The Loved Dog: The Playful, Nonaggressive Way to Teach Your Dog Good Behavior

Tamar Geller hits the right balance between assertiveness and traditional reward based conditioning. You can truly tell that this remarkable woman loves dogs, and loves what she does.

This woman spends more time talking about how great love is, wallowing in her own self pity, whining about her abusive parents, and name-dropping her "celebrity" clients than she does offering useful advice about training dogs. If she sounds crazy, it's because she is. It's no wonder her mother tried checking her into a mental institution when she was a child. Don't bother with this book. You'll only be wasting your time. I wish I could give it 0 stars.

Although there was a lot of Hollywood-style name dropping, and a ton of treat-giving, the book was a pleasant read of the author's life story. Most of the dog training info can be found on-line for free, though, so you might want to try that out before buying this book.

"The Loved Dog" doesn't teach or instruct the reader on anything more than common sense would dictate in dealing with dogs. Geller uses a much kinder method than other trainers, but the book is lacking in depth and detail. Too much time is spent on her past without really connecting the reader on anything more than a basic level. Once the training starts in the book, the author seems to speed through it without taking enough time to get fully into the hows and whys. More time is spent in commenting on all the famous folks that Geller knows and has worked with in the past. The book is definitely a good start to someone new to dog training, but wouldn't be the only book needed.

On page 82 where Geller discusses learning your dog's favorite treats, she mentions that one of her client dog's favorites is chocolate. Chocolate is toxic to dogs. Geller warns against other foods that are toxic to dogs--onions, grapes and raisins--but she makes no such warning about chocolate. This is a pretty serious oversight, especially for new dog owners who may be reading this book because of the Humane Society CEO's good review of it. I might have given this book 3 stars otherwise, but I'm giving it one star just to call attention to this hazard.