Grrr! Book

Well, that was a bit disappointing.

This book is, as the title suggests, about dealing with aggression in dogs. It outlines different types of aggression (i.e. territorial aggression, possessive aggression, etc.), how they may have started (genetic factors and how owners may have created the problem), and how to address them. Specific situations are provided and anecdotal stories help us see how these techniques work. Within it's scope, this is a nice thorough book. It doesn't sugarcoat owners creating issues, and doesn't sugarcoat how important it is to address aggression. Specific training ideas are offered here as well.

My issues with this book are all based on one problem: my particular dog. Although there are tests in here to see where your dog fits on the spectrum, I found them a bit.. laughable for my bc. For instance, in the 'put him gently on his back' test, my dog would appear to be incredibly dominant (thrashing, trying to bite me.. I didn't try it for this book, but I remember when I was trying to teach him to roll over, yikes!). Yet during the stare test (I did try this one), he flattened his ears, softened his eyes, gave me a playful face, and tried to lick me. He wagged his tail at me the entire time and seemed to appreciate that we were sharing a moment. Yeah. Maybe my silly big-eyed stare and half grin wasn't what I was supposed to do. (he's not even remotely dominant.. which I knew already, but it was an interesting reaction!)

Our issues were either not really mentioned in a way that fit, or the advice left something to be desired. Nothing on touch-sensitivity unrelated to pain or discomfort- and that took me months to desensitize. The advice on kids, toys, and possessive aggression does nothing to correct the problem long term, and will not make the family dog any safer to be around (let alone with stranger's children). And to be honest, no dog should be expected to smile and wag if you are pulling his skin hard or yanking on his tail on purpose. Even the best-natured lab or golden might have an issue. (kids need to be trained, too!) I also can see the corrections driving my poor bc over the edge: he is too sound and emotionally sensitive to deal with a decent leash jerk or a can fully of pennies.

My last issue is the idea that one can easily and systematically obedience train a truly dominant dog. This book makes it sound easy but it is not. I'm grateful I don't have that sort of dog, and my heart goes out to those families who do. This book *might* help, but it is a long road.

This book IS more punishment-based than other current books on the market, although the authors take pains to separate correction from punishment (but in the current dog-training climate, I think it's safe to use 'punishment' here to describe leash corrections and penny-cans). Personally, I DO think it's a valuable book, but just needed to have a slightly broader scope to apply to us. Thankfully, I read this book just to add to my training toolbox, so it doesn't matter if it fell flat. But I was a bit surprised. Just like people, I suppose, dogs are all individuals.