Your Dog Is Your Mirror: The Emotional Capacity of Our Dogs and Ourselves

by Kevin Behan Narrated by Patrick Lawlor

Overview

In Your Dog Is Your Mirror, dog trainer Kevin Behan proposes a radical new model for understanding canine behavior: a dog's behavior and emotion, indeed its very cognition, are driven by our emotion. The dog doesn't respond to its owner based on what the owner thinks, says, or does; it responds to what the owner feels. And in this way, dogs can actually put people back in touch with their own emotions.

Behan was originally trained under the dominance theory by his father, John Behan, one of the first in America to make dog training a career. But he eventually came to believe that what made the modern dog trainable was not the dominance hierarchy but the dog's ability to work as a cooperative group member in the hunt. This ability then evolved into an emotional capacity that perfectly complements human emotion.

Behan demonstrates that dogs and humans are connected more profoundly than has ever been imagined - by heart - and that this approach to dog cognition can help us understand many of dogs' most inscrutable behaviors. This groundbreaking, provocative book opens the door to a whole new understanding between species, and perhaps a whole new understanding of ourselves.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Beautifully written and deeply engrossing, Your Dog Is Your Mirror is destined to change the way we think about dogs.”
—Lee Charles Kelley, dog trainer and bestselling mystery novelist

“A fascinating read.”
—Modern Dog

“There are scores of books on how to change the outward behavior of a dog. But Kevin Behan challenges us to look deeper, to examine the dog’s behavior as an emotional reflection of its owner, revealing our own unresolved issues. Your Dog Is Your Mirror is beautifully written, with entertaining and insightful examples from throughout Kevin Behan’s remarkable career. This book will forever change your relationship with your dog, and you will never look at your dog in the same way again. It is a must-read for every committed dog owner.”
— Kyra Sundance, internationally bestselling author of 101 Dog Tricks and 101 Ways to Do More with Your Dog!

“Your Dog Is Your Mirror is a very thought-provoking book that will force you to reconsider who we are and who dogs are and why we are so attracted to one another….Whether you agree with Behan’s provocative theories or not, the age-old adage that no one knows you like your dog clearly rings true. I learned a lot from this wide-ranging and unique book.”
— Marc Bekoff, University of Colorado, author of The Emotional Lives of Animals and The Animal Manifesto

Library Journal

Scientific evidence on the extent of dogs' emotions has been slow in coming, but the concept has recently become more widely accepted and studied (see, e.g., Stanley Coren's The Modern Dog). Here, veteran dog trainer Behan takes a quantum leap, theorizing that dogs are driven by nothing but emotions, which manifest as energy; he argues that training a dog involves knowing how to change energy states. Behan expands on the method he explains in Natural Dog Training, which emphasizes the roles of prey and predator and their complementarity, completely opposing both Cesar Millan's pack theory (Cesar's Way) and Karen Pryor's positive-reinforcement approach (Don't Shoot the Dog!). VERDICT Part biography and part New Age philosophy based solely on Behan's observations, this is a difficult read, replete with abstract concepts such as "group consciousness," "heart energy," and "emotional counterbalance." Patrons seeking a training manual would be better served by Pat Miller's Play with Your Dog. Those wanting a novel interpretation of dog behavior and the human-canine bond will find Behan's work thought-provoking.—Florence Scarinci, Nassau Community Coll. Lib., Garden City, NY

Product Details

BN ID:	2940176170689
Publisher:	Brilliance Audio
Publication date:	11/03/2020
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	944,095

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