“We must learn to listen to what the dog is telling us.”
Why did I get this book?
I adore Turid’s work. Simple as that. Her philosophies and quirky writing style makes for a really straightforward reading experience, so naturally I picked this book up when I came across it.
What does this book do?
This book goes through the different kinds of barks our canine companions use to communicate with the world. After all, a bark isn’t just a bark, but despite the meaning of the bark, we humans always tend to deliver the same reaction to it: frustration and irritation. But that’s quite alright, because now we have this book, and we can fix the error of our ways and learn to listen. And that is what this book does. Along with the description of each type of bark, you’ll find a guide on how to work with it. None of the methods will include any sort of punishment and are generally very zen to work with. And I am personally all for that. All in all this is a neat little handbook (did I mention it’s only 108 pages?) that will serve you well as a part of your library. Even if you don’t have a problem barker, this book will teach you a lot about barking and further your general understanding of dogs which is never a bad thing.
What does this book not do?
If you’re looking to teach your dog to bark to be quiet, this is not it. No parlour tricks described in this book. If you’re looking to ger your dog to never bark again, this is also not the book for you. I sincerely hope no book promise that out there, because as Turid so beautifully points out in this book, barking is communication and part of what is natural to a dog, so we must accept it to some degree. That doesn’t mean we can’t do anything about it though, and teaching us how is exactly what this book can do.