One of the world's leading dog trainers shows how to increase your dog's IQ while deepening the bond you share.

Dr. Bonnie Bergin originated the service dog concept and movement, and she has been training dogs to assist people with disabilities for more than thirty years. She knows that dogs have an almost limitless capacity to learn. Teaching dogs to read was one of her dreams--and now she has made that dream a reality with a system anyone can use with just about any dog.

In this clear, inspirational guide, she provides step-by-step instructions for training the dog in your life to read flash cards with one-word commands and stick-figure drawings. With more than fifty instructional photographs, Teach Your Dog to Read is an amazing tool for making your dog smarter and enhancing your capacity to communicate with each other.

Learn to Be Your Dog's Coach

Teaching a dog to read requires far more than a few flash cards and a pocketful of biscuits. This chapter will show you how your attitude and your dog's familiarity with basic skills can set the stage for successful reading lessons.

Expect the Best

Much of what I know about how dogs learn comes from teaching service dogs to help people who have limited mobility. These dogs can learn to pick up things that are dropped, turn lights on and off, tug open doors, unzip clothing, and pull wheelchairs when their human partners get tired. Now all of the dogs who are trained at my Assistance Dog Institute learn to read, too.

One amazing golden retriever, Quest, works with Steve Sweeney, a man who has a physical disability and a brain injury. Despite Steve's slow, unclear speech and his limited movements, Quest does everything Steve asks without complaint. She has learned to be both versatile and adaptable: lying quietly beside his wheelchair during his college class by day and attending a rock concert by night. Steve has taught Quest to read more words than any dog I know: She reads more than twenty words and responds to stick figures depicting almost all of them. In addition to several commands that are included in this book, Quest sits up and begs, gets several different items for Steve, and can give a "high five."

Your dog, like Quest, is most likely smart and capable--she just needs some kind and consistent training. As you do your part in teaching your dog well, get ready to be astounded!

Can I Teach My Old Dog This New Trick?

Your old (or young) dog is probably more brilliant than you ever imagined she could be. Now, by teaching your dog to read, you are just pushing her training a bit further than you have before. Before we get to the bare bones of reading, though, let's dispatch with a question that may have been rolling around in your head ever since you picked up this book: Can my dog, my humble mutt, really learn to do it?

I've trained hundreds of dogs to read, and I can assure you that it doesn't matter if your dog is highly trained and smart as a whip or a happy house dog, a seemingly more simpleminded being. It doesn't matter if your dog is old or young, male or female. All can enjoy reading. Here is a tale of two dogs: Keila and Mac. Perhaps you will see a bit of your own dog in their stories.

Keila: A Dog with Baggage

My black Labrador retriever, Keila, had a nightmarish past with a family that treated her cruelly. She had been tied to a tree and stoned throughout the day by kids passing by. At night she was untied and left to roam, to fend for herself, and to forage for food. Her heartbreaking story is, unfortunately, shared by tens of thousands of dogs who end up in shelters and pounds.

When I first adopted Keila, she would growl when men and boys approached her. Even though she was a smart, year-old dog, it took quite some time to convince her that certain behaviors were acceptable in the home and others were not. As a streetwise survivor, learning to "sit" on command was not as relevant to her as it was to other family dogs--she was still concerned about physical survival.

Today, thirteen years later, she is a strong-willed but affectionate member of the family. I love her dearly, and she me. She'll do almost anything I ask now, very seldom choosing to ignore or avoid my direction--but we both know she could if she so chose. That early streak of independence is still her safety net.

In retrospect, it's fascinating to identify the stages Keila moved through while adapting to life with me. She quickly adjusted to the...

 

"Bonnie Bergin is legendary for her groundbreaking work with dogs. This terrific book will bring wonder, joy, and immeasurable bonding fun to countless canines and their humans."

 

"Bonnie Bergin offers us a unique approach to the continuing evolution of interspecies communication and how that can deepen the human-animal bond. Read it with your dog!"

 

Bonnie Bergin, Ed.D., is the president of the Assistance Dog Institute (www.assistancedog.org), the world's only academic college that awards associate and master's degrees in dog studies. Her latest initiative, the High Schooled Assistance Dog Program, teaches at-risk youths to train assistance dogs for people with disabilities. The author of two dog-training books and winner of Oprah Winfrey's Use Your Life Award, she lives in Santa Rosa,...

 

Teach Your Dog to Read by Bonnie Bergin, Ed.D.
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