Through a Dog's Eyes [Hardcover]

Jennifer Arnold (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 10, 2010

A stirring, inspiring book with the power to change the way we understand and communicate with our dogs.
 
Few people are more qualified to speak about the abilities and potential of dogs than Jennifer Arnold, who for the past twenty years has trained service dogs for people with physical disabilities and special needs. Arnold has developed a unique understanding of dogs' capabilities, intelligence, sensitivity, and extra-sensory skills. Her training method is based on teaching dogs to make choices—as opposed to following commands—through kindness and encouragement rather than fear and submission, and her results are extraordinary. To Arnold, dogs are neither wolves in need of a pack leader nor babies in need of coddling; rather, they are extremely trusting beings attuned to their owners' needs and they aim to please. Relationships between dogs and humans go awry when we fail to understand our dogs and when we send them confusing, mixed signals. Arnold's firsthand experience—from what moved her to start her exemplary nonprofit and how she developed her methodology—guides this book and gives it a powerful emotional heft. Stories drawn from Arnold's life and the lives of the dogs who were her greatest teachers are convincing, unforgettable, and compelling testimony and make this book a heart-warming, captivating read that will forever change the way you see your dog by showing you the way your dog sees the world.
 

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Arnold, founder and executive director of Canine Assistants, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing service dogs for people with disabilities, educates and inspires in this transformative guide to training and celebrating service animals. Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at age 16, Arnold was encouraged by her father to start an organization devoted to helping people with physical disabilities. Now after 20 years of dog training, she shares her methodology and stories of canine intelligence, sensitivity, language comprehension, and prescience bordering on telepathy. She offers shining examples of the heroism of service dogs, from anticipating seizures to resetting a ventilator switch. Along the way, she emphasizes choice-based, positive-reinforcement-only teaching methods and shares valuable insights that every dog owner should know. Engagingly written with a perfect balance of science and observation, this book--soon to be a PBS one hour special and series--is a worthy tribute to our canine friends.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

“Transformative . . . [Arnold] shares her methodology and stories of canine intelligence, sensitivity, language comprehension, and prescience bordering on telepathy. . . . Along the way, she emphasizes choice-based, positive-reinforcement-only teaching methods and shares valuable insights that every dog owner should know. Engagingly written with a perfect balance of science and observation, this book . . . is a worthy tribute to our canine friends.”               
— Publishers Weekly
 

"Through vivid, memorable, moving stories, Jennifer Arnold provides a scientific argument for what dog lovers everywhere already know: Dogs love, dogs trust, dogs sense, dogs feel. And they deserve to be treated accordingly. This book’s message is simply the truth."
— Sara Gruen, author of Water for Elephants
 
 
“Arnold’s voice is assertive with experience—her insights into working with dogs are hard-won after years of close interaction. … The author’s storehouse of anecdotal evidence is telling and entertaining, and her demolition of various alpha-model and negative-reinforcement teaching techniques is thorough and lofty.”                                                                                                                                                            — Kirkus 
 

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Spiegel & Grau; 1 edition (August 10, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400068886
• ISBN-13: 978-1400068883
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 0.9 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (77 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #442,595 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

For the past twenty plus years, it has been my privilege to work with dogs. I am the Executive Director of Canine Assistants, a school where dogs are taught to help children and adults who have physical disabilities, epilepsy, and other special needs.

I have come to believe that dogs are among God's greatest creations! I also believe that we have a responsibility to treat them with respect and kindness. Force and intimidation have no place in working with dogs.

I wrote Through a Dog's Eyes in an effort to give my fellow dog lovers more information about these fascinating creatures. And, in so doing, I hope to correct some of the more damaging myths being put forth by some popular dog trainers. Dog lovers have been badly mislead by some and it isn't fair to dog or owner.

I cannot bear seeing dogs treated unfairly and I believe with all my heart that I owe them my very best efforts to correct the situation. My 8 year old son summed up my feelings beautifully when he awakened me at 5 am the day the book was released shouting "Mom, Mom! Wake up! Today is the day we start fighting of the dogs!" I would add only "and the people who love them!"

