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UNDERSTANDING YOUR PET: The Eckstein Method of Pet Therapy and Behavior Training by Warren & Fay Eckstein Eckstein

UNDERSTANDING YOUR PET: The Eckstein Method of Pet Therapy and Behavior Training

By

Pub Date: Jan. 15th, 1985
Publisher: Holt, Rinehart & Winston

Like child-rearing manuals, today's pet-care books tend to stress a positive (praise/reward) approach to behavior training, and to discourage the more old-fashioned, and ineffectual, correction methods that call for verbal and/or physical punishment. Animal behaviorists Warren and Fay Eckstein here emphasize the importance of treating pets as loved and respected family members. They offer simple, sound techniques for teaching the basic commands (sit, stay, heel, come), and devote most of the remainder of the book to educating owners on how to be their own pet therapists and help their dogs and cats overcome various behavioral and emotional disorders. The Ecksteins cover everything from problems with housebreaking, destruction (chewing, stealing, hole-digging), and dominance, to such neurotic disorders as anorexia, depression, hypochondria, and even midlife crises. Triggering many of these nervous conditions is boredom, neglect, and ""overcorrection,"" they say, and the solution often lies in regular exercise, affection, and consistent treatment by all family members. Special tips and suggestions are also provided for pets suffering from ""broken home syndrome"" and other separation anxieties. All in all, an excellent pet therapy/behavior guide, and one that clearly puts the onus for the pet's problems where it belongs--on the owner. A much more serious and useful work than their first book, Pet Aerobics, and a welcome addition to the pet-care bookshelf.