By Zak George and Dina Roth Port
Can you tell what we are thinking about?
It’s been a few years since we’ve had a dog. Like with having a baby, you tend to forget the hard stuff almost immediately but Cooper gave us pause.
We adopted Cooper from a rescue and brought him into a home with two cats and three kids without giving much thought at all to the process. Our cats disappeared to opposite ends of the house for a couple of years, and we bickered over how to train and raise him.
Dog training helped our marriage, which in turn helped us with Cooper. But, for a number of heartbreaking reasons, we had to make the difficult decision to return Cooper to his rescue. And, we remain wary—better prepared, but cautious.
Enter this book. I was skeptical given the cover—who knows why, but I was—but just about everything resonates with me. Preparing a home for a puppy, basic training, troubleshooting problem spots—he addresses them all. As I read it, this training philosophy is a combination of attachment parenting, positive reinforcement and cognitive behavioral therapy.
Build on the relationship, celebrate the positives, have fun, work with emotions…I read this book and thought about parenting my children. So many mistakes and they still turned out wonderfully. I can’t help but wonder though, if I had read this when I was preparing to bring them home, how many fewer missteps I would have made, how much angst I might have spared us all.
Love, love this book. (I think we may adopt! I’ll let you know.)