Customer Reviews

Katz on Dogs: A Commonsense Guide to Training and Living with Dogs

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(10)
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2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Jon Katz has for years now been writing books that are insightful, funny, and moving; this one is all of that, but also very practical. I've had dogs for a long time, and I wasn't really in the market for a training book. But looking it over, I found myself thinking about some of these issues in a new way -- there are some very practical tips in here. Not just on the basic stuff like housebreaking and walking, either, but also more generally on how to train your dog to be calm and responsive and pleasant to live with (while still understanding that dogs are dogs, not children). And the strategies here are nicely down the middle of the line between too harsh, like some training tactics can be, and not firm enough.

This book is more than just a how-to guide, though. As with Katz's earlier books, it's also got a lot of interesting points to make about the role of dogs in society, what the dog-human relationship is and what it should be. Much more thought, not to mention good writing, obviously went into this than goes into most books in the genre.

A single guy living in the city, I adopted a retired racing greyhound a couple of months ago. I had lived with a couple of dogs before (not my own) and long wanted one for myself. This feeling intensified this year, and I got myself into a situation to bring one home. I was fortunate to bring home a dog who was already well socialized with people, large dogs, and even had some experiences with cats, and was good on a leash. As she and I adapted into life together (aided by a good guide to the breed and particular situation of retired racers), things were OK. But they weren't great. Although she was food motivated, she gets distrustful and resists situations where there are treats involved at the same time I'm trying to grab or hold her. This has made some grooming difficult, and also some basic training. She charged her food bowl, beginning to eat before it was fully set down.

Initially, this either annoyed or frustrated me. And since she was good on her leash and good with people and fairly good around most animals (especially larger ones), I wondered if that was good enough. But something in my mind felt like it wasn't. Yet none of the training material I looked at really felt like it addressed our situation - our moods, upbringing, etc.

I came across a column by Jon Katz online (which was taken from this book) which basically said it's dangerous to put too much of our own emotions onto our dogs - to think that they're mad at us for going to work, for example. Being reminded that my dog was just a dog, no matter how lovable or personable she can be, was the nudge that I needed. Shortly after reading that article, I saw this book at the bookstore and picked it up.

This book does not provide any grand theory on dog training. It will not teach you how to teach your dog to sit, shake, or roll over. But it is an extremely helpful book because it teaches us - the humans - the importance of training. Training, according to Katz, is how we help dogs navigate our big and confusing world. Training is ongoing. A six week course or one week of focusing on 'sit' is a good thing, but it doesn't end there. Our dogs need boundaries, and they're often looking to us to figure out how to get through situations. Untrained dogs are the ones stealing food from the table, jumping on guests, and so on. It's our responsibility as dog owners to recognize this, including its impact on other people (people met on the street, visitors to the house, etc).

Throughout the book, Katz relays many stories about other dog owners and their successes, failures, or successes wrested from what seemed to be certain failure. Most of these stories convey the message that it's important to understand the animal, the breed, and so on. They also convey that there are probably many modern society thoughts that are just wrong. Crates, for example, are not inhumane - dogs are den creatures and often do fine when they have a small safe space that they can go to. Just because we might not like being cooped up in a small space does not mean that dogs don't like it.

Just from reading half of the book, I was able to understand my relationship with my new dog better, and was able to approach our training differently. In just a couple of days, I started having the results that eluded me in our first couple of months - she sits (not as easy or natural for greyhounds as in other species, but still a good command to know to get a dog in one spot and focused), and I can keep her from charging her food bowl until I'm ready. These are small successes, but they feel very important to me and it is very gratifying to see them working.

I don't think they would have happened without this book. The book basically changed my way of thinking and understanding our relationship, and that's all that was really needed.

There is a lot of other helpful information in this book. It covers choosing a dog - basically understanding what you're looking for in an animal and choosing breeds and suppliers that would fit into your life. It's going to be more challenging to keep an intense working breed like a Border Collie or Jack Russell Terrier alone in an apartment all day, for example. The book covers things to be thought about when bringing in a second or third dog ("two is a pair, three is a pack"). It covers knowing when to put a dog down.

