Description
Price: $17.99 - $9.98
(as of Feb 25, 2025 21:58:59 UTC – Details)
The star of Smithsonian Channel’s Dogs With Extraordinary Jobs reveals how to both interpret and “speak” the hidden language of dogs.
Recent studies into the minds of canines show that they have a rich social intelligence and a physical and vocal language as complex and subtle as our own. In this fun and fascinating guide, world-renowned trainer Victoria Stilwell explores the inner world of dogs. This book is your guide to understanding your pooch, communicating effectively, strengthening your bond, and helping dogs learn in the most effective way possible so they feel confident navigating the human world with success.
Along the way, you’ll learn the answers to questions such as:
• What do different tail wags mean?
• What does being right-pawed say about my dog’s personality?
• How can I tell the difference between boredom barking and warning barking?
• What does it mean when my dog spins around, arches his back, or gives me the whale eye?
• Do dogs feel guilt?
• How do dogs perceive human faces?
• Why do some scientists think dogs’ emotional experience is even greater than ours?
Filled with adorable full-color photographs and instructive illustrations, this insightful “dog decoder” will soon make you dog’s best friend.
Publisher : Ten Speed Press (October 11, 2016)
Language : English
Paperback : 160 pages
ISBN-10 : 1607749521
ISBN-13 : 978-1607749523
Item Weight : 2.31 pounds
Dimensions : 7.03 x 0.46 x 8.98 inches
Customers say
Customers find the book informative and insightful for dog lovers. They describe it as an enjoyable read with good content. However, some readers feel the illustrations are not very helpful, especially the random dog pictures that fill up the book.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Harlan –
Love the detail explanation
Very nice book to read, get a lot of insight there, thanks for sharing you knowledge for the better future of the dog
Diane Leach-Austin –
Full of good information
This book is worth buying! It is well written and has answers to questions I never thought to ask! Highly recommend!
Eliza –
Entry level information in an easy to understand format.
I love that this book is all about the basics of dog body language. Itâs easy to understand and has nice illustrations to reference. Its primary focus is how to read a dogsâ body language to increase safety and comfort in both humane and dog, during training and other interactions. It is not really a textbook and itâs a very basic resource but it is an excellent addition to a beginnersâ dog library. My only reason for giving 4 stars and not 5 is I found many of the illustrations to be regrettably frivolous. Many of the largest full page photos showed dogs playing, sleeping, or otherwise just being a dog, while the ones showing actual examples of body language where often drawings of those behaviors. Additionally the drawings seemed to always be small and never took up as much as half a page of space. To me it seems like a poor editing choice and not an authorâs error. Regardless I buy books for the words and the content is excellent, and there are illustrations showing the behaviors covered in this book.
Cara Howell –
I love all of Victoria Stilwell’s books
I love all of Victoria Stilwell’s books. She is so insightful and uses positive methods for training dogs. Trained my dog with her help. I have a very well-behaved dog because of kindness not force. I highly recommend this book. I always have felt that dogs know more than we give them credit for and after reading “The Secret Language of Dogs” I see I was right! Great read for better understanding our best friends!
Melinita –
Deepens Understanding, Interactions, & Bonding
This book is so informative and very enjoyable to read. My dogs have been rescue dogs, sometimes not knowing their histories, but this applies to all! It has helped me to have more meaningful interactions with my dogs & assisted in bonding.
Gayle L. Gulotta –
A Must for Dog Owners
Book was very educational and is very helpful for any dog owner. I always enjoyed reading and watching visual programs on Victoria Stillwell. My daughter just got a dog and I purchased one for her. Like Victoria’s positive training methods. I can’t stand when people are mean and rough with their pets.
SrhW –
Easy and interesting
This was a very quick read, and while I was hoping to get some more actionable training information to apply to dog training, I think the high-level concepts covered here will have a positive impact on the way I interact with my dog. Several of the points made in the book certainly resonated with me, particularly the idea that a dog should occasionally be allowed to problem solve and make decisions independently. Stilwell doesn’t provide many specific suggestions for how to do the things she talks about in the book, but there’s enough of that information available. The conceptual context provided here is useful in its own way.Ultimately, this book presents a shallow dive into a very deep and complex subject, but I think that’s as far as most people really want to go. There are enough footnotes in the book to provide a roadmap to further study for those who want it.
MinnieBannister –
Meh
It was somewhat interesting, not a lot of info here. Lots of dog photos. It doesn’t really go into any topic with much depth. I read the whole book in 2.5 hrs.
Johanne Roy –
Lovely and very useful. We love dogs even more after.
E. welsh –
A good read with lots of interesting fact and tips
Waldfee –
Victoria Stilwell ist für mich die beste bekannte Hundetrainerin. Was ist schlimmer, als wenn man all die Signale seines eigenen Hundes und die von fremden Hunden gar nicht oder falsch versteht? So sind Probleme vorprogrammiert. Dieses Buch gibt einen sehr guten Ãberblick über die Kommunikation von Hunden mit vielen bespielhaften Zeichnungen und gleichzeitig vielen sehr guten Tipps wie man auf was am besten reagieren kann. Ich würde sagen, ein Muss für jeden Hundefreund, und in meinen Augen das beste Buch, was ich zu diesem Thema bis jetzt gefunden habe.
Rory Rosszell –
This might be a good book for a novice, but having read about dogs for years and now having had a toy poodle for 8 years, I was hoping this book would go beyond “common sense” and provide insight into aspects of our dog’s behaviour that I have trouble understanding or dealing with effectively. The section on humping, for example, only discusses the humping of other dogs and people. Our dog gets excited when we have guests over, and, despite being fixed, he often starts humping his cushions and blankets, so I often take them away, but feel badly and wonder if there might be a better solution. Also, whenever we wipe his feet or he gets his feet wet, the first thing he does is to find a carpet into which he can grind his face as he pushes himself along with his hind legs. Those are just a couple of examples of things I was hoping she would touch on or explain. Maybe I expected too much. And finally, although as the author she is free to do as she wishes, I was disappointed to see her consistently use the pronoun “she” when referring to dogs throughout the book. Although our patriarchic culture went the other way in the past and consistently used the pronoun “he” and words like “mankind”, I see no benefits in going completely the other way, and prefer authors who alternate between using “he” and “she” in different parts of the book.
Lisa Q –
Great book. Written and illustrated so well, makes it much easier to understand our canine friends. I would think it a necessity for anyone interested in all things canine. If you truly love dogs and want to understand them and learn how they communicate, and how best to treat them, this is the tool to have. I am very happy I bought this book.