Your Dog Is Your Mirror cover art

Your Dog Is Your Mirror

The Emotional Capacity of Our Dogs and Ourselves

Preview

Get 30 days of Standard free

£5.99/mo after trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options

Your Dog Is Your Mirror

By: Kevin Behan
Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
Try for £0.00

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £4.99

Buy Now for £4.99

About this listen

In Your Dog Is Your Mirror, dog trainer Kevin Behan proposes a radical new model for understanding canine behavior: a dog’s behavior and emotion, indeed its very cognition, are driven by our emotion. The dog doesn’t respond to its owner based on what the owner thinks, says, or does; it responds to what the owner feels. And in this way, dogs can actually put people back in touch with their own emotions.

Behan was originally trained under the dominance theory by his father, John Behan, one of the first in America to make dog training a career. But he eventually came to believe that what made the modern dog trainable was not the dominance hierarchy but the dog’s ability to work as a cooperative group member in the hunt. This ability then evolved into an emotional capacity that perfectly complements human emotion.

Behan demonstrates that dogs and humans are connected more profoundly than has ever been imagined - by heart - and that this approach to dog cognition can help us understand many of dogs’ most inscrutable behaviors. This groundbreaking, provocative book opens the door to a whole new understanding between species, and perhaps a whole new understanding of ourselves.

©2011 Kevin Behan (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
Animals Biological Sciences Dogs Emotions Outdoors & Nature Personal Development Pets & Animal Care Science Dog Training Heartfelt

Critic reviews

“Beautifully written and deeply engrossing, Your Dog Is Your Mirror is destined to change the way we think about dogs.” (Lee Charles Kelley, dog trainer and best-selling mystery novelist)

“There are scores of books on how to change the outward behavior of a dog. But Kevin Behan challenges us to look deeper, to examine the dog’s behavior as an emotional reflection of its owner, revealing our own unresolved issues. Your Dog Is Your Mirror is beautifully written, with entertaining and insightful examples from throughout Kevin Behan’s remarkable career. This book will forever change your relationship with your dog, and you will never look at your dog in the same way again. It is a must-read for every committed dog owner.” (Kyra Sundance, internationally best-selling author of 101 Dog Tricks and 101 Ways to Do More with Your Dog!)

Your Dog Is Your Mirror is a very thought-provoking book that will force you to reconsider who we are and who dogs are and why we are so attracted to one another. Kevin Behan calls upon his extensive experience with our best friends and makes the important point that in the emotional interactions between dogs and humans, it’s not the human reading the human in the animal but the animal reading the animal in the human. Whether you agree with Kevin’s provocative theories or not, the age-old adage that no one knows you like your dog clearly rings true. I learned a lot from this wide-ranging and unique book.” (Marc Bekoff, University of Colorado, author of The Emotional Lives of Animals and The Animal Manifesto)

All stars
Most relevant
content interesting.there is a lot of interesting stuff brought up in this book. I think it's a little "woo woo" new age-y -- but I liked it

story interesting . reader terrible.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Really unique take on dog behaviour and our human dog relationships. Well worth a listen. Definitely recommend

Great listen

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

makes you think about the owner - dog relationship, a lot of interesting ideas

very interesting

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

As a newbie dog trainer I found this book really interesting. I can see how energy affects dogs so it would make sense to take that into account when training more than is currently done. I looked up Kevin on YouTube after finishing this book, hoping to find videos which would put everything into context for me (visual learner) but sadly didn’t find anything. I have still taken away a lot of useful information from this book and respect Kevin’s 50 plus years on hands on experience even though there were one or two things I wasn’t 100% sold on.

Really interesting theory

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Having read all Cesar Millan books I’d come to realise that certain methods didn’t work for my chocolate Labrador. Having accepted his madness when on a wood walk Loki started being the most calm and chilled dog at my work. As mentioned in the book, dogs are our reflection. They can help us to be more self aware and accepting the parts we suppress so we can grow together. Great book!

Must listen for any dog owner!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

See more reviews