Your Dog Is Your Mirror

The Emotional Capacity of Our Dogs and Ourselves

By: Kevin Behan

Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor

In Your Dog Is Your Mirror, dog trainer Kevin Behan proposes a radical new model for understanding canine behavior: a dog’s behavior and emotion, indeed its very cognition, are driven by our emotion. The dog doesn’t respond to its owner based on what the owner thinks, says, or does; it responds to what the owner feels. And in this way, dogs can actually put people back in touch with their own emotions.

Behan was originally trained under the dominance theory by his father, John Behan, one of the first in America to make dog training a career. But he eventually came to believe that what made the modern dog trainable was not the dominance hierarchy but the dog’s ability to work as a cooperative group member in the hunt. This ability then evolved into an emotional capacity that perfectly complements human emotion.

Behan demonstrates that dogs and humans are connected more profoundly than has ever been imagined - by heart - and that this approach to dog cognition can help us understand many of dogs’ most inscrutable behaviors. This groundbreaking, provocative book opens the door to a whole new understanding between species, and perhaps a whole new understanding of ourselves.

©2011 Kevin Behan (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“Beautifully written and deeply engrossing, Your Dog Is Your Mirror is destined to change the way we think about dogs.” (Lee Charles Kelley, dog trainer and best-selling mystery novelist)

“There are scores of books on how to change the outward behavior of a dog. But Kevin Behan challenges us to look deeper, to examine the dog’s behavior as an emotional reflection of its owner, revealing our own unresolved issues. Your Dog Is Your Mirror is beautifully written, with entertaining and insightful examples from throughout Kevin Behan’s remarkable career. This book will forever change your relationship with your dog, and you will never look at your dog in the same way again. It is a must-read for every committed dog owner.” (Kyra Sundance, internationally best-selling author of 101 Dog Tricks and 101 Ways to Do More with Your Dog!)

“Your Dog Is Your Mirror is a very thought-provoking book that will force you to reconsider who we are and who dogs are and why we are so attracted to one another. Kevin Behan calls upon his extensive experience with our best friends and makes the important point that in the emotional interactions between dogs and humans, it’s not the human reading the human in the animal but the animal reading the animal in the human. Whether you agree with Kevin’s provocative theories or not, the age-old adage that no one knows you like your dog clearly rings true. I learned a lot from this wide-ranging and unique book.” (Marc Bekoff, University of Colorado, author of The Emotional Lives of Animals and The Animal Manifesto)

I learned a lot and confirmed some theories I had!

I agree with this book being pretty long and slow. But it was absolutely worth the listen. It provided a mentality about dogs AND people, that I have never heard before. It really explains how dogs are like their owners or reveal what is happening inside of us. It took me long to get through, as I would have to pause and soak in the thoughts behind the lessons. Very fascinating.

Mind blowing theory and understanding of dogs

This book was absolutely mind blowing. It was hard to wrap my head around at points and I think I’m going to purchase the physical copy just so I can reread bits and pieces and take some notes. Kevin’s intricate understanding of the relationship between the dog and the human is something I will never ever forget. I already can’t unsee the things I learned in this book when I observe my own dog. Unexpectedly, this book taught me about myself, and from the information in this book, I will continue to learn about myself through my dog and through nature in a way that I overlooked before - but was right under my nose. Thank you to this book for opening my eyes.

Excellent

What a very good in-depth look inside a dogs mind in relation to their humans

Good, but WAY to long

I did really like the new perspective/theory on how to train your dog/understand your dog! I see a lot of one star reviews talking about how it’s not grounded I science like it claims to be, and honestly the book never does claim to be grounded in science, and I get the sense that people just didn’t like the way It was asking them to look at themselves as a possible root for behavior (I get it, self reflection can be painful and scary), but if you approach it as simply another way to look at your relationship with your dog, I think there’s a lot of benefits this book can I have! Where my problem lies is that there’s just no reason for this book to be this long! We get it, your dad was a famous dog trainer, and you have all of these stories, but each chapter goes over its base idea at least 10 times over, it’s redundant, and it’s just not needed. I honestly listen to about half the book, got what I needed, and then dipped out when it started to feel a little too self gratifying on the authors part

Interesting

I don’t know that I agree with everything in this book, but then again I have not grown up and committed my career to the training of dogs. It does give you many thoughts to ponder, and I could make clear connections to the relationships I’ve had with all the dogs in my life. I also see this mirror effect with the dog/handler teams in my dog agility classes. The broader concepts presented here have already been incorporated into how I help my humans become better handlers.

Longer than needed

Great insights in a long winded message. Narrator’s performance was very good. Appreciate the topic though.

A must listen

I really enjoyed this book not only did it help me better understand the way my dog thinks but also the way I think. I.

highly reccomend for a deeper understanding of dogs

i have read hundreds of dog books, dogs are my passion. this is one of the best and many of the original concepts I have reflected on. Mr. Behan has a great understanding of dogs: he helped me understand dogs on a more spirtual level, it opened my eyes to nuances of our communication, This is not a obdience or training book, there are enough of those, but if you are interested in improving your relationship with dogs, understanding what respect is from a dog’s point of view, learning from Mr. Behan’s extensive real life experience, a must read or listen to, I loved this book, and I understood more about my mirror, mirroring and dog love, thanks for a much needed voice to open my mind about what dogs feel, need and want!

Great insight to dogs training us to heal

I never had dogs. Until I had three. Big. Untrained puppies. Overwhelming and not understanding how to manage their energies, i imposed my programming. This audiobook helped me see how I transferred my pain to them. And they transferred it right in back to me. Brilliant book. And now… to transform.

A must for all dog owners

So enlightening! It will make you take a look in the mirror! If you want to reflectivity understand your dog's behavior this is a must read.