I am nearly finished with this book and I have thoroughly enjoyed it.

In the first chapter, I grew somewhat impatient. It seemed a bit overwritten. Mostly though it addressed the question, still alive in scientific circles, of whether or not dogs feel emotions; I think I was more impatient with the question than the writing. As a dog person, I've answered this question to my own satisfaction: of course they do! And indeed, over the course of the book, the author makes a very strong scientific case for the fact that, yes, dogs almost certainly do feel emotions.

What I loved about the book is the author's combination of experience and passion for dogs. Her experience is in helping problem dogs. So much wisdom here. I saw my own dogs from a new perspective. I even saw myself from a new perspective. She discusses what science has discovered about both human and canine brains and how it applies to emotion. Fascinating stuff.

She tells delightful stories about her own dogs and dogs she has known professionally.

She is a good writer, good story teller and this is a great book.

Obviously written by a new Author. The amount repetition in this book can become overwhelmingly irritating. The information it does give is certainly worth knowing, and is why I gave the book two stars.

Dr. McConnell is extremely knowledgeable about animal behaviors and is able to intelligently and humorously help people to better understand their animal companions. I found this book to be her best ever.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who has a dog in their family. You will be amazed at how much it will help to know what your dog is trying to tell you.

For The Love Of A Dog
Patricia McConnell is an absoltely brilliant woman. I've been a breeder/owner/trainer of German Shepherds for most of my life as well as a trainer/behaviorist of different breeds for many years. This is the most complete information compiled I have ever read. I would even go so far as to say it's my "Bible" for truly understanding how dogs perceive all of life. To make it even easier to comprehend, Ms McConnell even gives analogies relating to human behavior. If I could've given it a hundred stars in the evaluation, I would've! A must read for ANYONE who desires to have a real connection with their canine companions.

For The Love Of A Dog
Patricia McConnell is an absoltely brilliant woman. I've been a breeder/owner/trainer of German Shepherds for most of my life as well as a trainer/behaviorist of different breeds for many years. This is the most complete information compiled I have ever read. I would even go so far as to say it's my "Bible" for truly understanding how dogs perceive all of life. To make it even easier to comprehend, Ms McConnell even gives analogies relating to human behavior. If I could've given it a hundred stars in the evaluation, I would've! A must read for ANYONE who desires to have a real connection with their canine companions.

Patricia McConnell is now my favorite writer. This book helps us to understand your dog more. Isn't that what we all want?

Forget Caesar...Patricia McConnell has written some of the best, most informative books about dogs, language, and behavior you will ever read...hands down. Every dog owner should read this book, and even those who don't have dogs...a lot can be learned.

As a trainer, I work with many fearful and reactive dogs. I found the Fear chapter in For the Love of a Dog very useful for helping my clients to understand WHY their dogs behave the way they do. The explanations of how dogs experience fear were excellent.

I think the whole book is terrific for a readers with an intense interest in dog behavior.

I was impressed with the information included in this book. Patricia McConnell knows how to tell a story and has a wealth of information to share. Since reading this book, I have purchased several other books by her, all very good.

This book not only helped me to understand, relate, and communicate with my dogs, but myself as well.
Buy this book if you want to become closer to your furbaby. I've read many books on animal behavior and communication and this one is at the top.
Spend a few bucks on this book. You won't be disappointed.

Thouroughly enjoying the book. It's really beneficial in terms of helping to understand what our dogs might be thinking and feeling.

The book arrived quickly as always from Amazon.com The author is someone I've followed for years, she explains things so fully and lovingly, I had so many "ahaa" moments while reading it. Her love of her dogs is palpable and yet she loves them precisely because they are dogs and not furry humans. It is so wonderful to know there are people in this world who feel like I do about my dogs, they are my family, my children and I can never stop being amazed at how they view the world and how they share their lives so willingly with us. I love watching them play, investigate and run with such unbridled joy, they open up doors to my heart and she sees these things too and writes it so well. Many good pointers on training and modification too.

I have all of Patricia McConnell's books. I have found her books to be the best for help with training dogs.

McConnell's writings are always very readable, intertwined with theory, practice and real life experiences. She helps humans and dogs share their lives in a way that is fulfilling for both. I have enjoyed all of her writings.

"My goal in life is to be the man that my dog thinks I am .."
--- Anonymous

Dog trainer Patricia McConnell has written a fascinating and persuasive book exploring the emotional bonds that form between humans and their dogs.

Some highlights of this excellent book:
* How to "read" dogs' body language to detect signs of trouble, aggression and temperament -- emotional IQ for canines!
* Some hilarious photos showing the similarities of emotional expressions on the faces of dogs
* Tips on working with a dog to training it and control, its behavior
* Suggestions on picking a puppy and tests to use to detect aggressive dogs or ones with behavioral problems
* Touching stories and vignettes that illustrate the depth of relationship between people and dogs

"FETCH" ... this book. It may not turn you into a "dog whisperer," but it will improve your skills in relating to your canine friends.

Anyone who loves dogs or is interested in dog behavior and psychology will enjoy "For the Love of a Dog." !

