The ABC’s of Dog Language: Learn How Dogs Communicate
Anders Hallgrens’s book “The ABC’s of Dog Language” is the best primer on dog language I’ve found to date. It explores how dogs communicate through body signals and movements, sounds, smells, and touch. With clear text and illustrative photographs, the author explains the nuances of dog language, including body postures, facial expressions, and the vocal language of dogs.
If you only have time to read one book on dog language, this is the book to get. Originally written in Swedish and translated into English by Mogens Eliasen and Pauline Kesteven, “The ABC’s of Dog Language” is currently hard to find unless you go to K9Joy.com (Mogens Eliasen’s website) to purchase it.
In For the Love of a Dog Patricia McConnell explores emotions in dogs and people. Our mammalian biology and neurology are remarkably similar, and I believe that we share similar emotions. This book delves into the science of emotions and supports that belief. But it does so with prose that draws out emotion in the reader as effectively as it educates. Just flipping through the book as I compose this review, I find myself drawn into various passages, especially the accounts of Patricia’s own experiences and cases she’s known that illustrate the personal side of these scientific concepts so well. It’s hard to put the book down, but I must, if only to pick up my handkerchief!
Dogs Make Great Pets is a must-have book for first-time dog owners. Using worksheets and checklists and an informal, easy-to-read writing style, Margaret H. Bonham takes you through everything you should consider before you bring your new dog home. Topics include making sure you’re ready for a dog, finding a good breeder or vet, choosing the right dog for your particular situation, and getting off on the right foot by teaching your new dog good manners.
