Dog trainer Doggy Dan shares his insights about the similarities between training dogs and raising children in What the Dogs Taught me About Being a Parent. As a dog-owner thinking about having children, I was excited to discover that I may be able to use some of my dog-training skills on children – everything from giving calm, clear instructions to reinforcing positive behaviour and providing distractions from negative behaviour. His basic underlying principle being that I need to be ‘pack leader’ to both my dog and my children. He does, however, draw a line between dogs and children (just when I was wondering if I really was going to be able to shut my children outside in the backyard for a couple of hours while I pop out to the pub for a nice pinot) – according to Doggy Dan, while it is perfectly acceptable to be completely authoritarian with your dogs, the end goal of raising children is to be able to raise independent humans, able to make their own decisions.
I’m liking
Yes, his writing is as warm, fuzzy and upbeat as the name ‘Doggy Dan’ and the smiley family picture on the cover implies. However, it’s not as relentlessly cheesy as one might fear and there’s a lot of good advice and thought-provoking philosophical musings in this book. It’s clearly written, packed with interesting anecdotes that most people can probably relate to (even those without dogs or children of their own) and has a helpful “Top Tips” summary at the end of each chapter. A lot of the wisdom in the book could also be applied to relationships in general.
Things that made me go hmmmm
I found it slightly anecdote-heavy and I feel it could have been shorter. The chapter and section headings, while intriguing, were not overly informative in terms of content. It’s the kind of book you want to be able to dip into and refer back to certain information, but is written as if you’re expected to read it straight through from cover to cover (I confess I got stuck about halfway and then skim read). The lack of index and somewhat vague chapter headings listed in the contents, make it difficult to navigate.
The conclusion
I’m guessing this is aimed at people who have both children and dogs and can’t be bothered buying two different ‘training’ books. Or perhaps those who have one of the above and are thinking of acquiring the other. As a dog owner I found it to be more an interesting read to provide food for thought than a useful step-by-step instruction manual.
