The Best Dog Books to Read: 21 We Own, Lend Out and Buy Again
We get asked for book recommendations more than almost anything else, usually right after someone has read one of our body-language guides and wants to go deeper. So here is the shelf. Not the twenty most popular dog books on the internet, but the ones we have read, re-read, lent out and had to buy again. They are grouped by what you need right now: reading your dog, training kindly, surviving a puppy, fixing a problem, understanding the science, and a few for the sofa.
A quick note: some of the links below are affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if you buy through them, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what makes this list. Every book here would be on it either way, and most of them were on our shelf long before this website existed. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. All twenty-one are also on our Amazon book list if you want them in one place.
If you only read three
Start here. These three cover the ground almost every other dog book stands on: how dogs read us, how learning actually works, and what your dog is saying with their body.
The Other End of the Leash by Patricia McConnell, 2002 Our number one
A behaviorist and ethologist explains why humans and dogs so often misunderstand each other: we hug, they turn away; we repeat a cue five times, they hear noise; we lean over them to be friendly, they read a threat. It is warm, funny and full of moments where you recognize yourself. If we could hand one book to every new owner, this is it.
Read it if: you have ever wondered why your dog does not seem to listen, or why they go stiff when a stranger reaches for them.
Don't Shoot the Dog! by Karen Pryor, 1984, revised 1999
The book that brought reward-based training out of the dolphin pools and into living rooms. It is short, plain and slightly life-changing, because the principles apply to dogs, children, partners and yourself. You will understand why punishment so often backfires and why timing matters more than treats.
Read it if: you want to understand the mechanics of training rather than memorize commands. Read it before any how-to book.
Doggie Language: A Dog Lover's Guide to Understanding Your Best Friend by Lili Chin, 2020
A small, illustrated book you can read in an evening and keep on the coffee table forever. Lili Chin's drawings of a Boston Terrier named Boogie show every ear position, tail carriage, lip lick and whale eye you will ever need to recognize, with a line or two explaining each. It is the closest thing in print to our body-language guides.
Read it if: you are visual, short on time, or want something children can read with you.
Reading your dog
Body language is the thread that runs through this whole site, and these are the books that taught us to see it.
On Talking Terms with Dogs: Calming Signals by Turid Rugaas, 1997, 2nd edition 2006
A slim booklet by a Norwegian trainer who noticed that dogs use a small set of signals, yawning, head turns, sniffing the ground, moving in an arc, to calm themselves and each other. Once you have read it you cannot un-see them. It is the origin of everything we write about calming signals.
Read it if: your dog yawns when you tell them off, or you want to know what a lip lick at the vet really means.
Canine Body Language: A Photographic Guide by Brenda Aloff, 2005
The big one. Hundreds of photographs of real dogs in real situations, annotated frame by frame: this dog is worried, that one is about to move, this play is fine, that play is tipping over. It is a reference book rather than a bedtime read, but it is the book trainers keep on the desk.
Read it if: you want to get properly good at reading dogs, especially dog-to-dog interactions at the park.
For the Love of a Dog: Understanding Emotion in You and Your Best Friend by Patricia McConnell, 2005
McConnell again, this time on emotion: fear, joy, anger, and how each one shows on a dog's face and body before it shows in behavior. There is a chapter on reading facial expressions that we still think about every time a dog's mouth closes and their eyes go round.
Read it if: you want the science of what your dog feels, told by someone who clearly loves them.
Training, kindly
All of these are force-free. None of them will tell you to be the pack leader, roll your dog, or use a collar that hurts. That is not a fashion; it is what the evidence supports, and what every book on this shelf agrees on.
The Culture Clash by Jean Donaldson, 1996, 2nd edition 2005
Blunt, brilliant and occasionally rude about the myths humans tell themselves. Donaldson's point is that dogs are not small furry people with a guilt complex; they are dogs, doing what works, and once you accept that, training becomes a matter of arranging for the right things to work. It pairs perfectly with Pryor.
Read it if: you have caught yourself saying your dog is stubborn, spiteful or knows they did wrong.
How to Behave So Your Dog Behaves by Sophia Yin, 2004, 2nd edition 2010
Dr Yin was a veterinarian and behaviorist, and this is the most practical of the general training books: clear step-by-step protocols, photos, and a strong emphasis on what the human needs to change. Her chapters on handling and on the vet visit are why our Gentle Hands plan looks the way it does.
Read it if: you want a training book that reads like a manual, with the science in the background rather than the front.
Control Unleashed: Reactive to Relaxed by Leslie McDevitt, 2019
Written for sport dogs and adopted by everyone with a dog who cannot cope with the world. The games, Look at That, pattern games, the relaxation protocol, are simple, and they change how a nervous or over-excited dog experiences a walk. If you have a reactive dog, this and the Grisha Stewart book below are the two to own.
Read it if: your dog barks and lunges on the lead, or cannot settle when anything is happening.
Puppies
The first sixteen weeks decide more than the next sixteen months. These two get the priorities right: sleep, socialization, handling, and not panicking about sit.
Puppy Start Right: Foundation Training for the Companion Dog by Kenneth M. Martin and Debbie Martin, 2011
A veterinary behaviorist and a veterinary technician wrote this for the puppy classes they run, and it shows: sensible, thorough and calm. Socialization is treated as the serious job it is, with a proper list, and the handling exercises are the best we have seen in print.
Read it if: you are bringing a puppy home in the next few months and want one book rather than six.
Before and After Getting Your Puppy by Ian Dunbar, 2004
Dunbar's deadlines, the things a puppy should have experienced by eight, twelve and sixteen weeks, are demanding, and that is the point. Some of the advice on bite inhibition is debated now, but the core message, that socialization cannot wait for the last vaccination, saved a great many dogs.
