Customer Reviews

Why Does My Dog Act That Way?: A Complete Guide to Your Dog's Personality

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Interesting in parts, but it didn't live up to the title. I found it to be more of an exploration of how dogs became domesticated over thousands of years, and the ways in which they differ from their wild brethren. There were some good insights, but overall I felt it was too "clinical", for lack of a better word. I much preferred the author's How To Speak Dog.

This book was a very interesting and informative read. Although it was not what I expected, I was pleasantly pleased with what I did get from the book. The book deals with how and why dogs came to be, over evolution, the great companions they are now. Along with a general guidelines of what personality to expect from a breed. However it does go into detail of how it is genetics more than breed that can play huge impact on a dogs personality. There is also a heartbreaking section about dogs used in illegal fighting, as well as inspiring tales of heroic dogs. I think this book is a good read for the anyone who just loves dogs and wants to understand more about them.

This was a fun and rather fascinating study of dogs. I especially enjoyed the personality quiz that was included in the book. The anecdotes ranged from amusing to heart-breaking. The chapter on heroic dogs especially stood out. I thought it was a good balance between science and entertainment. There was a good deal on the domestication of dogs, which I think is interesting, though Coren did not mention co-evolution, which I found to be rather surprising. Still, I really enjoyed this!

I read this book because it was mentioned favorably by Cesar Milan in his books. However, this book is not nearly as readable or informative as Milan's books so if you prefer simplicity and direct information rather than high handed, lofty academic writing, you will not like this book.

Mr. Coren first of all, talks down to his audience and treats dogs more like scientific experiments than beloved pets and companions. A typical sentence by Croren may start out like this "John Deefledorph, professor of psycopsychologyd boo-bahness at the University of the Grand Poobah and author of the Book "His Grandness Load of BS" and . .. . . " On and on like that. It takes a paragraph sometimes for Coren to get to the part where the grand pooh bah conducted a study of some sort. I've always wondered why academics rely on studies to the exclusion of plain common sense. Guys like this will cite to a study before they go the bathroom.

Moreover, Coren has a very high handed arrogant and smug writing style I don't particularly care for. In fact, I got little from this book except a lot of information about a lot of studies and truthfully, it was upsetting reading about heartless studies done on dogs by the military.

If you are a fan of tedious academic writing and studies and clinical writing that lacks warmth and insight, you will like this book. I myself got nothing out of it and that is purely my fault I'm sure. Coren keeps himself and his subject at a distance and lacks a real warmth both towards dogs and dog owners.

This is a soulless book on a soulful subject.

Stanley Coren is aparently an "expert" on dog behavior, but I think he's the only one calling himself that, particluarly when it comes to discussing the history and behavior of "bull and terrier" breeds.

Coren states in the early parts of his book that any dog (of any breed) that exhibited aggressiveness towards humans were culled, which is correct. Later in the book, in a chapter titled "Creating Monsters", he discusses how "pit bull" type dogs were developed, and how selective breeding has created dogs that are more aggressive. And this is where things go south.

Coren goes into great detail about how dogs - specifically American Pit Bull Terriers and "American Staffordshire bull terriers", along with Staffordshire Bull Terriers and any other bully breed - bred to fight other dogs are also inherently aggressive towards humans. Not only is this a damaging assumption on Coren' part, but it is also very incorrect - bully breeds were bred to be DOG aggressive, and any dog that showed unacceptable behavior towards people was immediately killed. "Bull and Terrier" type dogs were - and remain - very intelligent, very stable, and very people-friendly. It takes a great deal of painful, fear-inducing "training" to cause a bully breed to be aggressive towards humans. Think something along the lines of inserting gun powder into a dog's anus just as a stranger approaches.

His anecdotes are irrelevant - like the one about the woman who slipped and fell, only to be attacked by her Staffie while trying to get up - and since they cannot be proven or disproven, they only provide more of a misunderstanding, fueling the general public's hysteria.

He even provides a handy chart at the end of the book, letting readers know which dogs are "dominant" (suggestive the possibility for aggressiveness), which have a high "Intelligence/learning ability" (suggesting that some breeds a "stupid"), which are "emotionally reactive" or "social", and what each breed's energy levels are. The information contained in this chart is completely incorrect, and anyone who has ever owned a dog will be able to tell you that.

I have been studying dogs for over a decade. I have spent the last 10 years of my life studying behavior, learning throries, intelligence, social structures, and training methods. At the end of the day, Stanley Coren is human psychologist, and spends most of this book discussing human psychology and how it might apply to dogs, but probably doesn't.

I found this book to be a confusing, dull read - there is a lot of personal stories, anecdotes, and mis-used information (any dog "expert" knows that CDC dog bite statistics aren't accurate or unbiased), and Coren contradicts himself more than a few times. The only thing worse than Coren is Millan!

There are other, better books available on dog behavior. Don't waste your money on this one!