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Training and Behavior
 New puppy in the family? This book and DVD will help make training a snap.
Two of my very favorite canine professionals have written a fantastic book with DVD for new puppy owners. Packed with lots of great information (and a whole pile of cute puppies), "My Smart Puppy" will help get your relationship with your new pup off to a great start.
Brian Kilcommons and wife Sarah Wilson have been training for many years. Both have appeared on numerous TV shows and their articles have been featured in several publications, including Parade magazine and Time magazine. They are my favorite dog book authors and canine seminar presenters. Order My Smart Puppy!
Dog Talk by John Ross and Barbara McKinney
John gives good, solid information in a straightforward way. Not only will you learn why dogs do what they do, but how to teach lots of behaviors. He also knows that a well-trained dog is one who has been trained using a balanced approach. I highly recommend it.
 Good Owners, Great Dogs by Brian Kilcommons and Sarah Wilson
Brian and Sarah have 45 years of experience between them, and it shows. They give clear, common-sense instructions for training and their advice is simple and successful. Their insights and approach have helped shaped my philosophy for years. This is a book no dog owner should be without, regardless of the age or breed of dog they have. Lots of pictures and anecdotal experience helps make it my top referral. 
Childproofing Your Dog by Brian Kilcommons and Sarah Wilson
This is the best book out there for dog owners who are about to add a child to the family. It will teach you how to prepare your dog so that all of you can live happily ever after. If you are pregnant, or thinking about it, this book is a MUST.
The Other End of the Leash: Why We Do What We Do Around Dogs by Patricia McConnell, Ph.D.
Dr. McConnell is a Certified Animal Behaviorist, and this insightful book is less about training techniques than paying attention to how we inadvertently signal our dogs with our behavior. It is an amusing look at our relationship with our canine friends, and full of information you can really use. Her For the Love of a Dog is pretty good, too.
Dogs by Ray and Lorna Coppinger
This scientific tome sheds new light on the origins and evolution of dogs, and will dispel many myths in the process. It isn't written to be gripping, and the authors don't pull any punches.
All Dogs Need Some Training by Liz Palika
Liz is very easy to read, and no-nonsense. This is an easily portable book and a quick read to get you started.
So Your Dog's Not Lassie by Betty Fisher and Suzanne Delzio
Fisher and Delzio have worked with some of the most independent breeds out there, such as Bulldogs and Huskies, and they know their stuff. This is a good resource for those with more complicated dogs.
Catch Your Dog Doing Something Right by Krista Cantrell
An easy-to-read, easy-to-do training manual that is also quite portable. One of my favorite things about it is the exercises you can do to determine what type of learner your dog is.
The Chosen Puppy and Surviving Your Dog's Adolescence by Carol Lea Benjamin
Carol Lea Benjamin is a trainer with over 20 years experience and many books to her credit. There are some gems in her work.
Dog Training in 10 Minutes by Carol Lea Benjamin
How to Be Your Dog's Best Friend by the Monks of New Skete
The updated version is the one to get. Some solid advice from an interesting standpoint. It explores some of the spiritual aspects of dogs, too.
How To Speak Dog and The Intelligence of Dogs by Stanley Coren
Coren is a fascinating read. Understanding how our dogs "talk" is valuable to anybody who ever comes in contact with one. The stuff about different breeds understanding communication based on their distance from the wolf is interesting.
Cesar's Way by Cesar Millan
Cesar isn't a trainer, and he knows problems aren't solved in an hour-long TV show. He does have some good ideas, especially about creating a balanced dog. I don't agree with it all, but you will find much that makes sense here.
Dog's Best Friend and A Dog’s History of America by Mark Derr
Though the author tends to take tangents in his writing, I found information of use in both books.
Dogology by Vicki Croke and Sarah Wilson
Explains why you chose the dog you did, and what it says about you.
