The Heartbeat at Your Feet: A Practical, Compassionate New Way to Train Your Dog

by Lisa Tenzin-Dolma, Beverley Cuddy editor Dogs Today (Foreword)

The Heartbeat at Your Feet is the first book to reveal how you can fully understand and communicate with dogs, and how you can easily eliminate any behavior problems, based on new information about animal behavior. Each chapter explores the mind of the dog, its instincts, body language, how and why dogs respond to the people and animals around them, and the profound insights you can gain into what your dog is thinking and feeling through the simple process of observation.

Enlightening (and entertaining!), the book guides readers to look at life from your dog’s point of view, to understand what your dog is trying to tell you and why, and to notice what makes your pooch listen to you. Including real-life examples throughout the work, The Heartbeat at Your Feet explains how positive methods of behavior modification work more effectively (and permanently) than old dominance methods, which have now proven to be ineffective. As a canine psychologist and professional consultant to dog owners, Lisa Tenzin-Dolma explains compassionate ways of working with dogs and offers readers a guide to improving pet behavior and the relationship between you and your beloved pooch.

180 pages, Hardcover

First published September 20, 2012

About the author

Lisa Tenzin-Dolma is a multi-talented singer-songwriter and has a most philanthropic nature when it comes to the many causes she freely gives her time and expertise to. Lisa’s singing career first began in Singapore when she was only 13 years of age, appearing in a series of television shows. Lisa spent a number of years during her childhood and teens living in England, Malta, Scotland, Malaysia, and Singapore. This eclectic geographical mix sparked a deep ongoing interest in exploring the myths, philosophies and spiritual paths of various cultures, and shaped the course of her life and work.

Now living in the south west of England with the youngest of her five children and her rescue dogs, Lisa, now Dr Lisa Tenzin-Dolma (PhD in Philosophy in Humanities), spends her time on her journalistic and writing careers (author of many successful meditation, herbalism, Eastern philosophy and vast range of mind-body-spirit self-help books and creator of a series of mandalas and tarot cards), specialising in holistic lifestyles, spiritual matters and the natural/ecological issues. Some of Lisa’s books and other related creations include:

• The Swan Lake• Dreams & Dreaming
• The Glastonbury Tarot
• The Dolphin Experience
• Understanding the Planetary Myths
• Mind &Motivation: The Spirit of Success
• Take Control with Astrology:Teach Yourself
• Swimming with Dolphins: A Healing Experience
• The Glastonbury Tarot: Timeless Wisdom from the Isle of Avalon
• Teach Yourself Astrology MH ED (Teach Yourself (McGraw-Hill)
• The Celtic Mandala Colouring Kit: All You Need to Create 12 Stunning Mandala
Greetings Cards (Colouring Kit)
• Healing Mandalas: 30 New Meditations to Help You Find Peace and Awareness in
the Beauty of Nature for DBP

Lisa is an expert on the psychological relationship between astrology and the individual. As if that were not enough to keep Lisa busy, Lisa also penned a screenplay, and over 500 magazine articles on a wide variety of subjects, and is involved with the US film industry as Special Consultant to films, and is an Ambassador for the The Goodwill Treaty. Practicing and teaching astrology and tarot, Lisa also designs clothes and jewellery and is also a talented illustrator.

Lisa is also a much sought after canine psychologist, founder of the global Dog Issues Advice Line. She is a full member of The Association of INTO Dogs, an organisation of trainers and behaviourists who use only positive and respectful methods in their work with dogs.

You can find out more about Lisa at:

http://www.tenzindolma.co.uk/

http:/www.thedoghelpline.com/

http://www.intodogs.org/

http://www.theiscp.com/

Reviews

[Carrie Daws · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have some mixed feelings about this book. While I appreciate the author's views on training, it felt like she spent as much time arguing against the seemingly more prevalent method of dominance training as she did explaining her preference for the sympatico method. She also spent a bit of space talking about the evolution of dogs (macro and micro, although she didn't differentiate) and the difference between wolf behavior in the wild versus those confined in zoos and such. Honestly, as a dog owner who wants to live with a well-behaved dog, I don't care about any of that much.

Thankfully, Chapters 9 and 10 did get to what I wanted to know, and they are well done. I still had to wade through a bit of the dominance training she doesn't like to get to what she recommended, but it was in much smaller (and easier to skip) portions.

Perhaps this book is best read by those who are studying animal behavior or studying to work with dogs in veterinary medicine, training, or grooming. For others, if your library has this book, it's worth checking out for the 2 chapters specifically on training in the behaviors you want to see and how to deal with common problems.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the method of training presented in this book and have been using it with my dogs with some success (I need to be more consistent and others in my home need to get on board).

However, I would have liked more in-depth training practices and less success stories. You can give me all the success stories in the world, but it doesn't mean anything if I can't use the training because it's lacking more clarity and instruction.

[Doreen L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chock full of excellent information!

This book should be read by all dog owners. It’s a practical, how-to guide in how to raise and/or train a dog to have a respectful, engaged, and fun-loving canine companion.

[Freya Violet Locke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating

The book explains dog training with kind, modern methods and is full of heartwarming anecdotes. A very good read for dog owners.

[E. Adrian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book, my favorite chapters are: 7, 9-11. The last chapter/section is success stories which I didn't read since I already know I'm trying the sympatico training method. There are case studies at the end of each chapter but I didn't find they supported the chapters very well. Throughout the book, the author poses questions you're supposed to ask yourself or answer. This is incredibly ineffective since there's nothing after that, no guidance like "if you said xyz then abc" it's just a list of questions to get you thinking but no guidance as to what your answers reveal. I loved the dominance training method vs sympatico training method analysis. Overall, good book although some parts I skimmed due to repetition or disinterest.

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick read. Not much detail. Would have liked to see more training detail.

[Lora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Got a few new tips. But I have to admit that I checked out the book because of the cover - if my Stevie was white instead of gray that could be him.