Understanding Your Dog For Dummies Book

Introduction     1
About This Book     1
Conventions Used in This Book     2
What You're Not to Read     2
Foolish Assumptions     2
How This Book Is Organized     3
The Fascinating World of Dogs     3
Embracing Your Dog's Identity     3
Doggie Delinquency     3
Dogs Don't Misbehave: Misperceptions and Solutions     4
The Part of Tens     4
Icons Used in This Book     4
Where to Go from Here     5
The Fascinating World of Dogs     7
A Dog for Life: Dog Psychology 101     9
Is Your Dog a Wolf in Sheep's Clothing?     9
People and dogs: Parallel evolution     9
Personality     10
Sensory overload     10
Age Influences     11
Influencing Your Dog's Learning     12
Ain't Misbehaving!     13
Why dogs act out     13
Dissecting daily frustrations     14
When reality bites: Inside canine aggression     14
Understanding Your Dog     15
How Dogs Came to Be Dogs     15
In the beginning     16
First move, wolves     17
Second move, humans     18
Perpetual puppies     19
Behavioral Traits Bred in the Bone     22
Curing the Dog with an Overdeveloped Chasing Instinct     23
Understanding Your Dog's Sex Life     25
The truth about spaying and neutering     27
Now or later? The best age to spay or neuter a dog     28
Communicating with Your Dog     29
An English to Doglish Translation     29
Seeing Eye to Eye     30
Interpreting Vocal Tones and Intonations     33
Making the Most of What You Say     34
Listen to Your Dog's Voice     34
Reading Body Talk     38
The ups and downs of the ears     42
Facial signals     43
Tail talk     44
Seeing Life from Your Dog's Perspective     47
Like Person, Like Dog (Similarities and Differences)     47
Your Dog Needs Affection     48
Group identity     49
Using reflection and praise to influence behavior     50
How Hierarchy Differs from Democracy     51
It's in their genes     52
Asserting benevolent authority     54
Establishing your social status      57
Reinforcing Good Manners     60
Embracing Your Dog's Identity     61
Identifying Your Dog's Individuality     63
Identifying Your Dog's Personality     64
The Puppy Personality Test     65
Preparing for the test     65
Giving the test     67
Evaluating Your Adult Dog     76
Scoring the personality tests     77
Interpreting the personality tests     78
Interpreting Your Dog's Breed-Specific Traits     83
What Are Dog Breeds?     83
A New Breed of Dog Classification     84
Sporting dogs     85
Hounds     86
Working dogs     88
Terriers     89
Toy dogs     90
Herding dogs     90
Nonsporting dogs     91
Predicting Behavior from Breed     91
Intelligence and learning ability     92
Dominance and territoriality     92
Sociability     93
Emotional reactivity     93
Energy level     94
Sensory Perceptions     95
Sight, Psychology, and Survival     95
Are dogs colorblind?     96
Do dogs have night vision?     97
What about vision on the move?     98
Hearing the World     99
Hearing capacities in comparison     99
Breeds, genetics, and deafness     100
What a Dog's Nose Knows     103
Born to sniff     103
Your dog's unique nose     104
Meeting the Needs of Your Growing Puppy     107
Creating a Lifelong Bond     107
Meeting your puppy's needs     108
Providing early lessons     109
Conditioning     110
Preventing Problems     112
Aggressive puppy     112
Hyper puppy     113
Timid puppy     113
Socializing Your Puppy     114
Creating a positive association     117
Exploring places     118
Meeting other people     119
Exposing to sounds     120
Introducing objects     121
Meeting other animals     122
Reading and Communicating as Your Dog Ages     123
Discovering Your Dog's True Age     123
Battling an Aging Body     125
Diminishing Awareness     127
When hearing fades     127
When vision fades      130
Remembering the Aging Mind     133
Alzheimer's disease in dogs?     133
Solutions for a fading mind     134
Doggie Delinquency     137
Inspiring Behavior with Motivational Techniques     139
Choosing Training Tools and Gadgets     140
Collars     141
Leashes     142
Clicker-happy training     146
Targeting     148
Magical learning tools     149
Using a Reward System     150
Treats and toys     150
Meals     152
Tailoring Your Rewards to Your Dog's Personality     153
Assertive     153
Fearful     154
Rescue dogs     155
Shaping Behaviors     156
Luring with food     156
Using pressure points to direct     157
Modeling as an example     158
Helping Your Dog Learn from Everyday Living     159
Consistency Counts     159
Monitoring Human Behavior     161
Living with Kids and Dogs     163
Avoidance 101     166
Soothing your dog's fear     166
When discipline instills fear      167
The ingredients of a good correction     168
Happy Training, Happy Tails     171
I'm the Leader! Follow Me!     171
Whoever is in front is in charge     172
Permission training     175
Meeting and greeting     175
Teaching Impulse Control     176
Verbal discouragements     176
Teaching the down     178
Stay     179
Settle down     180
Reconnection     181
The indispensable "Come"     181
Off-leash control     183
Dogs Don't Misbehave: Misperceptions and Solutions     185
Addressing and Solving Problem Behavior     187
Personal Philosophy and the Problem Dog     187
Denning Your Dog     191
Silencing Excessive Barking     192
Dogs that bark at neighbors     193
Excessive barking in the yard     194
Other nuisance barking     195
Barking in the car     196
Chewing     196
Putting a Damper on Jumping     197
Greeting Jumping     198
Company jumping     199
Housetraining     200
The housetraining routine      201
When accidents happen     202
Countering Anxiety-Based Behavior     205
The Face of Fear     205
Using social skills to resolve conflict     207
Recognizing signs of stress     208
The Leaky Dog Syndrome     209
Stopping the leak     210
Curbing Separation Anxiety     211
How it all begins     213
Solving isolation and anxiety problems     214
Soothing Fears and Phobias     216
Playing through fear     218
Working through fear     219
Understanding and Resolving Aggressive Behavior     221
Recognizing the Signs     221
Reading body language     222
Evaluating aggressive tendencies     223
Factoring in Breed Traits     224
Ruling Out Medical Factors     226
Identifying Different Types of Aggression     229
Dominance aggression     229
Possessive aggression     231
Fear-based aggression     233
Territorial aggression     233
Predatory aggression     233
Maternal aggression     234
Controlling Aggression     235
Preventing Aggression      237
Figuring Out Whether Neutering Helps     238
The Part of Tens     241
Ten Forms of Silent Communication     243
Eye Contact     243
Body Posture     245
Touch     245
Your Demeanor     246
Unresponsiveness     246
Mirrored Motion     247
Looking at Your Dog Less     247
Hand Signals     248
Body Position     248
Lure Touching     248
Ten Common Misunderstandings     249
Every Dog Wants to Be Leader of the Pack     249
A Wagging Tail Means a Happy and Friendly Dog     250
Dogs Understand Human Language     250
A Fearful Dog Won't Bite     251
Dogs Know When They've Done Wrong     251
Dogs Sometimes Behave Out of Spite     252
Dogs Hate Cats     252
Dogs Like It When You Hug Them     253
Your Stress Has No Effect on Your Dog     253
Dogs' Licks Are Kisses     254
Ten Ways to Become Your Dog's Leader     255
Control the Resources     255
Teach Your Dog to Mind Her Manners     255
Reserve High Places for Humans      256
Emphasize Your Right of Way     256
Use Time-Outs to Control Unruly Behavior     257
Empathize     258
Organize Space and Activities     259
Practice Full Body Handling     259
Restore Predictability     260
Highlight the Positive     260
Index     261