The Dog Listener

I realise now that so many of my mistakes were down to human conditioning. Like almost every other people on this planet, I had assumed that the world revolved around our particular species, and that every other species had somehow fitted into our grand scheme. I had assumed that because I owned the dogs, then I had to be their leader too. Now, fir the first time, I began to wonder if that really was the case. I began to wonder whether Sasha was trying to take care of me.

Dogs are never going to learn our language. The bad news is that to communicate successfully with our dogs, it is up to us to learn their language. It is a task that requires an open mind and a respect for the dog. No one who regards a dog as their inferior will achieve anything.

Dogs have lots of wonderful qualities but they are not- to my knowledge anyway - mind readers. They do not know what we want of them.

They will react to danger in one of three ways, selecting one of the "three F's" - Flight, freeze or fight.