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

68 of 72 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Part memoir, part training guide, all for love and life with dogs, August 10, 2010

By 

Media Man (Minneapolis, MN USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Through a Dog's Eyes (Hardcover)

[This review is based on an Advanced Reading Copy]

"Through A Dog's Eyes" is an insightful, humane and knowledgable journey through the mindset of man's best friend. The author, Jennifer Arnold is the founder of Canine Assistants, a service dog school based in Milton, Georgia. At Canine Assistants Jennifer and her team rescue, rehabilitate and train dogs to become service dogs providing aid for children and adults who have physical disabilities, epilepsy and other special needs. Spending her entire life with dogs the author clearly has a compassion for them that transcends all boundaries of emotion. Although sometimes her feelings border on odd there's no denying her passion for animals, especially those within her care. Here are my feelings on this thought provoking book;


Pros

+ Empathetic and passionate view on how to train, teach and understand your dog.

+ Author clearly outlines and explains the basic behaviors, senses and emotions of dogs in an easily understandable and common sense way.

+ Believes the popular dominant/alpha male role of the owner is incorrect. Arnold explains that trust and positive reinforcement through training should be the foundation of the relationship between owner and dog, not fear and submission. She further explains that the alpha male role should be reserved for wild animals (wolves) and not domesticated dogs and their human partners.

+ Speaks out against the use of physically and emotionally harmful training devices such as shock, choke, citronella collars and invisible fences.

+ Quick and informative read with its heart in the right place.

+ Great cover art


Cons

- Author's message can sometimes come across as condescending and overly emotional. This commonly happens when someone is as compassionate about something as Arnold is for dogs. This is especially evident if someone doesn't understand or see her exact point of view.

- Not everyone will feel or comprehend the author's instense bond with dogs and could perceive it as "strange."

- Can read like a research paper at times.

- Can be confusing differentiating between the names of the dogs and their owners as the dog was mentioned much more frequently.

- Too short considering the cover price.


"Through A Dog's Eyes" educates and inspires owners to train their dog appropriately. With 20 years of dog training experience, she shares her stories of canine sensitivity and body/vocal language comprehension. She offers numerous but brief examples of canine intelligence and heroism in efforts to aid their human partners. Arnold emphasizes choice-based, positive-reinforcement-only teaching methods and shares valuable insights that every dog owner should know. Arnold is extremely outspoken regarding the "alpha male - dominance" training/belief taught by many trainers today. While she never says, "I'm talking about you Cesar Millan" you could easily draw the comparison. Arnold balances dog science and observation admirably while elevating our respect and basic understanding of our canine companions to a new level. She gets a thumbs and paws up from me and my dog.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars philosophy of compassion, December 23, 2010

By 

banshee (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Through a Dog's Eyes (Kindle Edition)

The author specializes in training service dogs for disabled people so she's looking for a specific personality type: interested in humans, submissive, docile. Although I'm not a dog expert, I suspect some of her advice might not apply or may actually be erroneous if you're looking for a dog that is not like the dog she is describing, such as a guard dog or an aggressive active dog, or if you're dealing with a dog that is by nature aloof or dominating with most humans. Although she makes an effort to be scientific, I'd categorize some of her science as pseudoscience and I think actually her main value add here is not her advice or information but the general compassionate attitude she brings.

I would recommend this book to people who want to read heroic stories about service dogs. I do not think this book is particularly informative or helpful in training most dogs. She does not describe very many actual training techniques but mainly emphasizes the perspective of compassion in general as opposed to methods that come from physical dominance of dogs. She seemed to possess a lot of intelligence in terms of being able to understand what the dog is thinking or feeling. I do not feel qualified to remark on whether her criticism of physical dominance is accurate or not but her emotions seemed reasonable and right and were the strongest point of her book.

21 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, an author who truly understands dogs!!, August 10, 2010

By 

Jwse (Arlington, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Through a Dog's Eyes (Hardcover)

This is the dog book I have been waiting for!!! For years we've been taught we have to dominate and control our dogs and I never understood why. Finally we have an author who has years of experience working with and researching dogs who tells us we don't have to! Arnold takes us on an emotional journey and helps us understand that dogs do indeed have emotions and deserve the proper treatment and respect. She doesn't just tell us that this is the way to work with a dog but explains WHY it should be done and how important it is. It feels like such a relief to have someone with such a wealth of knowledge instruct dog lovers on how it is very worth it to learn how to communicate effectively with our canine friends. Finally someone who is giving dogs the respect they deserve!!!!!! Dog's around the world are breathing a sigh of relief that "Through a Dog's Eyes" was written for them!

Arnold's book is very well written and is an interesting and emotional read. Her passion for not only dogs but for helping others touches the heart. And who can resist the pictures of such sweet and loving dogs.