I recommend this book to anyone contemplating bringing a dog into their lives, or anyone who has brought one in and feels like the magic promise of "the perfect dog" hasn't shown itself yet. The perfect dog doesn't exist, but by better understanding our relationship with dogs and understanding that their needs and wants are simpler than ours, we can have a richer life together. It's already started to work for me and my greyhound, and as I've stated, it was just just a small adjustment to my thinking that caused things to improve so much. For me, I believe it was just helpful to have a book that seemed to deal a lot with the human side of the human-dog relationship.

Last year I spent a considerable sum of money having a professional trainer work with my beautiful but extremely strong-willed border collie, Mac. I wish I'd had a copy of "Katz on Dogs" before I hired someone to do what I now believe I could have done -- and enjoyed doing -- on my own.
What I love about this book is the confidence Katz gives you to be innovative in your training methods so you can shape behavior that works for your dog and your living situation.
What my border collies love about the book is that they're getting a lot more treats these days as I put into practice what Katz preaches: training should be an on-going process throughout your dog's life.

I was very disappointed in this book. I'd read a few things by Jon Katz, and I've owned dogs for 17 years so I'm not a novice owner or trainer by any means, but I picked up "Katz On Dogs" thinking that it would be an interesting read even if I already knew my way around the topics it covers.

I wasn't prepared for the way Katz seems to belittle people who do things differently than he does. There's a tone of defensiveness in a lot of his writing in this book, and it grates. In the chapter "What to Buy, Whom to Trust" he writes about diet and veterinary care, and he cuts no slack to those of us who have opted to go beyond grocery-store kibble and the routine of annual vaccinations and unquestioning acceptance of conventional veterinary practices.

I've owned Shelties for years, and in 1998 my dearest Sheltie was diagnosed with an inoperable cancer. He had a malignant tumor in his mouth. The vets told me he'd probably not make it to Christmas, which was eight weeks away. Chemotherapy and radiation weren't treatment options, so I was faced with taking my 7-year old dog home and watching him die. Instead of doing that, I enlisted the aid of an experienced herbalist. I spent hours and hours on the internet, reading everything I could find about canine cancer. I joined e-mail lists and visited internet boards. I treated my Sheltie's cancer with nutritional therapy: I gave him a dozen different supplements and fed him a diet of raw meat and raw vegetables, which I had balanced by a nutritionist. And my dog lived for 7 ½ years with that malignant tumor. His immune system and the cancer were in a standoff, and they remained so until January 2006, when at the age of 14 years and 7 months, my Sheltie died - not of cancer, but of old age and liver failure.

My willingness to educate myself as a dog owner made an incredible difference to my Sheltie - and to my other Shelties, and to me. I would never discourage anyone from learning whatever they can about canine health and nutrition. But Katz seems to do just that. He says that "the mass media in general, and the Internet in particular, have made instant medical authorities out of everybody... In this culture of suspicion and passion for alternatives, many have grown skeptical of traditional veterinary protocols. They believe that vets are too quick to vaccinate dogs, that they give unnecessary shots in order to make money, that they're under the sway of pet-food companies and pharmaceutical houses."

While Katz seems to see some sort of tinfoil-hat conspiracy theory behind this, the fact is that over-vaccination of pet dogs and cats has been identified as a health hazard of enormous proportions. There are cancers and autoimmune diseases that have been linked to certain vaccinations, and an article in DVM Magazine in January 2003 explored a causative link between vaccinations and thyroid disease in dogs. Within the last three years, all 27 of the veterinary schools at U.S. universities have endorsed a protocol of vaccinations for dogs every three years, replacing the former protocol of annual shots. Their reasons? The health risks that are presented by repeating the injection of modified live viruses into our dogs every twelve months.

Katz states (page 140) that "this growing suspicion of conventions like ordinary dog food and mainstream veterinary care also reflects our intensifying emotionalization of dogs, their elevation to human status." What complete bosh. I don't even know what the phrase "intensifying emotionalization" means, but it's satisfyingly polysyllabic. Our growing suspicion of conventions like ordinary (read: grocery-store) dog food stems from our awareness that those foods more often than not contain preservatives like BHA and BHT, both of which are banned in many countries and are suspected carcinogens, and our ability to understand that a canine, which is a carnivore, will thrive more readily on a diet that includes high-quality protein sources and omits things like feed corn (the same stuff fed to cows to fatten them for the table, by the way) and beet pulp.