This author continues to produce book after book that I will keep, send on to friends and/or re-read for years to come. She clearly has a very deep appreciation and understanding of the bond between people and their dogs-- or should I say, dogs and their people!

My secret PIN for Amazon is my dog's name, so I am one of the people for whom this book: "For the Love of a Dog" was written. It is especially appealing in the number of anecdotes about dogs and their love for human beings. The author clearly 1) knows about dog behavior, and 2) loves dogs. She is exceptionally well read and brings in facts and opinions from many sources old and new. Thus the book has a pretty good balance of science and emotion. It even has pictures!

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was so wonderful insight. It was great that the author shared her emotions and I could easily relate to them and finally get a better understanding. To me, it was a good mixture of emotions and physical explanations. I share many books, but not this one. I'm recommending it to members of my dog groups and will be buying copies for gifts.

I have already read "The Other End of the Leash" and found this book to be just as enjoyable and informative as that one. And although the subject matter overlaps a bit (both deal with better understanding and communicating with our canine friends), I still learned a great deal. While "Leash" deals primarily with the differences in the ways primates (we) and canines (they) express ourselves (eg, we like to hug; they don't), this book illustrates how similar we are in the ways we express our emotions (eg, we both open our eyes wide when frightened).

Dr McConnell relates results from research into animal emotions, which gives her writing great credibility, as talking about emotions is a tricky business, especially emotions in animals. Yet she makes the science very easy to understand and combines it with stories of her own dogs and of her clients' dogs to illustrate her points. And it's all presented in her inimitable style: humorous, intelligent, a little self-deprecating. And she obviously loves her subject matter and wants us all to understand our furry friends better.

This is not a how-to training book, but rather a guide to understanding your dog better. It has already helped me read my dog better and has changed the way I interact with her.

If you have dogs or just like dogs, read this book and "The Other End of the Leash," keep the research and advice in mind, and you will enrich your relationship with your canine friend(s) (and maybe even some human ones) in ways you can't even imagine.

Book: "For The Love of a Dog"
Looking forward to reading this awesome book on dogs.
Great service from Amazon!

This book is very cute, I felt that the author was speaking directly to me as a friend. I learned A LOT about dog behavior, and now analyze every move my dog makes... in order to better understand dogs in general. This was so informative yet impossible to put down!

This book was a little too text booky for me. Not all that interesting

I love to read dog books that are wonderful, heartwarming stories that I can learn from. Dr. McConnell has given us those stories (some, sadly, not so heartwarming), along with a huge dose of the scientific explanations of emotions in humans and dogs. I run from science - not my type of reading at all. But I was enthralled with the wonderful information in this book, made possible by the layperson-oriented writings. Just in the time I've been reading the book, I have seen so many things in my dog that I had not known before.

Besides being a wonderful book, easy to understand as well as captivating, the Reference section is amazing. Not only does she give us her chapter-by-chapter references, but she has notes about the ones that were most helpful in her research, and why. It seems to be a great jumping-off place for further learning.

I got this book from my local library, but it is at the top of my Christmas list as something that I have to own. I can see myself using this information for years to come.

I am a dog trainer who works with a lot of novice dog owners. This book is really helpful in explaining to clients what their dogs may really be feeling and why. It is a great book for anyone who wants to understand their dog and improve the relationship. Although it is not a dog training book, it is very helpful to improve training success and communication. It is also an enjoyable read.

My partner and I have a beautiful and loving Shetland Sheepdog as part of our family. I purchased this book in an attempt to better understand him, why he does the things that he does, how to know if he's happy, and what I can do if he's not.

Patricia McConnell writes with such warm concern and intimate tone that you feel as though you're sharing a cup of coffee or tea with her somewhere. Her writing is lucid and witty, her anecdotes personal and insightful, and her level of detail and explanation show a deep, genuine passion for what she does.

McConnell addresses the question of whether dogs (and indeed animals in general) feel emotions, and if they are aware of them. While she presents both sides of the argument down to the scientific explanations either way, she is quick to share her belief and experience that dogs do feel, express, and may be aware of their emotions - though not in the same way as humans - and she devotes entire chapters to emotions such as fear, anger, happiness, and love to show exactly how that is.

She details examples of a dog's facial expressions and posture (with pictures) and then compares them to those of humans to illustrate their physical similarities and how they surface on similar occasions. From this we can argue that just as we show happiness by pulling up the corners of our mouths, crinkling our eyes, and rounding our face, so too must a dog showing these same facial features (plus the added wagging tail) be interpreted as a happy dog. The fact that a dog never exhibits all of these features together and then, say, bites a human can be submitted as proof that the dog is feeling happy. While this may seem obvious to many of us, McConnell is quick to discuss scientists of both today and centuries ago who discredited this explanation as hopelessly anthropomorphic, believing these to be simply automatic and emotionless responses to external stimuli.

