For the Love of a Dog: Understanding
Emotion in You and Your Best Friend
by Patricia McConnell
Another Great Book By Patricia Mcconnell!!
Yes, humans and canines are different species, but current research
provides fascinating, irrefutable evidence that what we share with our dogs
is greater than how we vary. As behaviorist and zoologist Dr. Patricia
McConnell tells us in this remarkable new book about emotions in dogs
and in people, more and more scientists accept the premise that dogs
have rich emotional lives, exhibiting a wide range of feelings including fear,
anger, surprise, sadness, and love.
In For the Love of a Dog, McConnell suggests that one of the reasons we
love dogs so much is that they express emotions in ways similar to
humans. After all, who can communicate joy better than a puppy? But not

all emotional expressions are obvious, and McConnell teaches both
beginning dog owners and experienced dog lovers how to read the more
subtle expressions hidden behind fuzzy faces and floppy ears.
For those of us who deeply cherish our dogs but are sometimes baffled by
their behavior, For the Love of a Dog will come as a revelation–a treasure
trove of useful facts, informed speculation, and intriguing accounts of
man’s best friend at his worst and at his very best. Readers will discover
how fear, anger, and happiness underlie the lives of both people and dogs
and, most important, how understanding emotion in both species can
improve the relationship between them. Thus McConnell introduces us to
the possibility of a richer, more rewarding relationship with our dogs.
While we may never be absolutely certain what our dogs are feeling, with
the help of this riveting book we can understand more than we ever
thought possible. Those who consider their dogs part of the family will find
For the Love of a Dog engaging, enlightening, and utterly engrossing.
From the Hardcover edition.
Personal Review: For the Love of a Dog: Understanding
Emotion in You and Your Best Friend by Patricia McConnell
Patricia McConnell is not only exceptionally bright and knowledgeable, she
is the best writer in her field. And what a writer! This book is very insightful,
appropriately compassionate, empathetic and richly emotive. Although
there can be no one, all encompassing way of understanding all dogs and
their spectrum of behavior that is clear, coherent and comprehensive--
without accounting for omissions and contradictions--this book comes
close--from one perspective. After all, it does address understanding the
emotions experienced by our companion animals and appropriately
interpreting their behavior that we see as a consequence. Dr. McConnell is
very persuasive and she extended what can be known and experienced in
my personal understanding and interactions with dogs.
This book relies upon Dr. McConnell's professional training, teaching, as
well as her years of practical observation and experience living in intimate
relationships with several dogs on her Wisconsin farm. Her empathy and
compassion are extraordinary just as her ability to share them with the
reader makes this an unusually engaging book for the mind and heart. Her
knowledge is impressive because she is not merely responding or reacting
to what she observes. But she does live it and it is that level that we can

initially understand and share prior to gaining deeper insights and
knowledge about behavior that we can apply. Although it is personal and
anecdotal you are really getting a range of useful clues and wisdom. To
clarify the meaning of dog behavior helps you, in turn, act, in order to have
a healthier, happier pet that is easier and more joyful to live with. For
example, in what variety of ways does dog behavior and expression
convey nervousness, fear, stress or unease? How can you clearly respond
that successfully communicates calming reassurances? How we act and
interact has consequences.
Regardless, use whatever ideas work best for you and for your specific
breed of dogs, their temperament and each more specifically, one's
specific, individual personality. Perhaps it includes a critically specific
history in the case of a rescued dog. This author's assumption is that you
love and feel responsible for the dog's well being. This book is not really a
training book but a book about explication, perception and the importance
of recognizing emotions we send as messages with or without our
cognizance and those sent by our best friends, unfortunately, are often
ignored or misinterpreted. We all search for solutions and knowledge that
works and provide answers. But for something deeper, perhaps at times
more ethereal, possibly more intuitive at times, but always well informed by
a lively intelligence and impressively encompassing life experience, I found
this delightfully well written book especially insightful and I believe, exactly
on target. You too could begin to observe your dog much more closely
from now on. Questions will abound and possibilities will mount. Nonverbal
communication will have new meaning. You might find yourself speaking
what appears to be for the most part, a universal Canine language, most
often in a paralinguistic manner that seems to work. Ultimately that is what
really matters.
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