Saturday, November 13, 2010
Book Review
The dog whisperer
By Graeme Sims
The dog whisperer book claims to transform your pet's behaviour. Graeme Sims claims he can teach a dog purely by understanding it, and judging by the you tube videos I've found of him working 7 or 8 dogs at a time, I believe he can. I believe this man is super talented when it comes to dog training and working with dogs and I believe his book gives the basics of his methods.
The dog whisperer focuses very much on understanding the body language of the dog and working with it's basic instincts and I think if you've just bought a puppy but already know a little about training then you might benefit hugely from this book because it concentrates on how to train right from the start of your dogs life. If you already have an older dog though and you have a behaviour issue you want addressing then I think you'll be disappointed.
This book gives you a fab understanding of dogs and the way they think and it does give some basic training tips, but it didn't for me fulfill it's claim of teaching the reader step by step. When addressing behaviour problems it really only gave one solution and I'm not sure what you would do if you followed the tips and they didn't work because the author didn't elaborate further! I had hoped Graeme Sims would teach me a secret 'dog' language if you like but sadly I didn't pick up too many tips. Sims suggests 'bonding days' with your dogs, (feeding them Cornish Pasty no less!)and allowing them to sleep on your bed occasionallu as a form of bonding. (Yuck!)
The upside of his methods however are that they are all kind to the dogs and he believes in positive training methods only. He also did give one very good tip, and thats to thoroughly research the breed of your dog if you have any trouble understanding him, and I now intend to do just that.
Sims methods clearly work because I've seen the video evidence - I'm just not sure his book is enough to teach anyone exactly what he does!
By Graeme Sims
The dog whisperer book claims to transform your pet's behaviour. Graeme Sims claims he can teach a dog purely by understanding it, and judging by the you tube videos I've found of him working 7 or 8 dogs at a time, I believe he can. I believe this man is super talented when it comes to dog training and working with dogs and I believe his book gives the basics of his methods.
The dog whisperer focuses very much on understanding the body language of the dog and working with it's basic instincts and I think if you've just bought a puppy but already know a little about training then you might benefit hugely from this book because it concentrates on how to train right from the start of your dogs life. If you already have an older dog though and you have a behaviour issue you want addressing then I think you'll be disappointed.
This book gives you a fab understanding of dogs and the way they think and it does give some basic training tips, but it didn't for me fulfill it's claim of teaching the reader step by step. When addressing behaviour problems it really only gave one solution and I'm not sure what you would do if you followed the tips and they didn't work because the author didn't elaborate further! I had hoped Graeme Sims would teach me a secret 'dog' language if you like but sadly I didn't pick up too many tips. Sims suggests 'bonding days' with your dogs, (feeding them Cornish Pasty no less!)and allowing them to sleep on your bed occasionallu as a form of bonding. (Yuck!)
The upside of his methods however are that they are all kind to the dogs and he believes in positive training methods only. He also did give one very good tip, and thats to thoroughly research the breed of your dog if you have any trouble understanding him, and I now intend to do just that.
Sims methods clearly work because I've seen the video evidence - I'm just not sure his book is enough to teach anyone exactly what he does!
// posted by Vicki @ 11:54 AM 
