Customer Reviews

Canine Body Language: A Photographic Guide Interpreting the Native Language of the Domestic Dog

5 star:		(60)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I found this a fascinating book. I bought a copy on a whim for my dad for Xmas, then thought it looked so interesting that I bought myself a copy days later. It is along the lines of some of Turid Rugaas' work, talking about and showing in photos some of the body language dogs exhibit. I've always found it interesting that I can watch two of my dogs interacting and say "that's just play" whereas my parents think they are trying to kill each other, or they might think everything is fine but I saw an ear movement that tells ME there is trouble brewing. This book explains and shows some of the minute details of doggie body language that I am reading. And after reading the book, my dad was able to understand what he should be looking for, and he can actually see the dogs' communication much better. The photo quality in the book is not the best, but along with the engaging text, gets the message across.

I volunteer at a shelter and am fascinated by temperment testing. While I have the benefit of watching a wonderful temperment tester each week, reading this book has been an incredible education. Now when I watch dogs tested, I can see what our tester is seeing... the freezing, the whale eye, the stress behaviors, and so on. I'm learning to better judge how a given dog reacts to other dogs or to cats.

For me, the benefits include being better able to know how to handle the dogs because I can better judge their personalities and shape my behavior to them, know how the dogs I handle are reacting to various stimuli, and be able to tell perspective adopters more about the dogs than I previously could.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who either works with dogs or owns a dog. You can't go wrong. The photos are so clear and the writing so easily understandable, that everyone can absorb the information. Be warned though... you'll want to read this book over and over and over again until the pages are well worn. It's just THAT good!

A great picture anthology of dogs being dogs. This is a very helpful book in that is captures a snapshot of canine emotion to help increase our awareness of dog-dog and dog-human communication. I have often utilized this book in my therapy work with children to help describe emotions. Well-organized by themes with clear photos.
Kate Nicoll, LCSW
author of Soul Friends: Finding Healing with Animals

I, and everyone I've shown it to, have found this book very educational. I thought I'd just use it as a reference, looking up specific body language as needed (which is a very good use for it), but I find myself reading it cover to cover because it's so fascinating. I've had dogs all my life, and trained them and loved them, but I can't believe how ignorant I was about their body language. As I read the book I see these behaviors in my dog and wonder how I could have been so unobservant. I think even folks who know a lot about dogs and training can learn some things from this. I plan to buy more to use as gifts.

The best book I own to clearly illustrate what I need to watch for in all sorts of circumstances with my dog, other dogs and the world. From scared, to aggressive to unsure to friendly and beyond, I can review a moment in time to demonstrate what it looks like, and read good advice that a single piece of body language alone doesn't mean everything, but a flood of them or constant, unabated behavior is something to pay attention to. I would recommend this book to any dog owner/lover that wants to better understand what dogs are saying to other dogs and to you! Worth more than it costs, and will be used as a reference for a lifetime.

We rescued an abused Great Dane puppy 3-4 months ago. She had been mistreated by 2 females in her short 6 month life, so she hated women. Within a month, I had been to the local ER twice with dog bites(not puppy mouthing, but snarl/lunge/attack bites). A behaviorist recommended this book as a way to identify the triggers and expressions that would tell me that the pup's very low fear aggression threshold was about to be crossed. With knowledge from this book along with many exercises and activities, the pup, now 85 lbs. is starting to calm down. This book has probably saved her life as we had to get her volatile and frenzied behaviors under control before she gained another 50 lbs.

A must read for all dog owners. Now we feel sad about how previous pups had communicated with us, and we were too dumb to catch the messages they were sending!

Good, but could be a lot more professionally written and photographed for the price. The quality of the photos is only very average. The explanations for each picture are at times too brief leaving the reader a bit confused. For example, I found it frustrating to be told some behavior is a displacement signal or a negotiation signal, but not define what the author means by the term displacement, etc. I was rather disappointed in this book.

As I am studying to be a "Bowen Therapy Practitioner for Animals" or CCMRT, it is an important requirement for me to better my knowledge about our canine friends. I was recommended to obtain and read a few different titles so as to have a wide coverage of information.
After acquiring my first book "Canine Body Language" by Brenda Aloff, I realised just how little I did know about the intricacies of the canine communication, and just how polite their language with each other is.
This book opened a whole new world for me and I started noticing the understated communication that my own dogs conducted with each other.
I absolutely love this book with all of its photos and explanations. It makes it so much easier to notice what is happening just beneath your nose when it is so subtle.
This book is an absolute must for anyone wishing to understand their dog better, and it will certainly lead you to be a much better owner.
I would highly recommend it to all animal lovers.

I was very disappointed in this book. Since this book is supposed to be a photographic guide, I thought it would have good quality color photos in it. Instead, they are all grainy, blurry, black & white pictures. Some of the text is missing (?????????) on a couple pages, it just stops mid-sentence & does not continue onto the next page or anywhere else on the page. I did give it an 'It's Ok' rating though, because despite the bad photos & horrible editing, the author does explain in fairly good detail what specifically is going on in the dogs' minds when they are displaying certain looks or behaviors. But unless you have experience personally with dogs & can just know what the author is talking about, it would be hard to learn just from viewing the photos in this book. They aren't good enough quality photos for the novice dog owner/trainer to catch some of the more subtle 'looks' in the dogs pictured.

This book is definitely worth purchasing, I just wish that someone had maybe... given it a look over before it got published? A few (only 2 I think) pages are completely blank when they don't seem like they should be. A few pages stop mid-sentence... One page only has a single sentence where it seems there should be an entire section. The part about the greeting stretch. I actually went to that page on purpose to read it and there's one line, something like "Notice the look in this dog's eyes as he stretches." ... Okay?

I still recommend it because despite what some have said about the photos, I think they're quite good. They're dogs. Can you imagine how difficult it must have been to get some of these photos at all, with both or all the dogs reacting as desired? It's meant to be informative and it is.

The writing is funny which I appreciate, and there's a lot of valuable insight in this book.