Whatever Katz feeds his dogs is no concern of mine, and if, as he states (page 142), he runs out of one brand of grocery-store food and he stops at the supermarket and "happily" fills in with another brand of grocery-store food "and my dogs have never skipped a beat" - well, that's great. But he ought not to disparage people who have learned that all of the foods he plugs in there (and I've omitted the brand names here) are poor-quality foods. He ought not to sneer at those of us who have found that conventional veterinary protocols do not suffice for our dogs and may even have harmed them. Katz says (page 142) "I could spend hours researching and struggling to comprehend competing claims about inoculations, or consult my vets and respect their judgment" - as if those two options are by definition mutually exclusive. Tens of thousands of dog owners have spent hours researching and comprehending the facts about immunizations. They don't leave the burden of their dogs' health care entirely to their vets, and their dogs are better off for their efforts, and their vets respect them for becoming informed pet owners.

Katz's advice about training is at best unexceptional and at worst actively hostile to the dog. He wrote that in advising the owner of a boisterous young Lab that had received no training as a puppy, "I suggested that she attach a leash and then step on it, perhaps a foot from his collar, while saying, 'Lie down,' and then, 'Stay.' Seamus [the dog] struggled for a bit at first, but couldn't get up, so he had no choice but to lie down and stay."

There are many better ways to train a dog to lie down, ways that don't force a dog's head to the ground and physically compel it to do something that it doesn't yet know. For anyone who wants a useful guide to dog training, good books on the subject have been written by Patricia McConnell, Kevin Behan, and Suzanne Clothier, among others. (And skip the Monks of New Skete books, which Katz recommends in his chapter "Some Useful Books" -- the Monks, who brought us the alpha roll and told us that we needed to fling our puppies onto their backs and roar into their faces in order to establish our "dominance" over them, have probably done more to promote incoherent training and reactive dog-bites than anyone since Bill Koehler.)

I spent $13.95 to buy "Katz On Dogs" and I regret the purchase. I wish I had sent the money to a rescue organization or a shelter, because then it would have done what this book will never do: actually help a dog.

I originally became interested in this book for two reasons. First, I'd read somewhere that Katz considers two dogs to be company and three to be, no, not a crowd, but a pack. I have five Newfies at the moment so my ears perked up at the reference to pack. Secondly, I was getting pretty sick and tired of all these experts on the web telling well-intentioned dog lovers that they were bad people if they didn't train their dogs in the one true way which is . . . [fill in the blank here, there are lots of answers, most of them wrong].

Katz had me hooked half way through his introduction. His goal, he stated, was not to be all knowing, but to be useful. He offers a common sense approach which is in sharp contrast to the "tyranny [which] surrounds dog training" (p. XX). This approach leads him to address difficult questions like: why do you really want a dog, is it ever OK to give away a dog that you love, how do you face the death of a beloved pet? In the end, Katz doesn't really answer these toughies, rather he offers a framework for thinking them through in order to arrive at your own answers.

His case studies are sometimes poignant, occasionally humorous, but always worth the time to read and reflect on them.

In the course of 218 pages, which read quickly and easily as though they were many pages fewer, the author's messages come through. The major message: obedience is a lousy word to describe what is actually the ongoing development of a dialogue between two very different species. Katz, and I'm sure many of us, derives extraordinary pleasure from learning to communicate with this alien species. The minor message: be flexible, if one approach fails, try another one.

Don't expect to learn how to train your dog to sit, stay and come or how to pick a future Westminster winner from a litter of puppies. Katz climbs up on his tallest barn, finds a comfortable place to sit and looks down on his pack trying hard, and succeeding, to get perspective.

Nice job Jon. I got a lot more than just the useful read that you promised.

I tend to look at "extreme" ratings in the same light as most sporting events.. throw out the highs and the lows, etc. After reading some of the "Who does this idiot think he is?" reviews I felt compelled to write a review.

