Rating: 
Summary: 4 paws up!
Review: Excellent! Straight to the point, and a tremendous asset to the dog world.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't Put Your Dog Through This!
Review: Donaldson can pretend all she wants, but it is clear that she does not have much in the way of dog handling experience, she is all Ivory Tower, a lot of her advice is simply nonsense, unfortunately, much is dangerous. She should stay out of the aggression field until she has logged in 5 years or more actually out training and handling dogs, not sitting around naval gazing and pretending they are humans wearing fur coats. Let me tell you why I feel this strongly: at our facility, we we accept severe behavior problems, primarily aggression. And, when we get pets in who are about to be put to sleep, we usually find out that the owner is a Donaldson follower and has religiously applied all of her principles, resulting in a more aggressive and dangerous dog than what they started with. Over and over again.
Please, folks if you are having behavior problems, get advice from an actual trainer who does hands on work with all types of dog every day of the week, not some (probably) well intentioned daydreamer who refuses to accept that dogs are dogs and will behave as dogs.
Rating:
Summary: Dog Speak!
Review: This is THE dog book to own. this book dispells that myth of the perfect dog. Most of us who bring a dog into our home and expect him to behave, well, like us... this book explains in simple 'dog speak' terms of why they don't. My dog is aggressive and this book helped me understand his behavior. HIGHLY recommended to everyone (no matter what the dogs age is), but especially those whose dogs have 'issues'
Rating: 
Summary: Best description of house-training I've seen
Review: Jean Donaldson is a gifted dog trainer. She has two border collies and that should speak for itself. She has a great love of dogs, but she doesn't romanticize them. This very helpful when one's dog is not perfect.I have quoted her take on why dogs have trouble understanding the whole house training/potty thing. That chapter alone is well worth the cost of the entire book. She gives many wonderful lessons on training and what to expect. Her description of "extinction burst" should be included in every parenting book, too. I like operant conditioning and she offers a good place to start. I did shape my JRT to "roll over" in less than a week with her suggestions. My pup was 11 weeks old at the time we did that. I have a dog who trusts me. I can clip her nails and play many games with her. I also have a great companion with four feet.
Rating:
Summary: Buy It, Read It, Practice It!!
Review: I am a dog trainer myself and I learned a lot from this book!! This book is a wonderful tool for unknowledable dog owners and those who believe in the 'old fashioned' methods, i.e., choke chains and the like..... Everyone should read this to understand why we should convert to the modern training of rewards only and no punishment!! The only bad thing I can say is that some of the wording may be a bit difficult for everyone to understand. You must be an adult by all means and you must have a bit of a vocabulary as well!! (I was having to re-read a few of the chapters to get it!!) Overall: SUPER! WONDERFUL!! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!
Rating:
Summary: Should Be Required Reading When You Get A Dog!
Review: This book is a must! People have to learn that dogs are animals and learn to relate to them as such! Be prepared to work your mind when you read this book, it is full of information and you need to retain it all! If there is any one book that you need in your library it is this one. Jean Donaldson is a master at explaining the dogs mind and how it works. Please read this book, and take it to heart it is truly amazing!
Rating:
Summary: My two cents
Review: I felt it would be worthwhile to respond to a couple of comments. Some reviews refered to Donaldson's methods as fadish or inneffective. However, Donaldson's methods are based on the work of B. F. Skinner, a prestigious behavioral scientist who made major contributions to the field of psychology and behavioral science. Classical and operant conditioning, principals used by Donaldson in her book, have been around for quite some time and have been shown to be highly efective with numerous species. Donaldson's point is that people who train the "standard, leash-jerk" way are ignoring years of tried and true animal behavior science. Some have said that this is not a good how to book. I don't think that is its primary purpose. I think she is trying to provide a sound foundation on how to think about dogs and training so you the owner are "set up to succeed." The hope is that when you choose a how to book or a training program you will look for one that uses positive reinforcement. For example, do you see zoo trainers using negative reinforcement with sea mamals or elephants? Of course not, they use treats. Positive reinforcement works when other techniques don't or simply can't be used. Finally, her point on liking dogs for who and what they are vs. liking them for the human qualities we project onto them is an important distinction for owners to make. I think that this is perhaps the most important point made in the book: what is wrong with a dog being a dog or why do they have to be part human to be good animals/pets?. Changing the way we think about our pets will help us to stay objective and think with our human heads rather than our hearts when we are struggling with training and/or problem behavior in our pets, and in turn to have an experience that is both successful and positive.
Rating:
Summary: enlightening!
Review: This book makes clear the dog's view of interactions with humans. It shows you what the dog is thinking so that you can modify your behavior to get the most response from your dog. Dog training made humane. A life-altering discovery - my dog and I have never been happeier, and my dog has never been better behaved. I keep stacks of this book in my house to give to any friend who has a dog.
Rating: 
Summary: Good information, bad organization, worse attitude.
Review: I completely agree with Ms. Donaldson's central premise; that we create unnecessary frustration (both human and canine) when we act on the mistaken notion that dogs possess human-level understanding of abstract concepts, human motivations and human desires. She presents excellent techniques designed to short-circuit the escalating frustrations that result from our tendency to anthropomorphize our dogs. That said, I do not like this book. Culture Clash has a minimalist table of contents and NO INDEX, which makes it nearly impossible to find passages on a specific topic. This renders the book nearly useless as a training resource or reference work. One could still read it cover to cover and glean much useful information in the process, but this would require enduring the vitriol that seems to drip from every page. The story I made up about Ms. Donaldson while reading Culture Clash is that she has been nursing some long-standing personal grudges against specific people in her professional field and that she wrote this book as much to ridicule them and settle old scores as to impart useful information to dog-owners. Ms. Donaldson seems unsatisfied with simply pointing out the faulty notions about dog behavior that are the currency of contemporary "common sense" thinking about dogs. It seemed to me as I read the book that she considers no myth properly debunked until she has cast one of her "rivals" as the personification of that belief and then heaped ridicule on that person. The following passage seems typical: "I once spoke to a traditional trainer who poured scorn on the use of food as a motivator. The line he trotted out, which still makes me wretch even to this day, was "if you use food to train, the dog is doing it for the food and not for you. (...) If you opt to not use positive reinforcement, you end up, like they all do, using aversives and announcing that your dog is doing it for you. Pathetic." If you think you would enjoy wading through 224 pages of this sort of thing, then Culture Clash may be the dog-training book for you. I'd still like to finish the book, but Ms. Donaldson's tone starts to wear on my nerves very quickly, so I take it in very small chunks.
Rating:
Summary: A "Must Read"
Review: Finally! A book that tells it like it is. A "no-nonsense" "no more excuses" way of explaining the behavior of "Real Dogs". An absolute MUST READ for anyone who cares about the well being of their dog.
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