Embracing the Wild in Your Dog

I love that the author used Native American sayings at the beginning of each chapter.

To look into the eyes of a wolf is to see your soul. Just be sure something you want to view is there ~ Iroquois saying

I really loved this book because the author talks about my two favorite things: Wolves & Dogs.

The author lived in Alaska growing up and had a mentor that taught him about wolves and the wild. He incorporated these things into dog training, looking at your dogs inner wolf so to speak.

The author and his wife own a training facility to help people with their dogs by training them like the wolves train their families. I think this is an interesting concept.

Some clients would come to him and not listen and their poor dogs would get put to sleep by court order from biting someone. It's sad, but it happens. They thought he was crazy because he didn't use regular methods of training or explaining about your dog. Here's the thing, why don't you try it to see if it works. Hello people!

The bottom line is to see the inner wolf in your dog, treat them both with respect, and love them both :)

*I would like to thank NETGALLEY and the wonderful publisher, SMITH PUBLICITY, for putting this book on my shelf to read as part of October's Adopt A Shelter Dog Month and in exchange for my honest review.*

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1416758834 http://melissa413readsalot.blogspot.com/2015/10/embracing-wild-in-your-dog-by-bryan.html

I have owned large “aggressive” breeds of dog for most of my life, the ever ferocious and completely violent Rottweiler. My dogs have never bitten or attacked anyone, have lived their entire lives with cats and small children around, and have put up with nonsense from little dogs with scarcely a growl. Given my dog history, I was very interested in Bryan Bailey’s comparison of the dog with his wolf ancestors.

=== The Good Stuff ===

* I started the book and immediately began disagreeing with the author. Bailey begins the book by describing the dog as a modern-day wolf, prone to all the behaviors of wild wolves. A wolf will feel itself perfectly justified in attacking a small child who hovers over it, wraps his arms around the wolf’s neck and takes its favorite chew toy out of its mouth. That is the way of wild wolves, and as Bailey explains, the way of their dog descendants.
I remember thinking: “That may be the way the dog would like it to work, but I am master of this pack, and we live by my rules. Attacking children is just not allowed in this pack, I don’t care who your ancestors were”.
It turns out that by the time I finished the book, I realized Bailey and I mostly agreed. The wolf respects the alpha pair of the pack and their rules, and dogs follow the same pattern.

* Bailey is willing to tackle some sacred cows. He is a strong advocate of “negative feedback” whereby a pack member receives a punishment for violating pack rules. While that punishment may be violent in the wolf pack, for the domestic dog it need not be. A tug on the leash, a raised voice, a poke in the haunches all serve the same purpose, and communicate with a dog in the way of his own pack. Bailey believes that most dog trainers today only use politically correct “positive feedback”, meaning that dogs are rewarded for good behavior. Wolf packs do not use that technique.

* Similarly, Bailey is willing to take on no-kill shelters. He points out that some dogs may simply not be adoptable, and no good can come of attempting to place them with families ill prepared to deal with them. While it offends our human sensibilities, in nature wolf packs would not tolerate these animals or their offspring.

* Interwoven with his thoughts on dogs, Bailey also discusses his childhood, and specifically his relation with a US Army survival instructor. There are plenty of stories about survival in the Alaska back country, and plenty of native American folklore and quotations mixed in with the narrative. Depending on your opinion, these are either enriching and add to the story, or annoying.

=== The Not-So-Good Stuff ===

* Bailey indicates up front that the book is not a training guide, and he means it. Unfortunately, he teases the reader with stories of how dog trainers are doing things wrong, but offers no advice on the correct way.

* Some of the author’s opinions can get a little bit “preachy”. Yes, there is a big business behind America and its pets, and not all of the people involved are especially knowledgeable, or have a dog’s best interests at heart.

* I do not have Bailey’s experience, but I believe he underestimates the divergence of dogs from wolves. Yes, there is some wolf in every dog, and they have many of the same instincts and natural behaviors But dogs have lived with humans for thousands of years, and I believe they have adapted and actually changed. For example, there was a PBS show on recently that showed humans directing dogs and wolves to find food hidden underneath one of two cups. The dogs could understand human pointing, and even follow the human’s gaze, to the correct cup. Wolves did not have this ability.

=== Summary ===

I found the book to be an enjoyable and fascinating look at both dogs and wolves and how they interact with each other and nature. Bailey points out that dogs are descendants from wolves, and still have many of their natural instincts and behaviors, and that most dog behavioral problems can best be understood by looking at wolves. Much of what he said struck home, but even if you do not believe it, it is worth reading the book just to force you to understand why you disagree.

There were also a few fascinating facts that I had never considered. For example, in the wild, only the dominant pair of wolves are allowed to breed. But the pack is made up of a mix of dominant and submissive animals, meaning that two dominant wolves can sire submissive pups. That was not intuitive, and has implications for domestic dog breeders.

