Reactive Dog Bookshelf

I wrote this out for Rainy, but I thought I'd share it for the rest of you too. These are books about reactive dogs specifically that I have read and found to be good stuff. The Forum already has a great thread featuring the best overall dog behavior books, so I am not including things like Culture Clash, Dont Shoot The Dog and The Other End of the Leash that are good stuff overall. Just Reactive Dog books here.

Stress in Dogs Scholz & von Reinhardt- excellent background material on the effects of stress in dogs- about half describes a study and the resulting statistics, then come case studies after. Brought things like exercise, social time and activities into perspective for me. You can;t begin to work a reactive dog without a good grip on stress and what enough is, and to stop overdoing it wiht your dog.

Barking: The sound of a language Turid Rugaas
On Talking Terms with Dogs: Calming Signals Turid Rugaas - Auntie Turid is really good at observing and listening to the dog. She is kind and interfaces well with my #1 book of all dog books, Bones would Rain from the Sky by Suzanne Clothier, in her relationship-centered approach to all things dog. These books are about seeing and understanding if and how your stressed out dog is expressing his condition and how dogs use body language to communicate discomfort and alleviate such in themselves and others.

Scaredy Dog! Ali Brown--- the basic meat and potatoes book about reactive dogs for laymen and right brainers. If you had a reactive dog and could get only 1 book, I think this is what I'd suggest. I hated her second book, Focus Not Fear, though. Ali had a reactive Belgian Terv, I believe.

Aggression in Dogs- Brenda Aloff
Canine Body Language- Brenda Aloff-- these are big spendy books with lots of pictures. Aloff is comprehensive, and digs deep and broadly. Geared more to toward professionals than owners. She's a fox terrier person, so she 'gets' prey drive and snappyness, too. She covers ALL kinds of aggression.

Click to Calm- Emma Parsons- this book is for owners who want clear exercises for (Karen Pryor/Karen Overall) clicker training & targeting to teach your dog to cope with/reprogram his reactive responses. It's slow work and I dont think this works for all dogs and owners, but it has to be tried. I worked with her in person too, I dont think the book alone is as helpful as live trainers doing this with you to say "you;re too late, click sooner THERE!" and "FEED the CRAP out of him!" Emmas reactive dog was a golden retriever.

Control Unleashed- Leslie McDevitt-- this is advanced work for reactive dogs and looks MUCH more interesting and fun for them- it uses agility obstacles and tasks to teach dogs too focus in a doggy environment. She stresses this stuff is NOT aggressive dog stuff, it is for dog-reactive dogs who are learning to focus on the task and handler and let go of their worry about the other dog. if you have made it through Click to Calm, head over here next. I love the concepts, but Sage is not ready to go there, and probably will never be. Leslie is an agility person, and her reactive dog is Snap, a JRT. She also speaks about other competition type breeds like BCs.

The Cautious Canine- Patricia McConnell - a booklet really, all the sound basics, but you'll need more.
Feisty Fido: Help for the Leash Aggressive Dog- Patricia McConnell and Karen London- another booklet- good stuff, but if it leaves you hungry , go to Scaredy Dog. If you are sick of reading about yet another competition trainer's border collies, get over it (its a short book) or skip ahead to Ali Brown. Much of PMcC, AND Emma P. is cued behavior: "Watch ME!" which I respect for those it works for but I go with more of a Suzanne approach and pay BIG for dog-initiated check ins. I think that the approach to reactive dog work will vary depending on the basic natural independence of the dog's personality.

Fight!- Jean Donaldson- Very academic, more focused than Aloff, but frank and logical in that Jean Donaldson way we all appreciate from her other books. Left brain will dig this more than Scaredy Dog. Illustrations are horrible clip art, but that's not what's important here. Jean knows her stuff, and you will too if you listen to her! The prescription is desensitization and counter conditioning.

In the end I find that for non-trainers with just a home, random pet dogs around and public spaces to work in these methods can be tough to apply consistently and precisely enough outside a highly controlled setting to get the results you hope for (I can say that about some of the others too, but you gotta try.)- it's pure Behaviorism. Emma P. is like this too - "It's only behavior, and all behavior can be modified" which is very logical and supported by good science, but I feel leaves out the variable that dogs have real thoughts and feelings and are not robots (stimulus-response, input/output).

When Pigs Fly- Training Success with Impossible Dogs- by Jane Killian - she does agility with her bull terriers- I very much respect how she's done it. Lots of shaping work and finally deals with the less-biddable breeds. Not about reactivity, but it reveals another point of entry if you have an Independent Thinker, which nihon ken are. Another basic training book for indie-dogs like shibas et al. is Peggy Swager's Training the Hard to Train Dog- not a reactive dog book, but its what I wish I had read first instead of "Puppies For Dummies" long ago... I mean, it has a shiba sticking his tongue out right there on the cover! Kilian's book is much meatier, and Swager's is basic first time dog owner with an independent thinker

Books I have not read yet, but want to- if you have read them- tell me what you thought:

How to Right a Dog Gone Wrong- Pam Dennison
Bringing Light To Shadow - Pam Dennison- I dont know if I can handle reading about ANOTHER trainer and her border collie yet, (pet peeve, sorry, this genre is FULL of performance BCs that need helpin') and it worries me that this is "a trainer's diary." If anyone has read it- tell how it is.

Help for your Fearful Dog- Nicole Wilde. Wilde is well regarded, but I havent read her stuff- my Dogwise book budget has run out for the time being but she;s on my list. Anybody read this?

finally- once all this is digested, one must reflect and decide what for you is manageable, what is trainable and what IS or ISN'T really necessary and what kind of relationship you have with the dog.

Donaldson, McConnell Miller etal really begin AFTER you have already decided that Yes, it is worth the work to get my dog to tolerate X, but I think its very unsung that Good Dog Owners can also choose to abandon activity X since it naturally stresses out their dog, rather than go through all that work to manufacture tolerance via enjoyment of the cookies and attention if not the actual activity itself. I suppose noone would buy a book that doesn't tell you how to fix anything and just tells you to stay home. People want answers!