Customer Reviews

Cat Speak: How To Learn It, Speak It, And Use It To Have A Happy, Healthy, Well-Mannered Cat

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I haven't finished the book, so I might revise my review later, but so far (about halfway through the book) I haven't learned anything new. In addition, I've found several bits of information that are either outdated or completely wrong. There is no bibliography in the book, which leads me to believe there was no research beyond the author's observations. In my opinion, a much better book on cat behavior is "Think Like a Cat" by Pam Johnson-Bennett

This book is probably extremely helpful for people in a few categories. It would be quite helpful to someone who wants to train a cat for show business or for cat shows; it would also be extremely helpful to someone who has never been around cats, someone who has been around cats but doesn't really understand them, someone who wants to learn basics about different cat breeds, or someone who is going to be living with a cat for the first time.

I had lived with cats before by the time I read this book, and I found most of the provided information to be fairly obvious. Feline body language, for instance, is one topic covered by the text. There were some bits that were interesting and/or surprising to me, though. For example, there is a short section on chattering. My present cat does sometimes chatter, but previous cats I'd known never did, so this topic was new for me.

The portion of the book about cat selection was not all that insightful, to my mind. If I did want to adopt a purebred cat, I'd want to research breeds in more depth than the book offered; but my cat came from a shelter, and I felt like the only advice the author had that applied to "impure" breeds was to make sure that the individual cat to be adopted was healthy and well-adjusted.

If you're looking for basics on cats, breed selection, cat training, and/or cat mannerisms, this book is an excellent choice for you. If you're already familiar with cat behavior and have no interest in extensive training, however, the book won't tell you much that you need to know.

This is a comprehensive book about the intial stages of selecting and adopting a cat, how to take care of it, and how to give it rudimentary training in behaving itself. It does not go beyond that. The style of writing is easygoing and accessible, but it offers no spark of insight into feline behavior you might expect from a great animal trainer. If you know anyting about caring for a cat, this book will offer little or nothing new, and an encyclopedia like Cats for Dummies might be a bit more worthwhile since it comes packed with more data. For those of you seeking quality writing about cats, "Do Cats Think?" is a much better book written by a naturalist with a passion for felines.

Dibra may be the big Hollywood dog trainer but he doesn't know cats. He and Randolph don't make a smooth transition into cat expertise very convincingly. I found myself repeatedly thinking I was reading old cliche information rather than firsthand knowledge.

The writing style is clumsy and outdated and didn't tell me anything I didn't already know about my cats. This book confirmed what I always suspected about so called "trainers to the stars". They spend too much time rubbing elbows with the famous and not enough time developing true expertise.

This is one of those great gifts to get all your cat loving friends or ones that are considering adopting a feline friend. I love when Bash suggests to ask your cat to do something rather than to tell them. It really works! An enjoyable and educational read.

This book was purrfect. I have always spoken to my "girls" but now have a better understanding of their special ways of communicating. The book was insightful and educational. Written simply and easy to comprehend, I felt as though Mr. Dibra was speaking directly to my family.

I had borrowed this book from the library before buying a copy on Amazon. I've only read a handful of cat books, but this one seemed pretty good. The actual "Cat speak" portion of the book was kinda small, but the general cat info thorough the rest of the book was useful.

This is a helpful book for people "who are owned by their cats". It does help to be able to interpret some behaviors. I think all cats are different just like people are so some of the information does not seem to hold true to my cat, but overall it is a very helpful book

I've owned cats all my life but they still do things for reasons I can't comprehend. I was hoping to get some insight from this book but most of what Bash Dibra writes about can be ascertained by living with a cat for a few years. I found a few bits of new information. He seems to have a good grip on how to train cats to do things that usually only dogs do. If that is your goal this would be a good read.

If you've been around cats a few years already and are really looking to find a deeper understanding of your cats behavior I would say to keep looking but if cats are totally new to you this would probably be a helpful book to read.

Wasn't really impressed with this book. It's mostly common sense and can't really say I learned anything from this book, -sorry.