YOUR DOG IS YOUR MIRROR
The Emotional Capacity of Our Dogs and Ourselves
by Kevin Behan

New World Library/March 2012


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 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 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.

About the Authors
Kevin Behan is a veteran police-dog trainer, author of NATURAL DOG TRAINING and YOUR DOG IS YOUR MIRROR, and is one of the nation's foremost experts in the rehabilitation of aggressive and problem dogs. He trained his first dog at age ten, and originally studied the dominance theory under his father, John Behan, who pioneered the use of trained dogs outside the military, and was one of the first in America to establish dog training as a career.



Through his training of thousands of dogs for aggression, obedience, and security forces, the establishment of his own kennel, and his work with European police-dog trainers, Kevin began to move away from the conventional models and developed his own training techniques. In recognition that something profound was missing in the discussion of dogs, he founded the Natural Dog Training method in the 1980's, and continues to transform the way people view their pets through his blog, training and seminars. His website is naturaldogtraining.com.