num_pages: 320
description: For Christmas the woman who would become my wife bought me a doga little terrier. The next year her Christmas gift to me was a shotgun. Most of the people in my family believe that those two gifts were not unrelated. So begins Born to Bark the charming new memoir by psychologist and beloved dog expert Stan Coren of his relationship with an irrepressible gray Cairn terrier named Flint. Stan immediately loved the pup for his friendly nature and indefatigable spirit though his wife soon found the dogs unpredictable exuberance difficult to deal with to say the least. Even though Flint drove Stans wife up the wall he became the joy of Stans life. The key to unlocking this psychologist-authors way of looking at dog behavior Flint also became the inspiration behind Corens classic The Intelligence of Dogs. Undeterred by Flints irrepressible behavior (and by the breeders warning that he might be untrainable) Coren set out to prove that his furry companion could pass muster with the best of them. He persevered in training the unruly dog and even ventured into the competitive circles of obedience trials in dog shows where Flint eventually made canine history as the highest-scoring Cairn terrier in obedience competition up to that time. (Stan chose not to tell his wife that the highest-ranking obedience dog of that year a border collie earned a total score that was fifty times higher.) The longest-running popular expert on human-dog bonding Coren has enlivened his respected books and theories about dogs with accounts of his own experiences in training living with loving and trying to understand them. A consummate storyteller Coren now tells the wry poignant goofy and good-hearted tale of his life with the dog who (in the words of his own book titles) taught him How to Speak Dog and How Dogs Think and whose antics made him ask Why Does My Dog Act That Way? Illustrated with Corens own delightful line drawings and photos and interwoven with his heartfelt anecdotes of other beloved dogs from his earlier life Born to Bark is an irresistible good dog/bad dog tale of this extraordinary willful pooch and his profound impact on his masters insights into canine behavior as a research psychologist and on his outlook on life as a whole.
language: English
title: Born to Bark: My Adventures with an Irrepressible and Unforgettable Dog
publisher: Atria Books