I came about this book while looking to read and learn more about dog behaviour and how to train dogs. The book had lots of good reviews, so I decided to listen to it on Audible, whilst on morning walks with the girls.
I had never heard of Graeme Hall before. Only once I had finished listening to the book, I did further search on his career.
I usually go with an open mind when starting to read a book, however, the introduction almost put me off. I know the purpose of it was to introduce the author and show to the reader why this book is what they need to read, but I felt it was not so much to confirm his credibility as a dog trainer, but very much a boasting exercise of how financially well he had done as the dog trainer. I think, perhaps it would’ve left a more impressionable view if someone else had written about him instead.
Not to worry, it does get better from there on though!
His style of writing was very entertaining and I found myself having a giggle here and there. He’s a very good story teller. The book is nicely organised, with lots and lots of brilliant real life examples that make up most of the book. However, like many other dog behaviour books, there are a number of topics that are glossed over.
The book itself is divided into two parts.
In the first part, he covers his three go-to dog training principles, while the second is devoted to typical issues dog owners face, told through examples he’s experienced through the years.
I don’t really want to spoil the reading, but these are well known principles that every owner should follow, with a little twist from the author.
While the second part was very interesting to listen to, I found it was much more about covering the problems the dog owners face, rather than in depth advice on how to work through them.
For example, one issue he mentions is regarding the rewarding vs bribing problem and ability to judge when to introduce the reward. He specifically mentions an example of the dog going out in the garden, and instead of happily coming back inside after she’s finished her business, waits patiently until the treat is presented before she actually comes in. This is a bribing example that Gamba had developed over time. I became quite excited to hear this example with the impression there would be a solution introduced on how to resolve this, but unfortunately, it was one of those examples that didn’t come with a solution. It was just to stress the initial thought – there’s a difference between rewarding and bribing and you need to be mindful of how the dog will interpret this. It’s useful advice, but I felt the example is leading to a more in-depth opinion to follow on how to deal with a situation when the intended reward has turned into bribery, whilst it wasn’t really.
The author finished the book on a humorous note giving examples of odd requests for advice from dog owners that were possible to resolve by the human completing just one action, such as – if your dog doesn’t like the introduction music of a soap opera playing on the telly, just press the mute button while it plays… Or a question whether the dog can understand more than one language.
Overall, this is not a book for understanding dog behaviour in-depth, nor does it contain very many solutions to your problems. However, it was an entertaining listen and I find myself recognising the behaviour from examples in my girls, with possible explanations on why they do what they do.
Thanks for reading,
Lolita
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