Your Dog is Your Mirror

Despite being highly recommended to me I was disappointed by the book, “Your Dog is Your Mirror” by Kevin Behan. Overall it is an interesting exploration into the author's life and his journey in dog training, but unfortunately his theories on dog training are not very scientifically accurate or well researched.

Some of my main complaints are: 

-He uses a lot of absolutes which is problematic because behavior is incredibly nuanced. For example he mentions; horses NEVER resource guard humans, cats are ALWAYS in charge in dog-cat relationships, Dogs and horses are the ONLY animals humans can have a deeper relationship with. None of those statements are true but he says them as if they are. 🤷‍♀️

-He has a very poor understanding of dog perception, body language, and communication. For example, thinking a tail wag means a dog is happy (it doesn’t.) Or in several instances failing to understand how dogs communicate and perceive the world through odor.

-He denounces a lot of sound scientific research on animal behavior. He at times mentions other trainers and scientists, but often has a very shallow and/or dismissive view of their work.

-His concept of dogs being our mirror projects a lot of our behavior onto dogs. In my experience, dogs have their own baggage, preferences, and life experiences. Their problems aren’t always some deeper reflection of their humans problems, sometimes they just are the way they are. 

I do think he genuinely cares for the dogs he trains and wants to help their owners. There are nuggets of wisdom in his book too. But overall I wish he was less wrapped up in trying to prove his own dog training theories right and more committed to learning about industry best practices. One person's opinions on a small population of dogs cannot compare to the wealth of knowledge accumulated by hundreds of people and thousands of animals over many decades. I guess this book just reaffirmed how important continuing education is, but just not in the way I expected!