I heard Mr. Katz in an interview on NPR (ok... promotional spot is probably more like it) and found his "take" on dogs to be fairly similar to mine. I figured that it was at least worth ordering a copy of the book as our household is due to welcome our "new addition" next week.

Our 14 year-old daughter and I attended our first (introduction) obedience class at a very well-respected training facility and breeder. While I can not say that we have had any opportunity to put the concepts that Mr. Katz presents into practice (the ULTIMATE test), I was pleased to see that the vast majority of what he has written was exactly "in synch" with the trainer's philosophies.

Probably the point I agree with the author the most on is owners treating their pet as if (or even better than) it is one of their children.

The author frequently reminds the reader that he is explaining what he has learned (the good, the bad, the painful) through many years of owning dogs. While my primary experience (to date) with dogs was as a child (parents were breeders until shortly after I was born), I grew up with "my dog". At the same time, I feel I have learned many important lessons on ownership, care, training and "responsible" socialization of a dog.

The author also lists several books that clearly were of a great influence on his thinking regarding dogs. He STRESSES over and over again that owning a dog is something that needs to be entered into with thought, planning, determination, bravery and compassion. He offers many, many examples from his own experience and that of friends and associates to show how easy it is to "screw up" as an owner, the joy that can be shared from perseverence and how rewarding the relationship is when careful training of dog AND owner has happened.

Would I recommend reading it? Definitely.
Will you find things that you disagree with? Probably.
Are you likely to learn many things from the experiences of other dog owners? ABSOLUTELY.

If nothing else, this book drills home that there is no greater responsibility of a human in the relationship than to be a patient, compassionate and loving owner who trains his/her dog and continues to train throughout its life.

It is my hope that should you choose to read this book, you glean from it seeds of wisdom and patience.

Katz has a wonderful relaxed style, both with the written word as well as with his dogs. He's a pleasure to read (substantive and entertaining) and the advice he's gleaned from his experience is at times commonsensical but it's always practial and important. The basic idea he gets across about "theory of mind" and the thought processes we imagine dogs have is the most important.

I thoroughly recommend this for anyone who has a dog--It's a fresh, easy read and Katz is a good teacher.

This book is not only extremely helpful and informative; it is also a rollicking good read. Filled with humor and affection for all animals (and most people, though this is more challenging) KATZ ON DOGS provides an honest and clear-eyed roadmap to your relationship with the soul who may turn out to be the love of your life. Even if you don't agree with his every word, it's a great read and full of respect for both dogs' "Otherness" as well as their extraordinary ability to love us.
--Sy Montgomery

-if you are THINKING about getting a dog;
-if you have had a FAILED dog relationship but want to try again;
-if you or your dog are UNSATISFIED with your current relationship;
-if you LOVE your dog; BUY THIS BOOK.

This IS NOT a training book as much as a NEW & RATIONAL framework for thinking about owning, training and living with dogs in modern times.

Finally, an author who urges us to take the emotional pressure off of dogs by letting dogs be dogs and enjoying them for being dogs and not surrogate children, lovers, parents, human friends or all the other burdens we've loaded on them over the last few decades.

Read this book for your dog.

Rick Kennerly

I became a Jon Katz fan last year after losing our beloved dog(through a painful choice of euthanasia). My very favorite book is the one that started him on his series of dog books--A Dog Year.This helped my husband and I greatly as we grieved for our dog. It is absolutely wonderful. However, this recent book is incredibly useful. My family adopted a rescue dog several months after losing our first dog. We carefully thought about what type of dog to choose and love her dearly. However, I think we got very lucky! I feel I would be much better informed to choose a dog in the future after reading this book. In the meantime, we have and are continuing to implement many of the suggestions to help our dog. One of the main things I have finally understood is how the training needs to continue and how important it is to make our dog fit into our lives, rather than letting things revolve around her(after 2 kids that wasn't too possible anymore anyhow!). I highly recommend this book to anyone with a dog or even thinking of getting one. How much easier it would be to really start off with a well thought out plan when you get your dog! I can't wait for the next Jon Katz book!