Book Review: Canine Body Language

I’m preparing for my retreat on dog language and training, and as I often do, I’m reading (or, as is often the case, re-reading) some of my books on dog body language.

There aren’t very many of them, let me tell you. >.>

But my favorite is “Canine Body Language: A Photographic Guide” by Brenda Aloff. It’s a ton of pictures with captions, breaking down the body language. It’s done completely differently than I do my retreat (and than I will do my book), but that doesn’t make it better or worse, just different. I would say Brenda and I have very different teaching styles.

Every time I go through it I pick up something I’ve forgotten or hadn’t known in the first place. Occasionally there’s something I disagree with, but those are few and far between, and generally very minor.

I wish it were broken in more usable sections: stress, over-excitement, fear, and so on. But, again, I think that’s part of the different teaching styles.

Throughout, Brenda will take a photo and dissect all of it, whereas I’ll talk about a specific thing that means something and then grab photos to show what I’m talking about. I do like the way she does it, though. It gives a holistic view, and I appreciate that.

All in all, a book I highly recommend for learning dog body language. Although I do wish it were in color. Then it’d be even better. 😀

Jenna