The Perfect Puppy: How to Choose Your Dog by Its Behavior

by Benjamin L. Hart, Lynette A. Hart (Photographer)

Here is the first consumer's guide profiling 56 of the most popular American Kennel Club breeds, ranked by 13 behavioral traits.

Genres: Pets, Nonfiction, Reference

182 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1988

Reviews

[Kristi Siegel]

It’s hard not to feel sorry for the Miniature Schnauzer...

Unless you're on the lookout for a dog possessing the perfect qualities to guard your SS headquarters, the Miniature Schnauzer does not fare well in the Harts' ranking system. In the The Perfect Puppy: How to Choose Your Dog By Its Behavior, Benjamin and Lynette Hart assess 36 common dog breeds by using 13 parameters: excitability, general activity, snapping at children, excessive barking, playfulness, obedience training, watchdog barking, aggression toward other dogs, dominance over owner, territorial defense, demand for affection, destructiveness, ease of housebreaking.

On the opposite end of the scale is the bloodhound, who according to the chart, possesses almost no affect whatsoever. The authors recommended the breed for anyone wanting a decorative doormat.

I had a real need for this book. Our first dog, not one of the breeds discussed in this book, chomped its way through our possessions, including the interior of a new Toyota, and laughed at any attempts to restrain her. At one point, I went to a local hardware store, and had to go down into their lower level--the testosterone mothership--to get a large chain to hold our monster dog. The fellow who waited on me was amused. Finally, he chose a chain and said, condescendingly, "Here, little lady; I think this chain will be strong enough to hold 'Fido'." The next day, I rather enjoyed returning and telling the asshat clerk, "Whoops. Looks like Fido's going to need a bigger chain."

However, while our dog provided plenty of funny stories to tell our friends, living with this dog was not always pleasant. Before we we chose dog no. 2, I picked up this book. At that point we had four very young children, and we wanted a family dog.

According to the book, the dogs with the best profiles for families (easy to train, not territorial, affectionate, not a biter, etc.) were the Golden Retriever, Labrador, and Australian Shepherd. I'm not so sure about the Australian Shepherd, but our golden has been a winner. Of course, at about the same time, I also bought a book on dog training and got in touch with my alpha side, which apparently I have in abundance. According to my kids, I've turned our pets into tools, which, considering that we also have a cat, is quite an accomplishment.

The book is worthwhile if you're looking for a puppy, and I'd also recommend golden retrievers (which you can get from rescue agencies as well). They are loving dogs, who don't require the kind of Gestapo training that might have worked for our first dog.

Disclaimer: Pretty much any dog, with proper training, will be fine. However, as our experience with our first dog demonstrated, it helps to choose a dog that's not going to dominate you.

[Cyndie Courtney]

Not at all what I expected, and not a book I would recommend.

I thought this book would be about how to assess a puppy's behavior when you get to meet it for the first time, and use that information to help you decide if that individual puppy might be a good fit for your family.

Instead, this is another "behavior by breed" book much like the class DOGS by DK press, only not as well done.

The research the book is based on is questionable. They surveyed vets and obedience trainers to asked them to rank popular breeds on several key characteristics. The sample size to me seemed very small. I also worried that the amount of exposure the vets or trainers had had to each breed would affect their answer. If I were given such a survey, I would probably rank more moderately animals I hadn't had much exposure to. This could skew the results.

Additionally, this approach only tells you comparatively how dogs act, not objectively how most of their owners perceive them to act. Knowing that Collies are calmER than most other breeds doesn't inherently tell me whether a Collie is likely to be calm *enough* for me.

The book also is out of date in that it relies heavily on "dominance" ideation, which we now know is not very accurate or useful, and can actually be dangerous in training.

Finally I think the summary on each breed was just not very easy to follow. It seemed to just restate what was shown in the chart instead of providing as much meaningful synthesis as I would have liked. I did enjoy how it pointed out which breeds had similar behavior to the one you were reading about. "Like a golden retriever? Maybe consider a Vizsla too!"

A quick and easy read, but I definitely think there are more useful books on this topic.