Selecting a Dog
 Paws To Consider by Brian Kilcommons and Sarah Wilson
A MUST for anyone interested in obtaining a purebred dog, this helpful tome covers basic characteristics of popular breeds so you can decide if your choice would work for your family. The authors "tell it like it is," too, with possible drawbacks of each breed as well as health problems prone to each. They also give you great advice about finding a reputable breeder and the questions you should ask. Do NOT seek out a purebred puppy before consulting this invaluable book. Recommend it to anyone contemplating adding a dog to their household
Just For Fun
Winterdance by Gary Paulsen
Paulsen has been writing books for young adults for years, and they are quite good. This tome for adults chronicles his first running of the Iditarod sled dog race in Alaska, and it is a fascinating, compelling journey.
Max Makes a Million; Max in Hollywood; Ooh-La-La, Max in Love; Swami on Rye: Max in India; and Smartypants: Pete in School written and illustrated by Maira Kalman
Kalman is my very favorite children's book author. Some say her work is too advanced for kids, with its great vocabulary and tongue-in-cheek humor, and that may be so. The kid in me loves the stuff, though. Max is a poet and a dreamer who just happens to be a dog. Don't wait for the kids; check these wonderful books out.
 My Dog's Brain by Stephen Huneck
The foreward in this wonderful book will make you cry, and the book, which is mostly pictures, will make you laugh out loud. This man is amazing, and he has several art galleries in different states, plus an actual dog chapel in Vermont. www.huneck.com
Pack of Two by Carolyn Knapp
A poignant memoir of a woman and her dog, with keen insight as to why we women love our dogs so much. A very good read, and now bittersweet as she died of cancer in May, 2002.
Tales From the Bark Side by Brian Kilcommons and Sarah Wilson
Hilarious true stories from 2 of my favorite canine professionals.
Dear Mrs. LaRue: Letters From Obedience School and Detective LaRue by Mark Teague
Clever stories for a clever dog. Dear Mrs. LaRue collects a series of guilt-inducing letters sent home by the cat-chasing, chicken-pie-eating Ike to his "cruel" owner Mrs. LaRue, whom he hopes will come to her senses and spring him from obedience school. Detective LaRue is the funny follow up. In both, Ike’s version of events are quite different from what is really going on. I read these books every day. Really. The pictures are priceless.
Made For Each Other by Meg Daley Olmert
A fascinating look at the human-animal bond. I highly recommend it.
A Few Unrelated Extras:
NOVELS:
The Everyday Work of Art by Eric Booth
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers; and Bonk by Mary Roach
Darkness Visible by William Styron
The Conversations With God series by Neale Donald Walsch (I'm an apatheist, but I really liked these books.)
If Life is a Game; These Are the Rules by Cherie Carter-Scott (she takes the usual self-help claptrap and boils it down to the bare bones)
A Walk In The Woods by Bill Bryson
The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker (learn to trust your intuition)
Emotional Intelligence and Social Intelligence by Daniel Goleman
Your Erroneous Zones and Real Magic by Wayne Dyer
Finding Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (LOVE this book)
Truth and Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett (stunning)
Self-made Man: One Woman’s Journey Into Manhood and Back by Norah Vincent
The Last American Man and Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
An Unknown Woman by Alice Koller (a true account of one woman's search for self) and Stations of Solitude, her follow-up
Journal of a Solitude by May Sarto
An Alchemy of Mind by Diane Ackerma
The Tipping Point; Outliers; and Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
HUMOROUS:
Amphigorey; Amphigorey II; and Amphigorey Also by Edward Gorey (the man was a brilliant satirist with a lovely dark sense of the absurd)
Peanuts: The Art of Charles M. Schulz (a lovely retrospective of the best of his work)
Me Talk Pretty One Day and Naked by David Sedaris (biting, hysterical musings from a brilliant, cynical wit
The Sweet Potato Queens' Book of Love; God Bless the Sweet Potato Queens; and SPQ Big-Ass Cookbook and Financial Planner by Jill Connor Browne (if you like brassy, outrageous, irreverent Southern diva humor and are not easily shocked or offended, these are for you.
Running With Scissors and Magical Thinking by Augusten Burroughs (he's not as funny as Sedaris, but he makes me giggle)
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