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Product Description
From Amazon
From Publishers Weekly
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
It may strike readers as odd to find a book associating monks and dogs. Read the first page
Concordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Don't misunderstand the monks!,
By Sannah Zay "suncat23" (San Jose, CA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: How to Be Your Dog's Best Friend: The Classic Manual for Dog Owners (Hardcover)
Don't let the bad reviews scare you... this book is too valuable to allow yourself to be dissuaded by politically-correct morons who take the monk's ideas out of context. Truly, every bad review I have read on Amazon completely overstate and misrepresent the monk's ideas on physical discipline. The monks do NOT advocate beating your dog. They also ONLY support physical discipline for SEVERE transgressions, such as violent behavior by the dog or serious household destruction, NOT as a way to teach your dog to sit or stay. Also, they are very specific about how to use physical discipline, which is helpful... for instance, they say you should never use an object to hit your dog, you should never hit a dog from behind or above, and in fact you shouldn't need to hit your dog unless ABSOLUTELY necessary, when other methods fail. Physical discipline is NOT a first recourse for the monks.Having said that, they also try to emphasize (in a very helpful way) that a dog is not a person! All too often, people anthropomorphize their dogs. They are DOGS! The monks understand the animal that is a dog, and try to have this understanding be as independent as possible from humanity, aside from the human-dog relationship. Therefore, dogs expect a certain degree of physical discipline that is entirely appropriate (look at how a mother disciplines her pups) which MAY NOT BE APPROPRIATE FOR HUMANS! Do not mistake dogs for people... the monks are not suggesting that you use physical discipline on your children! You may well find an effective approach that does not involve physical discipline... which is fine. According to the monks, however, this only serves to alleviate your own HUMAN feelings of guilt. The monks simply believe that physical discipline is appropriate and non-cruel when done appropriately and with a high level of respect for the dog. As far as the rest of the book goes, it is a complete tome of all aspects of the human-dog relationship. Even if you don't agree with physical discipline, there is no other more complete book touching on each subject. Do not deprive yourself of this excellent overview of dog raising. The monks may not go into many details for some of the subjects, but they provide an extensive list for further reading on specific subjects, which is much appreciated. All in all, an outstanding reference book. Highly recommended to anyone to read cover-to-cover before even getting a dog, regardless of your agreement with them on all issues.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
This book saved my dog!,
By
This review is from: How to Be Your Dog's Best Friend: The Classic Manual for Dog Owners (Hardcover)
The first day I had my rescue dog he snapped at my 1-year-old daughter. I was contemplating sending him back, but someone suggested this book to help teach him "pack" behavior, i.e. that he is lower in the pack hierarchy than my daughter. It wasn't long before my daughter could safely do anything with him. I was also able to housebreak him, crate train him, and just make him a good dog based on the training techniques.Yes, the discipline techniques can seem a little extreme, but they are by no means inhumane. And they WORK because the dog understands. My dog usually "got it" after one time and stopped the behavior. I have not had to discipline him for anything in several years. Now he understands from just a look, a word or a gesture. This book helped us get to that point. Highly recommended!
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Please take some time to study canine behaviour before....,
This review is from: How to Be Your Dog's Best Friend: The Classic Manual for Dog Owners (Hardcover)
accepting the training methods that use harsh, physical treatment. I have viewed this book but stopped short at the "how hard should you hit your dog?|" section that just left a hollow spot in my stomach. If you are looking to be a trainer for your dog, please do some reading on canine behaviour first. Read some books by Stanley Coren, Jean Donaldson, Karen Pryor, and Ian Dunbar to learn about canine behaviour (ie., domestic dogs are not wolves! The "you must be the dominant controller" views are not consistent with dog behaviour studies today) and then start down the dog training route. We have many canine behaviourists who are dog trainers, but we unfortunately have far too many dog trainers that are not canine behavourists, and there is a very important difference! Physical punishment, dominance, and other harsh training methods, while perhaps achieving what you need in the short term on some dogs, usually end up causing highly stressed/anxious and/or aggressive dogs. There are better ways to develop the preferred behaviours in your house pet and this information is based on sound canine behaviour studies which show the value of positive reinforcement for both the short term and long term gain for shaping behaviours. And, is it not time to move away from such outdated thinking that "might is right"? That is not the way canine behaviour is shaped most of the time, and there are much better ways.
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