Table of Contents
Foreword
Introduction
Mirror, Mirror?
PART ONE: Balancing Your Dog
Chapter 1: Identifying Instability
Chapter 2: Discipline, Rewards and Punishment
Chapter 3: The Best Tool in the World
Chapter 4: Fulfilling Breed
The Sporting Group
The Hound Group
The Working Group
The Herding Group
The Terrier Group
The Toy Group
The Non-Sporting Group

PART TWO: Balancing Ourselves
Chapter 5: Dysfunction Junction
Chapter 6: Transforming Energy into Action
Chapter 7: Leadership for Dogs
Chapter 8: Our Four-Legged Healers
Epilogue: Humans and Dogs: The Long Walk Home
Appendix: Quick Reference Guide to Becoming a Better Pack Leader
Meeting a Dog for the First Time
Introducing Your Dog to a New Person (Especially a Child)
Introducing a New Person into Your Home
Mastering the Walk
Returning from the Walk
The Feeding Ritual
Managing Food Aggression
Facing an Aggressive Dog
Claiming Your Space
Dealing with Obsessive and Fixated Behaviors
Managing Stress at the Vet
Going to the Dog Park
Choosing a Dog with the Right Energy
Introducing a Dog to a House for the First Time
Notes
Bibliography and Additional Recommendations for Further Reading
Organizations to Turn To
Illustration Credits
Index

Chapter 1

Identifying Instability


“There was something I had never told him, that no one ever had. I wanted him to hear it before he went. ‘Marley,’ I said, ‘You are a great dog.’”
- John Grogan, Marley and Me

How do you know that your dog is unstable? If you are like the majority of my clients, you just know. Your dog gets aggressive with other dogs on walks and at the dog parks. Or howls for hours when you leave the house. Or compulsively runs away. All this is puzzling to you, because the family dog from your childhood was perfect — or that is the way that you remember him. In the amber glow of your memory, your beloved Blackie was mellow, obedient, and content to stay in the background. He was naturally social, and always got along with strange people and dogs. He fetched and returned the tennis ball, walked beside you to school, and never peed in the house. So why does your current dog dig up your garden? Why does he hide under the table when the garbage truck drives by? What in the world is up with him when he manically spins in circles when he gets excited? Of course, like most of my clients with unstable dogs, you simply accept that your dog was born with something missing — or has some sort of mental disorder. Or, if your dog was adopted from a rescue organization, you create a story — that he had such a traumatic experience in his past placements that he will never be able to forget the terrible abuse he suffered during those dark, lonely years before he met you. So of course, he will never be stable, and you should not complain, but instead, remain tolerant and feel really sorry for him when he pees all over your sofa whenever you turn the television on. How could you criticize him when he bites anyone who comes near his food dish, knowing what he’s been through in his short but traumatic life? You decide you have to pay the price to live with an unstab