Teach Your Dog to Read:

In this enthusiastic and thorough volume, Bergin provides concrete advice on achieving the seemingly impossible: teaching ordinary dogs how to recognize and respond to written commands. Though the author asserts early on that her background is in human education and not dog behavior, her explanations of the canine thought process leave no doubt as to her command of the subject at hand. The principal question the book raises-why is it necessary for dogs to read?-is neatly addressed early on by Bergin's emphasis on special assistance dogs who need to read signs for the visually impaired and others who rely on a dog's help in everyday life. As for those who aren't disabled, Bergen explains that the skills involved can keep the dog away from your turkey dinner and off your favorite chair, while helping owners form an intense emotional bond with their dogs. Bergin's prose can grate at times, and the final section on how dogs can help children learn to read finally pushes her sometimes hyperbolic-sounding claims past their logical limit. Nevertheless, the book is a valuable dog-training tool; even if one's patience fails before the dog learns to read the word sit, Bergin's simple and well-organized training techniques-which smartly emphasize the basics as well-should come in handy no matter what.