[Dailydrool] Patricia B. McConnell books on understanding dogs, shy dogs, and separation anxiety

[Pam McQuade]

Recently I was writing/compiling a book about dogs (you may hear more about 
it when it comes out, but I just sent it to the publisher). I hit the 
library for information and ran across a really good book/writer.

When I worked at Moon Doggie, one of the customers was taking courses on 
behavioral training. Patricia B. McConnell was running it, and he could not 
find enough good things to say about her.  So when I found her book THE 
OTHER END OF THE LEASH: WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO AROUND DOGS, I had to grab it. 
I have been picking at the book a bit, but last night I got the chance to 
sit down for a while and really read. I'm about fifty pages into it, and I 
think this is a wonderful book for those of us who want to understand how 
dogs think. I mostly picked it up to try to get a handle on our difficult 
Abner. But I am enjoying learning about all the ways we mistakenly 
communicate with our hounds, even the easy-to-understand ones. She explains 
how humans think and how dogs think. Often we seem to be on such totally 
separate courses that it's amazing we communicate at all. For example, we 
probably all think the best way to train a dog is with spoken commands, but 
according to a study, most dogs respond to body language more consistently 
than to voice commands.

She's one of those behavioral people with a PhD, but she is so wise about 
dogs in a commonplace way, too. It's obvious that she adores her own 
dogs--she has a Great Pyrenees and a number of border collies. But she 
understands that not all dogs are border-collie obedient and tells of her 
own troubles communicating accurately with her dogs. She is definitely a 
trainer who believes in gentle training methods.

When I went to look online for it, I discovered she has two other booklets 
that might help other Droolers. Though I have not read them, I can imagine 
she could be very helpful. The books are:

CAUTIOUS CANINE: HOW TO HELP DOGS CONQUER THEIR FEARS (30 pages, $6.25 at 
Barnes & Noble)
I'LL BE HOME SOON: HOW TO PREVENT AND TREAT SEPARATION ANXIETY (37 pages, 
$6.30 at Barnes & Noble)

I'm enjoying THE OTHER END OF THE LEASH so much, I plan to put it on my 
Christmas list. I need to read and reread this book, and maybe even mark it 
up a bit (something I never do with books). There's a lot of good 
information here.
Pam, food slave to the Dashing Bassets