[.ca] Dogs Behaving Badly: An A-Z Guide to Understanding and ... (ISBN 0553379682)

From Amazon.com:
A bestselling author, practicing veterinarian--director of the Animal Behavior Clinic at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine, no less--and passionate animal advocate, Dr. Nicholas Dodman's pioneering work in the field of animal psychology has made him a favorite with admiring colleagues and "problem" pet owners worldwide. His first two books, The Dog Who Loved Too Much and The Cat Who Cried for Help, presented alternative treatments for undesirable pet behavior that, prior to advancements in animal psychology, were treated with severe training methods or, worst case, euthanasia. Now, in Dogs Behaving Badly, Dodman addresses 26 of the most common canine behavior problems and offers practical treatment plans that focus on understanding what your dog is trying to communicate through his behavior--which, according to Dodman, is the key to effectively treating our pets. Arranged alphabetically and incorporating case studies as well as the most recent discoveries made in animal psychology, this exceptional guide covers a wide range of perplexing problems, including aggression, barking, compulsive behavior, "X-Files" (unexplainable behavior), yawning, and zoonosis (the transmittal of disease from dogs to humans). Also included is a thorough appendix of behavioral modification techniques as well as invaluable information on drug therapy and how to recognize when your dog requires professional help. Informative and extremely practical--right down to the easy-to-use A-to-Z reference format--Dogs Behaving Badly proves that "when it comes to caring for man's best friend, Dr. Dodman is the best friend we have." --Stefanie Hargreaves

dogs behaving badly:
if you suspect your dog is unusually unruly, above and beyond puppy nuisance, the sooner you read and absorb every word of this book, the better off you and your dog and your family will be!!!

Separation Anxiety? Read this book!:
I recently adopted a 9 year-old dog from a shelter who would chew my front door trim. I couldn't understand why. I read this book and it really helped, not to mention answered the "why" part of my questions. This book has helped enormously. For people who had a hard time with getting answers from this book, all you have to do is go to the index in the back and look up your topic. It's right there. If you're having a hard time with a new puppy or a "new" older dog, this book should help you. It helped us.

Not helpful, just interesting, unless you have a BullTerrier:
While I found the stories and chapters very informative and interesting, this book was almost utterly useless as a tool to help those with the problems. The actual appendix in the back was really short and that's where the solutions were. Bad placement. I found the book hard to use, hard to find your problem, and even harder to figure out what Dodman was "sort of, kind of" recommending. The title was very misleading A-Z, more like alphabet soup see if you can find it... I found the chapter on prey drive particularly useless. I was so terribly disappointed. This was the one problem for which the author offered absolutely no solutions or recommendations at all. Of course this was my problem. I loved THE DOG WHO LOVED TOO MUCH, and found it helpful, but this book was not as useful. And a lot of time was spent expounding on Bull Terriers which while very interesting didn't really fit into the title. I'm glad I read the book, but disappointed that I expected help and didn't get it.

Lots of understanding behavior problems, little curing:
I was quite disappointed in this book. It is full of interesting stories of dogs and their troubles (like Maggie the German short-haired pointer and her false pregnancies), but I was looking for solutions to specific behavior problems. As another reviewer pointed out, some of the topics were quite bizarre and weren't intuitive (X-Files?) so I had to read the entire book to find what I was looking for. Based on the title (A-to-Z Guide), I was expecting quicker look-ups. In fact, the behavior-modification techniques are actually in the appendix, which is less than 20 pages long.

Excellent behavior book!:
I highly recommend that anyone considering adding a puppy to their home read this book cover to cover. I have used many of the techniques in this book successfully. I find that it is much easier trying to deal with a behavior issue when you know why the dog is exhibiting the behavior in the first place. I've lent my copy out countless times and recommended that several people purchase it.