ComPETability: Solving Behavior Problems in Your Multi-Dog Household

By: Amy Shojai

Narrated by: Amy Shojai

Length: 5 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

The United States is home to 78.2 million owned dogs, and 28 percent of owners own more than one dog, while 12 percent own three or more. That means more furry love for owners, but also can create a howling mess over that (GRRRR!) new canine friend. From conflicts over favorite toys and chew bones to sharing time with a favorite human, adding new pets rubs fur the wrong way and creates hairy situations for everyone - including you.

Whether you share your life with one dog or a houseful of hounds, this new guide gives owners the ability to understand why dogs act with dog-matic aggression, and learn how to soothe the growls and turn your household into a peaceable kingdom. You'll find detailed prescriptive how-to advice focused in the most common problems found in the multi-dog household. Use these fun techniques to calm fears, explain canine woofs and whines and body language, and strengthen the bond you share with your dogs. Step by step tips from this award-winning author and certified animal behavior consultant explain how to:

• Recognize and diffuse dog-to-dog aggression
• Solve canine firework fears, thunder phobias and separation anxiety
• Settle disputes over territory, potty problems and mealtime woes
• Choose an appropriate furry friend that resident dogs welcome with open paws
• Introduce the new arrival (including fiancee, babies, kids and cats) to the current canines
• Solve common pet peeves: barking, chewing, digging, jumping up, and more!

Fun, practical, and eminently informative, ComPETability helps owners devise strategies that enable multiple dogs to live in harmony within the same household. Written by one of America's premier pet experts, the book explains everything the loving dog owner needs to know. Most important, ComPETability provides crucial tips on how to evaluate and match your pets' personalities, improve their relationships, and make your home a sanctuary for canine fun and peace.

For more pet behavior advice refer to:

ComPETability: Solving Behavior Problems In Your Cat-Dog Household ComPETability: Solving Behavior Problems In Your Multi-Cat Household

©2012 Amy Shojai (P)2013 Amy Shojai

Contradictory Concepts

What did you like best about ComPETability: Solving Behavior Problems in Your Multi-Dog Household? What did you like least?

One thing I very much liked about this book had new concepts that I have not read about in other books. I have probably consumed 20 training and dog behavior books in the last 18 months. Most of the books seem to reword concepts that are covered in previous books. This book seemed to introduce some new training hypothesis and concepts and that was a breath of fresh air.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

The least interesting was this,
“Positive punishment has no place in modern training.” OK sure, Im not going to argue that here. But your example of shaking the couch to get the dog off the couch and saying “earthquake” is Positive Punishment! You add a stimulus -shake couch- (POSITIVE) to reduce getting on couch behavior (PUNISHMENT). “Punishing aggression increases aggression.” You might want to check on that concept. Giving the dog a massage to get him out of an aroused state kind of doesn’t make sense from a behavior modification perspective. Add POS. Reinforcement to stop arousal, is telling the dog to be amped up is OK.

Did ComPETability: Solving Behavior Problems in Your Multi-Dog Household inspire you to do anything?

To be honest I am not inspired by this book. I get clients needed behavior modification training often. They might have already tried some of these purely positively concepts with little success. I am not saying that the concepts are flawed, I’m saying that the reality is that a pet owner will not put in the time, will not be as consistent, and inadvertently reinforce more bad behaviors because they do not have the eye of a trainer. More commonly they will either live with the problem, or rehome the dog. (depending on the severity of the issue of course)

Helpful Advise - Not Just for Multi-Dog Households

While this is a book that focuses on behavioral problems that arise out of having more than one dog, it can still be useful to someone with only one dog. The author digs into the mentality of a dog and provides easy to understand facts, statistics, and general information to help you better understand and communicate with your dog. I came away with a much better understanding of why my dogs behave as they do and more importantly, why some of the things I was doing to try to stop some of those behaviors wasn't working. She also provided guidance in how to have your dog WANT to respond in the appropriate manner to your commands, rather than just blindly obeying. I loved the examples of "training" where the dogs follow your command because they think it is a game or competition and they want to be the winner. How fun and very, very helpful!

When you start listening to this book via audiobook you may think that there is no way you will get through it because of the poor quality of the recording and the almost robotic sound of the narrator's voice. KEEP GOING. You also might feel like you are being bombarded with too much information too quickly in the first chapter. KEEP GOING. The information contained in this book is good and useful and the pace at which the information is provided slows down to a respectable level in the chapters that follow. If you listen to a sample of the audiobook and decide that you don't think you will get used to the narration, or if you would like to jump to only the topics that pertain to your issues, then you should buy the physical book or ebook.

I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning about how their dog thinks and wants to know the why's behind a dog's behavior; even if you don't have a multi-dog household.

** I was provided an audiobook copy of this for free in exchange for my honest and unbiased review **

a really good read very informative & helpful

overall a wonderful book very well very well very excellent information packed full of good tips will read it again or rather audible Lit again OL

Amazing!

Loved every minute of this book. Will listen again. There is a lot to learn on it. Thanks!

Very useful!

Where does ComPETability: Solving Behavior Problems in Your Multi-Dog Household rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

One of my favorites! It is chock full of useful information for new dog owners (whether you've got just the one or a whole pack!)

What did you like best about this story?

The information was relevant, detailed, and easily applicable to life with multiple dogs. Even if you only have one dog, it has information you can apply to having your dog get along with others during visits or playdates.

What about Amy Shojai’s performance did you like?

I like when authors read their own writing. It gives the book a whole new dimension.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I listened to it in the car, but I would suggest listening with a pad of paper and pen so you can jot down the tips and tricks that speak to you the most!

Any additional comments?

The author generously gifted a copy of this book for an honest review. I really enjoyed listening to it and will take a look at purchasing Amy's other books on pet behavior!!

TERRIBLE audio! However, very informative book!

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The audio quality of this book is terrible. It is very tinny in quality. Sometime difficult to listen to.

Who was your favorite character and why?

No characters, per se.

Any additional comments?

The information in this book is EXCELLENT. It's a shame that the audio quality of the recording is so poor.

I must have for anyone who has a dog

I will be adding this book to my client reading list. This is a book I would suggest anybody who owns a dog or a cat. Every pet owner should read this book. if you spend the first year of your dogs life putting this booking to play the next 14 to 17 years is going to be wonderful

good info...but

Book was informative and helpful. wasn't entirely all new information but there was some useful tips presented. Audio quality very poor like it was recorded on a tape recorder staticky and hollow. The poor audio quality made it annoying to listen to.

It was OK.

Some of the information was science based and valid and I liked her list of expert references and studies. She also included homeopathic and herbal "remedies" which was disappointing. She also seemed to be advertising one pet product after another like one big advertisement listing product names and websites. The narration was really bad. There was no feeling or natural way about the narration, sounded like a robot. Overall I don't recommend this book and struggled to listen to its conclusion.