McConnell also explains the important differences between human and dog behavior. I had no idea that dogs prefer not to be hugged. I never would've questioned it until seeing her pictures and reading the discomfort in her dogs' faces, and then even trying it out on my own dog and feeling him remain motionless and looking away. Indeed she argues that many adult dogs have learned that hugging is a human expression, which they'll tolerate, but caution must be had with puppies who may feel threatened by this behavior.

These kinds of differences sometimes are the cause of negative relations between a human and his pet dog. McConnell's job as an Animal Behaviorist is meant to bring both human and pet to a kind of understanding when possible, to enable the human to read his dog's signals, and, more often than not, to train the human to be conscious of his actions and movements in order not to mistakenly give off the wrong signal.

This book provides a wealth of information about these topics and more, such as how our brain differs from that of our dogs, how to train or condition your dog to be loyal and obedient, and what to do when you need help, for she reassures owners that they can't always do everything. I greatly enjoyed and recommend reading this book, and am eagerly reading her other book, The Other End of the Leash.

I was looking for a book to teach me some training tips. This is not it. I can't seem to find one that simply says, "Do this, and this and the dog will do this and in two weeks he/she will be a happier dog and you will be stress free!" There ain't one. This is a story about her love for her dogs and it is a great story, but buy it for a story, not training.

I am not much of a reader and decided to get this cd set to listen to in the car during my commute to work. I just finished the last (10th) cd. I don't know what to do with myself while driving now. The radio doesn't interest me anymore. I began listening to the cds again! I am going to buy 2 of the books, one for me and one for a friend. I will use mine to highlight items I want to reference regularly.

Truly, if you want to understand your dog, and any other, better, you can't beat this book! It was very worthwhile. Too bad every dog trainer hasn't read this book.

I volunteer at a shelter as a dog walker. I walk the dogs who are new to the shelter and they have yet to be behavior evaluated. Tips in this book will help me "read" the dogs and understand what they are feeling.

Get this book (or cd set)!!! You won't be sorry!

Not all the way thru yet but the book shares much of my own philosophy. Worth reading.

This is one of the best tools I've found for helping me understand the world my dog lives in. As a sidebar - there is a series of photos including both humans and canines, showing expressions and pointing out what they mean. Having looked through it thoroughly, I was in hysterics after logging in to a blog and seeing a group of "happy party photos" - once I'd looked at her photos, the *real* message of the party shots was unavoidable, from the smile that said "take one more photo and I'll drown you in the gazpacho" to the frozen, fear-filled shy person, barring her teeth in one of the most uncomfortable smiles I've ever seen. So this is not only good for understanding your dog - but also for paying attention to the real messages on the people faces around you!

This is a great book! I first purchased it as an audiobook, then purchased the hardcover. Now, I am listening to the audiobook for the second time, and am amazed all over again. If you are interested in the way your brain works, the way dogs learn, the way animals in general learn, this book is fascinating. It is not a how-to book, so you won't be able to train your dog after reading this book. But it will help you understand your dog (and yourself!)

I was expecting this audio to be something like a cross between dog psychology and "Marley and Me." It was exclusively the psychology of dog behavior, and is not easy listening.

This book gave me a very clear, interesting glimpse into the mind of dogs and enabled me to interpret their body language.

This is a wonderful book providing clear and comprehensible insight into similarities and differences between the way a dog brain and a human brain work. While reading it, I kept thinking "that makes sense...OK...now I get it." I am incorporating newly acquired ideas into my relationship with my dog and we are both better for it.

I made the mistake of getting the audio book expecting a light but informative read... big mistake: this is one read chock full of morsels... the type of book that has stuff you want to come back to, cross reference, read backwards and forwards on, and really get into, and that's why I like this book so much... Though written for a lay audience, after reading this book you may very well find yourself wanting to do what the author does (technically speaking she's an animal beahviorist, but her approach is so multi-disciplinary, you'll find yourself dabbling in a wide variety of fields from social psychology, animal beahvior to the neurosciences and beyond.) And yes... there are heard warming doggie stories that draw you into the heavy anecdotes about how the chemistry of our brains and our pets brains make us think and behave the the way we do... McConnell also makes some compelling arguements that may very well change the way you think as well... or atleast how you read, understand and react to your dog. - - though not a how-to book, she does offer plenty of ideas... in fact, I'd say that although this is not a dog training book, I wouldn't suggest getting a puppy, and training your dog UNTIL reading through it. (I got a real kick out of her suggested experiment with lifting your dog's back leg and noting how his licks... its true!)

(Note: some of her conclusions may have to be taken with a grain of salt... but they will get you thinking.) All in all, this is one book that never gets boring... and is definitely puppy chow for the medula oblongada (if you don't know what that is she'll explain.)

Think of it as EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE for doglovers!

If there is any books that you need on your shelf to strengthen your understanding and attachment to our best friends it is this or any of the others by McConnell.
What I have learned from her is much appreciated by my Carolina Dog. "At last, my two-legged is evidencing an intelligence and behaving in a manner worthy of a four-legged's attention." Other's in McConnell's league are Cesear Milan and Turid Rugaas. McConnell has a delightful radio program live from Wisconsin too!

This is a very good book and should be read by everyone that has a dog.