviors can be addressed. Patricia McConnell has that rare combination of being both informative and entertaining. She has done both dogs and their owners a big favor with this book.
Interesting, thought provoking book. July 27, 2007
Ben Smukler (Visalia, CA USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I owe Dr.McConnell a debt of gratitude: I purchased this book shortly after my cherished Alaskan Malamute and I began her long battle with cancer (osteosarcoma). I wanted to read something other than cancer-related books, and The Other End of the Leash turned out to be just right.
Dr. McConnell manages to mix discussions based on her work as an animal behaviorist with stories and anecdotes about her own experiences with her dogs as well as stories about other people's (sometimes crazy) interactions with their dogs.
It's a great book for any dog lover to read as sort of a refresher course on just who our shaggy friends are and on how we relate to them. It certainly brought me some piece of mind as I took my time reading it during the course of my dog's cancer treatment.
I'm just starting to read For the Love of a Dog, which promises to be equally interesting.
Thanks for the great books!
 About dogs and primates July 1, 2007
Bernardo San Martin (Santiago de Chile)
3 out of 8 found this review helpful
This is a good book for all dog lovers, but too wordy sometimes and with too much information about chimpazee, bonobos and gorillas that makes you think you are not reading a book about dogs. Hard to use as a reference book because is written like a novel. If you take out all the primates tales it would have half the pages. Not a waist of money but after reading such wonderful comments about it I am a little dissapointed.
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