Has anyone read In Defence of Dogs?

By John Bradshaw. I was thinking of asking for this for Christmas. If you've read it, what did you think?

 

Yep - I've read it. I think I wrote a review in books....but might be imagining that.

 

Nope, I didn't. I remember I enjoyed it, and finished it (I'll abandon books if I think there are not worth the time) - I remember bits of it that really caught my interest, mainly about the characteristics of dogs and the influence of breeding, but don't think I took a huge amount away from it.

 

One if the few book about dogs I could get Hubby to read further than the first page. He wuotes it back at me now.

 

Thanks both of you. Readable but not wonderful?

 

Yes - I'd say so. I don't massively recall the detail of the book, and if I'm really taken by a book I tend to remember a lot more.

I think this was mainly because I didn't find the main messages at all surprising. Dog are not wolves. Yep, didn't think they were. It's rubbish to try to train a dog with dominance theories. Yep, ok, not arguing with that. Dogs deserve our understanding. Absolutely. And so on.

But it was quite insightful about the impact on dogs of modern life. I'd say it increased my empathy and compassion for dogs (but I think I have a lot of that anyway!).

 

My daughter gave me the book last Christmas and I am ashamed to say I have only read parts of it. Probably because I 'knew' most of it. I really must make the effort to read it properly.

Worth a read.

 

Same here read it but a lot of it was stuff I had come across before. Enjoyed it but wasn't crazy about it like some of my books which regularly read again.