Bryan has had an interesting life learning about wolves from a young age. He brings in some good points about how we treat our dogs and what we expect forgetting their history. If you have an interest in Alaska where he grew up and the study of wolves which he did from a young age then you will enjoy this book.

Review: EMBRACING THE WILD IN YOUR DOG by Bryan Bailey

Wow!! Never your ordinary dog book here! Bryan Bailey comes barreling out of nowhere (actually, out of Nature and evolution) with an entirely new standpoint. That dog you think you own (in my case, they own me) is not just some domesticated, human-trained creature, here for its owner's delectation. Sorry: that "dog" is a domestic wolf, product of millions of years of evolution; and as Wolf is, so is Dog. 

Author Bailey advises: look at Nature! Examine Wolf behavior! Here is where you will find the template for your Dog-- not by studying human behavior and interactions. It's definitely an education in which I intend to engage.

Embracing the Wild in Your Dog: An Understanding Of The Authors Of Our Dog's Behavior - Nature And The Wolf considers the relationship between domestic dogs, wolves, and humans, and is a recommendation for any dog owner who seeks a discussion of the differences and similarities between dogs and their wolf brethren.

This isn't to say that Bailey claims that the wolf and the dog share the same characteristics: he's careful to point out where their heritage links and where it diverges, and also analyzes human influences on a dog's personality, traits and development. Coming from a canine trainer with more than enough experience in obedience, this means that Embracing the Wild in Your Dog isn't so much about control techniques as it is about understanding the wild nature of the domestic dog and how to redirect these natural tendencies to tailor aggression and change undesirable habits.

That said, the 'wolf' in a domestic dog isn't something to be dominated so much as something to be embraced: it's this process of acceptance and fine-tuning that leads a canine trainer to the type of control that syncs with a dog's nature, resulting in harmonious interactions for all involved.

This is not a 'dog training' book, however: readers who approach it as such may be disappointed. It's about understanding a dog's underlying psyche, its sources, and how to interact with the animal with this knowledge in mind; and the approaches use the author's experience growing up in the Alaskan wild and his encounters with wolves as the starting point for such an understanding.

Unique in its approach, filled with the author's insights ("…I changed how I handled Ranger and became a bit of a wolf myself in doing so."), and considering how leadership is established between species, Embracing the Wild in Your Dog is a delightful blend of memoir and insights into wild and domestic animal alike, and is highly recommended for canine owners who seek more animal psychology than the usual 'how to train your dog' book offers.

Some people may embrace the message of this book, while others may run screaming into the wilderness to get away from it, but nearly everyone who reads it is bound to have a strong reaction of some sort.

The anecdotes from the author's childhood in Alaska were vital to forming his approach to working with dogs, so I liked reading them to see what lesson his mentor taught him in each situation. Likewise, the anecdotes from his time working as a trainer illustrated his approach and the different types of clients and problems he has worked with professionally.

The author's knowledge of wolf behavior is something that many of us cannot hope to replicate, and he acknowledges this point. But we can follow his reasoning that treating dogs as small furry humans can lead to trouble. Every time he talked about owners who dress their dogs up and inundate them with toys and treats, I kept picturing a scene from the Nora Roberts book, The Search. In her book, the protagonist is a dog trainer who also runs a search and rescue unit. One of her clients has a very spoiled small dog who goes crazy and barks and attacks any dog that comes near. The trainer tells the owner that the dog sees herself as alpha of the pack and is defending her territory and place in the pack hierarchy. To prevent lawsuits and injuries the owners need to reclaim that alpha position. Mr. Bailey says much the same thing - if owners don't want their dog to bark at or bite other dogs or humans, then the owners must establish their place as the dominant ones in the relationship and have the dogs look to them for cues on how to react in a situation.

Bailey's chapter that discusses his views on rescue programs and no-kill shelters is sure to rile up some readers. He admits that his statements may make people think he dislikes all such programs, but that it is not true. He simply thinks there are dogs who cannot be safely worked into the human world and trying to do so will cause injury, heartache, and perhaps even death (of another pet or a human), or lawsuits. He gives several examples to support his point.

Overall this is a fascinating read and provides a lot of food for thought and discussion. It is comparable in some ways to a book I read years ago about the hidden or secret life of dogs (sorry, I can't remember the exact wording). That book also talked about things like the pack hierarchy that forms when you have several dogs. Embracing the Wild in Your Dog goes into more descriptions of situations that have gone wrong because the humans did not exert dominance when they should have.

If you are looking for a manual on how to train your dog, this is not intended for that use. If you are looking for something to read that will cause you to re-examine your beliefs and behaviors toward man's best friend, then you have found it.