Read it if: you want a sense of urgency about the early weeks, and a plan for the crate, the toilet and the biting.
When something is wrong
A book will not fix a serious problem on its own; a good trainer or a veterinary behaviorist will. But these will tell you what you are looking at, what to do tonight, and what to ask for.
Behavior Adjustment Training 2.0 by Grisha Stewart, 2016
BAT is a method for fear, frustration and aggression that gives the dog room to make their own good decisions at a safe distance, on a long line, with a handler who knows how to read them. It is the calmest, most respectful approach to reactivity we know, and it works.
Read it if: your dog reacts to dogs, people or bikes on walks and you want a plan rather than a gadget.
I'll Be Home Soon! How to Prevent and Treat Separation Anxiety by Patricia McConnell, 2000
A booklet rather than a book, and worth every page. It separates real separation anxiety from boredom and under-stimulation, then walks through a graded plan of departures. If you have read our separation anxiety guide, this is the next step.
Read it if: your dog cries, chews or toilets when you leave, and you want to know whether it is anxiety or something simpler.
Decoding Your Dog by American College of Veterinary Behaviorists, edited by Debra Horwitz and John Ciribassi with Steve Dale, 2014
A chapter each from the people vets refer to when a problem is beyond them: aggression, anxiety, compulsive behaviors, house soiling, the senior dog. It is measured and occasionally dry, and it is the book we reach for when a reader's email describes something that needs more than training.
Read it if: you want the veterinary view on behavior problems, including when medication is reasonable.
The science, and the big picture
These are the books to read when your dog is asleep on your feet and you want to understand what is going on inside that head.
Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know by Alexandra Horowitz, 2009
A cognitive scientist takes you into the dog's umwelt, the world as they sense it: a nose that reads time, eyes that see a flicker we miss, a body built for a life at knee height. After this you will never rush a sniff on a walk again.
Read it if: you want to feel, for a few hours, what it is like to be your dog.
Dog Sense: How the New Science of Dog Behavior Can Make You a Better Friend to Your Pet by John Bradshaw, 2011
Published as In Defence of Dogs in the UK. Bradshaw takes apart the wolf-pack model of dog behavior piece by piece and replaces it with what the research actually shows: dogs are not trying to dominate you; they are trying to work out what you want. Essential background for anyone who has been told to be the alpha.
Read it if: you have been given dominance-based advice and want the evidence against it in one place.
Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy by Zazie Todd, 2020
Todd runs the Companion Animal Psychology blog and this is the book version: what the research says about enrichment, fear, training methods, sleep, play, the senior years, with practical takeaways at the end of each chapter. Balanced, current and kind.
Read it if: you want one book that covers welfare from puppy to old age with the studies cited.
Meet Your Dog: The Game-Changing Guide to Understanding Your Dog's Behavior by Kim Brophey, 2018
Brophey's argument is that a lot of 'problem behavior' is a dog doing exactly what their breed group was made to do, in a home that was not designed for it. Her breakdown of what a herder, a guardian, a terrier or a scent hound actually needs is the best short explanation of why our breed guides exist.
Read it if: your dog has a job in their genes and no job in their life.
Dog Is Love: Why and How Your Dog Loves You by Clive Wynne, 2019
A behavioral scientist who spent years insisting dogs were not special changes his mind, and shows his working. The chapters on what dogs need from us in return, company above all, are the quiet argument of the whole book.
Read it if: you want the science of the bond, and a gentle reminder about how much time your dog spends alone.
For the sofa
Not instruction, just company. Two we come back to.
Merle's Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog by Ted Kerasote, 2007
A memoir of a dog found on a river trip in Utah and the fourteen years that followed, with a good deal of science folded in. Kerasote gave Merle his own door and a great deal of freedom, and the book is an honest look at what a dog might choose if we let them.
Read it if: you want to think about what your dog would do with more say in their own life.
Dog Songs by Mary Oliver, 2013
Poems about dogs, by a poet who lived with them all her life. Some are four lines long. Keep it by the bed.
Read it if: you have lost a dog, or want to remember why you got one.
How to use this list
Do not buy all of them. Buy The Other End of the Leash and Doggie Language, read them in a week, and then pick one from whichever section matches what is going on in your house. If it is a puppy, Puppy Start Right. If it is a lunging dog, Control Unleashed. If it is a dog who is fine and you are curious, Inside of a Dog. The books will still be there when the next problem arrives, and so will the list.
And if you would rather have the essentials in one place first, our free guides on body language and calming signals pull together the parts of these books we use every day, and the Dog Language Handbook turns them into something you can practise on your own dog tonight.
Common questions
What is the best dog book for a first-time owner?
The Other End of the Leash by Patricia McConnell. It explains why dogs and humans misread each other, and it will change how you greet, cue and touch your dog before you have taught them a single thing. Pair it with Doggie Language by Lili Chin for the body-language pictures.
Are these dog training books force-free?
Yes. Every training book on this list uses reward-based methods and none of them recommends dominance, alpha rolls, prong collars or shock collars. Dog Sense by John Bradshaw explains why the pack-leader model was dropped by the people who study dogs.
Which dog book should I read for a reactive dog?
Control Unleashed: Reactive to Relaxed by Leslie McDevitt for the games and the relaxation work, and Behavior Adjustment Training 2.0 by Grisha Stewart for the walk-by-walk method. Both are calm, respectful approaches, and both say clearly when you need a professional too.
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Take the Nutrition Quiz →Read your own dog tonight
These books taught us to see what dogs are saying. The Dog Language Handbook turns it into practice: twelve chapters on the eyes, ears, tail, posture and calming signals, with tools you tap and a test at the end.
See the Dog Language HandbookKeep reading
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How to Calm an Anxious Dog
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