Customer Reviews

The Seven Ages of Man's Best Friend: A Comprehensive Guide to Caring for Your Dog Through All the Stages of Life

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This book covers everything from your first day with your puppy to dealing with old age in the dog, training suggestions, the "forgetful" adolescent, things to watch for healthwise at different ages of the dog. I found it to be a good basic guide for living with a dog and have bought a number of them to give as presents to present and "maybe someday" dog owner friends. The training basics show you how to communicate in the dog's language (canine) so it understands what you want it to do and will willingly follow your direction. Friends have been pleased to find how quickly their dogs have responded to the training. I had used many of the same principles starting 14 years ago with my dog and understand now why they worked, and she was a polite, well-mannered dog.

I own lots of information books about dogs, and this was a good addition to my collection. I enjoyed reading this book.

An up and coming trend in dog training and behavior is the redefinition of Alpha (see studies done by David L. Mech) and the use of positive re-enforcement type techniques. This book does NOT keep up with those.

In terms of defining life stages, it is interesting, however the training style is not something I would use. I prefer those of Jean Donaldson, Patricia B. McConnell, and Karen Pryor.