[.ca] On Talking Terms with Dogs: Calming Signals (ISBN 1929242360)

Mercedes, Meet Amelia and Cinder:
During my five, post-retirement years as a shelter volunteer, I've accumulated over six shelf-feet of dog books, most relating to behavior and training. Many were skimmed and forgotten; others required several readings to achieve maximum effect; some I kept only as examples of what I have come to consider bad practice. In contrast, OTTWD produced an immediate "Ah ha!" reaction, and I reread it occasionally as much to renew the sense of inspiration as to glean more information from its scant pages. (As other reviewers have pointed out, there are other, far more exhaustive treatments of the vocabulary of dogs -- such as those by Roger Abrantes and Stanley Coren.) I had barely finished reading the author's first, rather sketchy, case-study (which describes the role of her dog, Vesla, in communicating with the client's dog -- a recurring theme throughout) when I started to think about a pair of Border Collie mixes, Amelia and Cinder, at our shelter. They are as close to feral as any dogs I've ever been around. We suspect they grew up from puppies as junkyard dogs. Among the dozens of our all-volunteer staff who have tried to befriend them, only three of the most empathetic, female volunteers have progressed to the point where they can leash them for a walk. Amelia and Cinder always responded to me by barking and retreating, even though I already knew to avoid assertive body posture, eye contact, use of my deep, male voice, etc. I eventually quit trying to connect with them. The possibility that Ms. Rugaas opened for me was to use another dog as an intermediary. I decided to enlist the services of Mercedes, a young, high-strung, female Pit Bull that I was already teaching basic obedience. She will do anything she can understand to earn a quarter-inch cube of doggie salami. After Mercedes had learned the "down" command, both by hand signal and verbally, we began practicing it closer and closer to Amelia and Cinder's run. At first they barked constantly whenever Mercedes and I were within sight. However, after daily repetitions over a few weeks, "the girls", as I call them, would stop barking and posturing within a second after Mercedes would lie down. After a few minutes of calm, sometimes the girls too would lie down -- often at a closer distance to me than they had ever approached when I was alone. I rewarded their calm by flipping tiny treats into their run. Within a few weeks I was able to approach the girls without Mercedes, enter their run and feed them by hand. Although they still approach me with great caution, I am now able to touch each of them around the muzzle. I don't know where my efforts will lead. I do know that what little progress I have made would not have been possible, were it not for the breakthrough I achieved with help from Mercedes -- and Turid Rugaas.

Very useful and easy to understand:
this is a very light read, this book contains only 30 pages of material. it is written is an easy style, easy to read and easy to understand. the basic of this book is to tell us that dogs have their own language. the author has spent 1.5 years studying this 'dog language' and has compiled them here as 'calming signals'. ie she has listed those signals that dogs show when trying to calm things down. she would list all the signals in a chapter. describing each and giving an example on when they're used. the next chapter gives a few case studies. this is followed by a chapter about stress on dogs and how knowing these calming signals can help such dogs that are in stress. what is suggested is that we learn these signals, so that we can see how how dogs interact with others. also, it will also allow is to calm our dogs or other dogs with these signals. very useful information for people who interact with dogs. it's a short book and easy to read, so it'd be good to have the knowledge to better interact with dogs.

Turid makes a really good point!:
Dogs speak dog...and because of us (humans)...they forget their native language. thats why you get dogs that don't know how to socialize. if you read this...you wont have to pay for a dog trainer or behavioralist. this is about showing your dog to have confidence....and what's great is that she has really great techniques to teach your dogs things. and she updates her website a lot, so you can even ask her questions there!

Gain insight immediately on your next dog park trip.:
This book is brief and contains great photographs that illustrate the physical language that dogs use to maintain order and harmony when meeting one another or in groups. Most somewhat knowledgeable dog owners know the basics (avoiding eye contact, approaching from the side/circling, etc.) but this book really puts in together. What is very interesting to me is that many of the urban city dogs that frequent our dog park (usually the yappy ones that have no obedience training) have lost this art of communication that Turid speaks of. In contrast, dogs that appear, even at a distance, as mature, well-behaved and trained dogs exhibit many of these communication signals with grace and expertise. This book is a must-read for any new dog owner. Think of it as a book on dog-to-dog manners!

On Talking terms with Dogs: Calming signals:
Turid Rugaas is the most intuitive and well thought of dog trainer of her kind. On Talking Terms with Dogs is a marvellous book full of those moments when you suddenly realise that your dog has been telling you something all along and you just haven't understood the language. I also recommend buying the DVD which then demonstrates what you have read. This adds to your understanding. I have a particularly anxious giant breed of dog and after watching the DVD I really felt that I understood alot more about his reactions to things and could see him exhibiting the behaviour shown in the book and DVD. I wish I sitll lived in Europe as I would love to go to one of her seminars. Buy anything by this author.