Why Does My Dog...?

by John Fisher

Behaviors that are perfectly natural for a dog can be frustrating to dog owners if they don’t understand the dog’s motivations, reactions, and needs. Why Does My Dog . . .? explains hundreds of specific canine behaviors and problems that the author has encountered while working with dogs for more than 20 years. Problems are listed alphabetically along with root causes and solutions for specific problems. The impact of diet, training techniques, and environment on a dog’s behavior is clearly explained.

Genres: Nonfiction, Dogs, Animals

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads data base.

Reviews

[Kylie🐾 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay.. so I long my good informative planned review (that included quotations)

So that being said this review will be a short, sweet and straight to the point review. When I buy the book that’s when I will do my review like I previously planned.

John Fisher is an incredible author... just wow!! He’s an animal behaviourist that I would trust with my dogs. NO QUESTIONS ASKED.

I have heard him speak about some evil and cruel “animal trainers” now i generally have respect for most animal behaviourist and I know that some of them are truly remarkable people that genuinely care about the health and well-being of animals. But Some of these trainers were telling their clients to string their dog up and choke them until they pass out - to prevent them from barking. One of them even advised one of their clients to surround their dog will aggressive dogs in other to calm it down - that’s just going to frighten them to death. It didn’t stop there some “trainer asked their client to lock their dog in a small cupboard and someone else to drag their dog down the stairs with force and throwing it against the radiator. PURE EVIL!! And what’s worse is that some owners actually took this advice... why ? They know how evil and cruel it sounds .. so why not just think “hang on a minute? That’s not right” and call the police or someone in that profession (maybe a veterinary surgeon). Luckily there was a case well one of the dog training joints got shut down. Thankfully.

Again I give a huge props to the trainers that actually care for the animals.


I think that this is a book for all dog owners or people looking to own a dog. It’s informative, it makes you think and it makes you want to improve.


Every word him said I genuinely was in awe. This man clearly cares for his dogs and dogs in general. I love and appreciate that.

*without my planned review I’m just trying to go from memory, but I can’t think at the moment*

I think it’s definitely worth the read and I’m sure it will be worth the money. It’s factual and the author really knows what he is talking about. At this point in my review I just want to give him so much praise.

There’s one of horses and cats (by different authors). I wish I read this book whilst I was doing animal behaviour last year, it would have helped me a lot. It really helped me regarding my own dogs

I have two labradors

Max - Black - 5 years old
Maisy - golden - 10 years old

Max is boisterous, loud, greedy and pure lovable. He’s always barking at 19:00Pm, whenever he barked my mum mad sister would give him food. Bare in mind they gave him food for senior dogs. Now I finally understand what’s they’ve been doing wrong, and when I go home I fully intend on changing that. Feeding him puppy food, small amounts and giving him plenty more walks.

Maisy is sweet, bitchy, fragile and bossy - also can be greedy. But after reading that I don’t think she’s fragile at all (mainly because she is nosy as hell😂) she’s quite old so we just give her as much love as possible. She had some rumours removed so that’s possibly why she’s a bit on edge.

My brother was going to get Max a shock collar (I'm in accommodation and my sister messaged me telling me” I lost my collective sh$t on the spot. I messaged him saying “DO NOT USE THAT SHOCK COLLAR ON MAX!! AS SOON AS I GET HOME I AM BINNING IT!” I then went on to tell him my newly learnt knowledge. So I will be taking over (training) that feisty boy.

I am strongly against shock collars. Strongly against them. Any kind of negative re enforcement should not be used. Positive re enforcement only!!

For example
Negative reenforcement - dog barks - owner hits or yells at the dog (BIG NO NO!!)
Positive reenforcement - dog scrounges for your food - use the clicker training method (learnt that during animal behaviour)

Clicker training can be used for many things: stopping your dog from being afraid of certain objects, scrounging etc..

It’s like if a dog is afraid of an hoover, you’ll slowly work up to preventing them from being afraid.

Get hoover out, click, give the dog a treat, plug the hoover in, click, give dog a treat etc.. and you’ll slowly do this until the dog is no longer afraid (there’s more steps of course).


I would definitely recommend guys. This is easily a 5 star book 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟

[GONZA · Rating 3 out of 5]

La psicologia comportamentale utilizzata per comprendere il comportamento del cane. Interessante e soprattutto utile, perché fornisce soluzioni puntuali ed adeguate, anche se venire a conoscere tutti i problemi "canini" con cui l'autore é venuto a contatto, puó indurre un certo stato di ansia.....

[Michelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't care for this book at all. It discussed many topics but mostly as examples or Q&A for specific behavior of a particular dog; so not helpful in general. For example, I have rescue dogs from dog breeders. The discussion on rescue dogs were only about ones that were surrendered from other owners to shelters. It left out a big portion of rescue animals. Lastly, the author is British so the topics & discussions sometimes applied only to pets & laws in that country nor overall. I would not recommend this book to others.

[Monika · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have very mixed feelings about this book. I liked "Think Dog", but this one not so much. Some of the explanations and advices are... well outdated and doubtful. Clearly influenced by Jan Fennell, who I do not like.

[Roberta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ottimo libro per chi ha poca o nulla esperienza con i cani. Io ho un pastore tedesco un po' cazzon... ehm, cocciuto, e sicuramente proverò alcuni dei suggerimenti della guida.

I consigli e le esperienze sono organizzati alfabeticamente per una facile consultazione.

[Shalkara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can't understand why people keep thinking stupid things about dogs when there's such a wonderful book

[Kamila · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately too dated. Dominance based theories were disproved some time ago. Interesting read nevertheless.

[Anushree Rastogi · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a dog mom, I’m keenly interested in what I may or may not be doing to give my dog the best life. Being a dog parent, like any other parenting is hard work. Your dog cannot tell you what they liked or did not like about your behavior. How did it make them feel.
At the same time, movie and tv versions of dog human relationships look so perfect that when your dog does not behave like the “perfect dog” we are very quick to be disappointed.
This book was useful to me to understand how my actions may be interpreted by my dog and what can I do communicate better with her.
For the most part it has its heart in the right place and focuses on positive training, behavior modification and humane approach to our canine companions.
Certain parts felt dated, particularly the pack theory and how the author repeatedly says that dogs are at the bottom of the pecking order in the house.
I will say, overall it’s a great read and perhaps an important read for a current or future dog parent. They do deserve that we are on our very best behavior so they can be too.

[Gary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those, "Oh that's why?" books. Very helpful, too, in understanding dog behavior (though some of it is a little controversial).