It's Not the Dogs, It's the People! A Dog Trainer's Guide to Training Humans

Informative, easy read. Not a lot of unnecessary jargon. A good book for those in customer service within the dog world.

I got this marvelous little book shortly after starting my business six years ago, and it has been invaluable. Lots of great info in a easy-to-read style with great examples and helpful solutions. I'll pull this out after a fractious class and remind myself that - look, Nicole has had this problem, too!After 20 years in the military, it was really helpful to read about some ways to work with difficult client personalities. The reminders about positively reinforcing the owners, practicing good verbal skills, and even using the owner's names instead of 'Rover's owner...'(my biggest weakness), were, and are still, helpful.This book abounds with suggestions such as "Continually assess your clients' skill levels and observe their movements as you would a dog's. Keep adjusting your program accordingly, and be patient." This has become a standard with clients and saved much frustration for both parties.I teach at the local junior college, and have volunteer helpers. I have them read this book, especially the "Ten Tips For Keeping Your Cool" and write-ups on the personality types.A must for any trainer's library!

Pros:-Informative-Funny-Clearly explains how to apply clicker training principles to teaching your human clients and students!-Comes in an audio CD version as well, you can listen to it on your way to home visits!-Includes how to deal with challenging personality types, how to keep safety first in all interactions, setting personal boundaries to keep yourself sane, taking care of yourself to prevent burnout, how to interact with kids (a lot of us dog people need help in that area, that section was particularly useful to me), and how to remain tactful and helpful in stressful situations. Includes a lot more that I can't think of right now.-Easy to read, well written, clearly presented.-Author is clearly very experienced and knowledgeable.Cons:-Can't think of any.

My anticipation was that this was going to be a humorous book about things that crazy people had done in the course of the author's training classes. Rather it is a synopsis of the "types" of people one may encounter as dog owners/trainers, and her suggestions for dealing with these various types in order to move the training forward and hopefully not offend anyone.Her summaries are great and suggestions for re-directing these people appear to be very valid; so while the book wasn't what I was expecting, it is a worthwhile resource with some great information for anyone dealing with people and their personality quirks, whether it be in a dog training scenario or otherwise.

great book with focus on how to deal with people in the dog training world

I have been working with dogs for over 30 years and a service dog trainer for the last nine. I have just started my own private training business and this book was a refreshing read. Having worked with many people and their dogs, I could relate to many of the personalities described in the book. Reading this book was positive reinforcement for me and helped me realize that I have many of the tools to get my business up and running. It gives lots of helpful suggestions on how to work "with" people, encouraging them to understand and hopefully agree with you even if your suggestion differs from what they originally thought; making them think it was their idea. Expect the unexpected when working with people and their dogs. Relax and get ready to smile and learn.

I was halfway through and had highlighted and page marked SO MANY practical ideas that I was really disappointed that I left it on the plane after a business trip. I immediately bought another copy and look forward to it arriving to start over again. Meantime, I read another of Nicole's books "So You Want to be a Dog Trainer" which is also really practical and full of resources and anecdotes to deal with issues.This book is really well written, packed with advice and a nice easy conversational style.I'm studying for a Canine Behaviour Certificate course and found it much more practical than many of the books my college has recommended so far. Highly recommended for dog trainers.

The hard book is/was awesome, but was looking for an Audible format so that I could listen to it when I am on the road.Thank you, the book is well written and highly recommended for all dog owners to read.RE

I have bought a few books on behaviour so when I got this one that is more about the clients I expected a bit more. I thought it was quite expensive for such a small book and would not recommend it.

Fabulous book well worth the money, easy to read and practical advice throughout. Would highly recomended to anyone in dog business

Really useful book to help improve communication with dog owners. Helped me a great deal when starting my own dog training club.

Would have been a 5 star review but for the packaging mishap. Book arrived fast but damaged.