Your Dog Is Your Mirror: The Emotional Capacity of Our Dogs and Ourselves | Kevin Behan

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“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 bestselling mystery novelist

“A fascinating read.”
— Modern Dog

“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 bestselling 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….Whether you agree with Behan’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

About the Author

The author of Natural Dog Training, Kevin Behan is a veteran dog trainer and one of the nation’s foremost experts on dog rehabilitation.