Rating: 
Summary: Shame on the publisher
Review: Jean Donaldson has some interesting things to say, no doubt. But her publisher has hobbled this book by including NO INDEX and a pathetic table of contents. Imagine this scenario: Fido's just knocked your child over. You remember something in the book that might help you correct this situation, but how do you find it? You can't! You're doomed to skimming through several chapters, and you'll likely give up before you find it. This book was published in 1997, and is highly recommended by many dog trainers. Hello, publisher! Surely it's worth hiring an indexer for a few hundred bucks.
Rating: 
Summary: Dogs are dogs except when she needs to prove her point!
Review: So Dogs are dogs. hmmmm how enlightening! She accepts all the natural attributes and psychology of dogs, and as well she should, but she doesn't accept "Pack" mentality.
She accepts that dogs are social beings and predators, but she doesn't accept hierarchical structure. She restates many obvious canine patterns, but her solutions for curing or redirecting problem behaviour is off-target and often time way too simplistic. She has no real life applications for the problem dog you have now - she just recommends what to do with a new puppy you get. She is correct that we "humanize" our pooches, but her cure is always of a kindly humanistic way. That will not work in this day and age of subdivision yard dogs and home protection dogs and busy families. Jean Donaldson's remedies are not practical or "real" for a dog psyche raised in these venues. Aversion does work on many "untrainable" dogs and many "unplaceable" dogs. I have seen positive-only trainers bail on dogs when training and behaviours did not go their way, so they judged the dogs "insane" or "unbalanced" and dismissed them! I have seen those same dogs after small doses of aversion training get better and learn their place in the home. They never will run free in the park with other dogs, but they can have a good life. Not every dog needs aversion training, but positive-only training will not work on every dog. Donaldson's stance on what good training is very closed minded and belittling. Her nonacceptence that other methods can work is very disconcerting! This book has many correct observations about dog culture and many bad theories for easing the clash of our culture and the dogs' culture. You will shake your head yes while reading this book (recognizing stated canine patterns in your dog) and then you'll be sucked in thinking that the remedies are the only correct ones. This is very sinister way of misleading you. Add just enough truth to validate the errors. I wonder if she has come across a truly "unbalanced" dog. There are better books out there! And Mr. Dunbar has failed his followers by recommending and publishing this book.
Rating: 
Summary: No Disney Dogs
Review: A fantastic review of a mentality that results in brilliantly well trained dogs, and more importantly, intelligent owners. She does a great job of placing the responsibility for good dog behaviour squarely where it belongs: on the owner. She provides plenty of practical examples to illustrate her points. This book is a MUST read for anyone who has never trained a dog before, for people looking to improve their training skills, and for experts looking for solutions to training problems. She dispels the myth of a dog as a small, fuzzy, person, and details why this is ok! Her methods do not exclusively use food, but seek 'real life reinforcers' as rewards for behavior. Practical examples are given to illustrate what might otherwise be confusing behaviourist jargon. Get to the heart of REAL training. Read this book.
Rating:
Summary: A bad author with good ideas
Review: Jean Donaldson is the most arrogant, condescending, and insulting author I've ever read. If you read this book BEFORE owning a dog you're safe but anyone who has had dogs in the past should be prepared to be attacked for past "sins". Donaldson's ideas are terrific. Her methodology is completely logical- she doesn't need to resort to name calling to convince readers that she's right. Obviously we're reading the book because we're looking for a new way of doing things, we don't need to be scolded on every page for the way we used to do things (which by the way was taught to us by professionals like Donaldson - if anyone deserves to be scolded it's her own colleagues!) If you're like me, and have trained dogs in the past using the "method du jour", I'd skip this book and find a different Positive Reinforcement book.
Rating:
Summary: Don't buy ,save your time and money
Review: According to Jean Donaldson, anything that you do different from her style of training is wrong. She will refer to you as an amatuer trainer if you use any style of training other than bribery with food to train the dog. My experience in training is with Hunting retrievers, and obedience training, along with some field work with a Police Service dogs. Now if you want to walk around smelling like a big piece of liver, and have the dog pretty much run the house, than buy her book, and get set for a uncontrollable dog. She is jumping on the band wagon of another trainer(name wont be mentioned) who thinks the dogs should train the owner. Many of which have attended my training course, and the owners were much happier now that they had a trained dog. Donaldson needs to get out of the office, and into the field of training, real dogs, real life situations with dogs. So Save your money, and invest the money on a good training book.
Rating:
Summary: A must-read for dog owners and lovers!
Review: Finally, a book the de-romanticizes dog motivations and behavior and allows us to get an honest look into the minds of our beloved companions. I am a much better dog owner now that I have read this book, and isn't that the best possible outcome?
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: After reading about this book on a couple of e-mail lists I subscribe to, I decided to see what all the buzz was about. I was very disappointed in what I found. I was so put off by the author's arrogant attitude -- I'm right, anyone who thinks differently is stupid -- it was difficult to get through the entire book. As others have already pointed out, the lack of an index makes the book useless as a reference. And it's scary to think that an inexperienced owner with a really aggressive dog could be guided by her recommendations. My favorite books on dog training are written by Carol Lea Benjamin, and Donaldson's book has done nothing to change my mind about recommending Carol's book.
Rating:
Summary: a good guide for raising dogs, children, husbands, etc...
Review: good advice for establishing behavior boundaries in a whole range of relationships. also some very good advice for anyone who may have found themselves in 'diminishing returns' relationships, with dogs or others.
Rating:
Summary: save your money
Review: My husband and I have trained and raised Dobermans for 18 years. This book has some good points, most notably debunking the Lassie paradigm. But her training method for teaching a dog not to jump is crazy making. She induces the dog to try to jump and then gives it a cue that it has made a mistake. A better method is to teach a dog to come up and touch his nose to a hand target and then sit. If your hand is low the dog can not jump. There are better books out on dog psychology and training. The Coppinger's book Dogs, a new theory of dog evolution is excellent. While pricey, Steven Lindsay's books "handbook of applied dog behavior and training" Volumes 1 and 2 are about the best out there. These are college level texts but written in a readable style with information on how dogs learn, biochemistry, genetics, breed traits, and more. Works by Skinner, the Bailey's and real life dog trainers are used as sources. Another lower priced book is "How Dogs Learn" by John Bailey and Mary Burch. This is real dog psychology and learning, not pop stuff with emotional and biased writing.
Rating:
Summary: This book blew my mind!
Review: This is THE BEST book on canine behavior I have ever read. It totally blew my mind. Previously I had only known of the "jerk" method of dog training. I never imagined that dogs could be trained using positive methods. The fact that the idea of operant conditioning etc were first proposed by BF Skinner in the 50's makes me wonder why it took so long to make it to the main stream. I have used many of the methods I learned in this book with my two adopted dogs, one of which is aggressive, and have had outstanding results. IMO this and Karen Pryor's "Don't Shoot the Dog" are the best books you can ever read about dog psycology and training.
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