Understanding and Handling Dog Aggression

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This book helped me soooo much! - Rated
This book has been an absolute life saver for both me and my dog, he has a few problems with other dogs and this book helped me to see why and how to slowly but surely turn those problems around and to take propper control of my dog and he is so much happier for it. Thankyou Barbara
I hole heartedly reccomend this book

My Bible.....by a proffessional trainer - Rated
Excellent book. Bought this over a year ago but warrented a return to review. This is my Bible as a practicing proffessional dog psychologist. I combine many training methods in my work with aggressive dogs and have found none more effective than the methods used in this book. A kind, effective approach. I have reccommended this book to many of my customers. Well written. Barbara Sykes is a true expert in dog aggression. Trust this book and enjoy the peace it will bring to your dog. There are many reformed characters thanks to this sharing of expertise.

Life Saver - Rated
This slim volume is packed with simple and practical information - some of it wasn't new - but it was put together in a way that really crystallised some of the thoughts I already had about dogs and problem behaviour. I can't understand Lisa Lohreys' gripe, I found it well written and wish I had read it sooner. Having had a problem dog, and a rescued dog at that, I feel I could have done more to rehabilitate a very disturbed animal. Unfortunately, it arrived too late. Regets aside, it still has a lot to offer - she really can "think dog" - and if you are willing to try you can do it too. Prevention is better than cure, but if you have an aggressive dog, this book will give you a good chance of re-training him/her, and save not just the dog's life but maybe a childs too.

valuable information - Rated
Rarely does a book contain valuable information from the first to the last page but this one, as with all Barbara Sykes' books, has valuable information on every page. Well written and easy to understand it deals with the problems of aggression and cannot fail to give confidence to the owners who are struggling to deal with aggressive dogs.
I am amazed that Lisa Lohrey struggled with this book but feel that as a qualified reader of many books she has maybe never dealt with aggression, other than through extensive reading. As a trainer and behaviourist of many years I commend her other choices but have found none to contain the simple and easy to understand training methods that are explained in this little book.
I have found this to be a valuable source of information and would strongly recommend it to others, as it not only helps to understand an aggressive dog it also gives the reader encouragement and confidence to tackle the problem, a point often overlooked by other authors.

There is no miracle cure for aggression but this book gives hope and a will to try and resolve the problem in a sensible and down to earth way.

Good intentions, but very poorly written. - Rated
I believe this to be a case of someone who has had some success training dogs - she probably has a real knack with them - and one of her amazed and less capable acquaintences suggested she write a book. I have read over 50 books now on dog behavior and training. Some of them have been hard to read due to their content and training style (with the excessive use of aversive methods, physical coersion, alpha rolls, etc.), but Barbara's book is just plain hard to read.

While she is well intentioned, has a good message, and what I'm sure in her mind is significant experience to back her up, I found the book to be almost unintelligible. Poor grammar and sentence structure aside, (didn't anyone edit this book?? I'm not THAT picky!), it was extremely hard to follow her thoughts; her run-on sentences loop all over the place, and there is no logical flow of ideas. She anthropomorphizes more than I do (and my dog is my BABY!!), and she doesn't indicate any research, scientific findings, or information from reliable sources to support what she says.

I believe her heart is in the right place - more than I can say about some of the even more popular trainers, (e.g., Matthew Margolis), but she should probably keep to training, and leave the writing to those who do it well and have the knowledge, experience and staff to support them (read: William Campbell, Ian Dunbar, Jean Donaldson... the list goes on). The best books I have read have (coincidently) been acknowledged and/or recommended by one or more renown behaviorists/trainers. It's clear Barbara's book doesn't merit their acclaim.

With the right editing and with a little research, Barbara Sykes might be able to produce an interesting, informative guide book on aggression. However there are way too many really great books out there right now that are well written and easy, if not downright enjoyable to read - books that are based on more than just one person's experience with dogs.