Modern Dog Parenting: Raising Your Dog or Puppy to Be a Loving Member of Your Family

by Sarah Hodgson

You and your dog are a lot alike. By several behavioral measures, your dog’s mental abilities are equivalent to those of a two to three and a half-year-old toddler. Dogs can learn up to 250 words, count from one to five and understand basic arithmetic. Your dog can imitate and understand your behavior and has a sense of fairness. Doesn’t it make sense to treat these sensitive, intelligent creatures a bit more like children? Kids—and dogs—raised with kindness and respect grow up happy. And happy is good. Modern Dog Parenting will show readers that yes, you can love your dog and live with him, too.

Dogs (and the people who love them) are tired of the school of dominant, top-dog training. They are looking for a new kind of pack leader: someone funny, enthusiastic, intuitive, approachable, and, above all, effective. And they’ve found her. Sarah Hodgson rejects dominance-based training and gets astonishing results with a blend of wit, compassion, energy, and proven skills. She communicates instructions clearly, directs behavior compassionately, and rewards success lavishly.

Topics include:
*Understanding the signs your dog is giving you
*Having fun while learning manners
*How to fit your dog into your lifestyle
*How to communicate lovingly and effectively with your dog

Genres: Nonfiction, Dogs

320 pages, Paperback

Published September 6, 2016

Reviews

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great overview/guide for dog owners of all levels of experience, and for all types of dogs. From novice owners with a rescue dog, to fairly experienced owners with a puppy, this serves as a great overall guide for positive reinforcement training.

There seems to be a vogue of sorts for a sort of aggressive type of training, that's not what is in this book. This book is all about positive reinforcements, clicker and target training, and other methods like shaping. It's all about having a great relationship with your dog, and the author seems to really love dogs.

There's sections on easy commands, problem solving, and fun and games. A great resource to have in your arsenal of dog training guides.

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed Sarah Hodgson's empathetic instruction on caring and training dogs. She focuses on primarily encouraging positive reinforcements as opposed to negative--I think this philosophy encourages a better relationship with your dog. It also provides a way to communicate better with the dog.

I found Hodgson's book easy to understand. I loved her anecdotes about her previous clients or her own dogs, as it showed how she approached problematic behaviour in an observant and calm manner. My mum, however, found there were too many "info bites" throughout the book, so the information was a littler harder to digest.

Overall, I like her philosophy on encouragement. I've already implemented a few of her tricks with my new puppy with much success!

[Alana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently adopted a dog and have been a little at a loss about how I ought to raise and train him. This book offered a lot of great advice and insight about everything from how dogs see the world to how to deal with common issues like chewing or separation anxiety. Highly recommended.

[Elizabeth Howe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is good for before you get a dog or after you get a dog too. It has little quizzes in it to show you your parenting style and to help you asses what kind of behavior you would like in a dog and recommend a breed or you can take the quiz as your currently owned dog and find out what kind of personality your dog has to better fit your parenting style to them. I got it mostly for the part about anxiety and it didn't tell me anything that I hadn't already learned but I found it helpful to feel reinforced in my lessons about the topic.

[Rosanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book I've ever read about being a pet parent. It lists all sorts of different issues and how how they can be fixed with ease. There's step by step training information and why different issues may occur. I borrowed this book from a library but have since purchased my own. It's a read book to flip to when having issues or concerns about your pet. I highly recommend this book to any pet parent, especially if it's your first dog.

[Adrielle]

Seems good - if we get a dog I will probably buy this for the troubleshooting section.

[Kristy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really easy to read and helpful

[Dewayne Stark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part way in the reading there is a quiz but you dog needs to be 6 months or older. My pup Happy Tails is only 4 months.

[Natalia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book a little too wordy and suffering from lack of pictures (there are 3 pictures in the entire 300 page book). I am sure it is a good resource when you already have a dog, but I am considering getting a dog and this book does not seem to be suitable for this purpose. I also find lack of structure in this book kind of annoying. It feels like it was written by a dog psychiatrist. Nothing is wrong with this but it is just not my kind of book.

[Senator · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is not lacking in useful and amazing information for dog owners, yet where this book fails is in its delivery. With so many facts and important tools and little in the way of light stories or cute photos to break up the deluge, "Dog Parenting" reads as a textbook rather than a marketable dog guide. FANTASTIC tips when taken in small doses.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Moderately paced with just enough scientific facts behind it to make it clear that dogs really are like little toddlers. This is excellent for anyone who has a dog; whether puppy or senior dog. The authors website moderndogparenting.com provides good videos for training demonstrations.

[Candy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good reference manual ...