The new edition of The Canine Commandments is here!

Beautifully illustrated by children's artist Anna Currey, it has an addition to the original  title, namely 'Be safe and happy with dogs', to emphasise the book's original intention.

 

There are additional new features, including learning objectives, a glossary and Q&A's, to further engage children (and of course, their parents and guardians) to support further discussion as well as teaching in a classroom setting.

 

In addition, I'm delighted to have been able to include a lovely poem by Matt Black, an entertaining and educational comment on the Ladder of Aggression.

 

To order, follow the link:

 

The Canine Commandments 2nd Edition - 5m Books 

The Canine Commandments

Written by Kendal Shepherd 
Illustrated by Victor Ambrus
 
The Canine Commandments was first published by Broadcast Books in Bristol in 2007.  It contains an illustrated version of the Canine Ladder of Aggression, devised by Kendal in 2001, and first published in the British Small Animal Veterinary Association 'Canine and Feline Manual of Behavoiural Medicine' in 2002.  The Ladder as puplished in 2002 and text from the 2nd edition of the manual published in 2010, is available to download below. 
 
The Ladder of Aggression was devised as an alternative explanation and counter-argument to the historical labelling of the body language (and minds) of dogs as either 'submissive' or 'dominant'.  It is now, 12 years later, recognised that dogs are highly unlikely to have an awareness of any such concepts, instead simply using whatever behaviour appears to work in achieving results favourable to them.   
 
Most importantly, even simply from the human safety perspective, is the elimination of any dogs' perception that being aggressive is the only thing we humans seem to understand.  But by behaving in a threatening, aggressive or 'dominant' manner towards dogs, as some trainers persist in recommending, all any dog can learn is that aggression is what humans both use and expect.  Nothing could be further from the truth when the gestures of dogs are interpreted as they ought to be - as appeasing and peace-keeping signals, aggression only being used if all else fails.  
 
The Canine Commandments will help everyone of any age to understand, in very simple terms, how dogs feel and how similar they are to us in how they would like to be understood and treated.
 
Click here to purchase a copy of  The Canine Commandments from Amazon.
Download
DDA section from 'Demystifying Dog Behaviour for Veterinarians'
My experience of the Dangerous Dogs Act - why extending the breed ban to include XL Bullies may be an unmitigated disaster.
DDA section from book.pdf
Adobe Acrobat Document 224.1 KB
Download
Table comparing bull breed standards
Table includes the UK Government XL Bully standard and illustrates how using breed standards to identify potential danger is an utter nonsense and always has been.
Table comparing bull breed standards.pdf
Adobe Acrobat Document 137.8 KB