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The American Dog Epidemic: Why Dog Behavior Goes Wrong and a Path to Rescue Us All
Paperback
Publisher Price: $18.99
Publisher: Jackie Eckert
Published: Dec 10 2025
Pages: 344
Weight: 1.01
Height: 0.72 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
What if understanding why your dog behaves this way is the key to changing it?
When a dog is anxious, reactive, aggressive, fearful, overly excited, or simply will not listen, most advice focuses on stopping the behavior. The American Dog Epidemic goes deeper - beyond the outward behavior to the psychology, emotions, instincts, and everyday experiences behind it.
This book gives dog owners practical answers by explaining what their dog's behavior means, why it is happening, and what they can do differently to create real and lasting change. It then shows readers, step by step, how to communicate clearly, respond effectively in difficult moments, and provide the guidance their dog needs to become calmer, listen more reliably, and behave better in everyday life.
Drawing on more than twenty years of hands-on experience working with hundreds of dogs and their owners, professional dog trainer Jackie Eckert presents a psychology-based approach to changing behavior in the real world.
Dogs learn from every interaction - including lessons no one intended to teach. This book reveals how ordinary, well-intentioned choices can create confusion, insecurity, and problem behavior. Rather than relying on treats, commands, corrections, or temporary solutions, readers learn how to respond in ways that make sense to the dog and create lasting improvement.
Today's dogs receive more affection, comfort, enrichment, and professional guidance than any generation before them. Yet anxiety, reactivity, aggression, and disconnection have become remarkably common. This book examines why.
Inside, you will discover how to:
- Find the real cause behind anxiety, reactivity, aggression, fear, overexcitement, or refusal to listen - so you can address what is creating the behavior instead of repeatedly trying to stop it
- Know what to do when your dog becomes overwhelmed, reactive, or difficult to control - and respond in ways that improve the experience rather than make the situation worse
- Communicate simply and clearly so your dog understands what you want, listens more reliably, and responds to you in everyday life
- Recognize how your actions - and the actions of others - may be creating confusion, insecurity, or problem behavior, and change those interactions before they cause further problems
- Provide calm, dependable leadership so your dog feels protected, trusts your decisions, and no longer feels responsible for handling difficult situations alone
- Build lasting trust, respect, and cooperation so your dog becomes calmer, better behaved, and easier to live with - without depending on treats, harshness, or force
Whether you are facing a serious behavior problem, trying to prevent one, considering getting a dog, or simply want to understand dogs more deeply, this book gives you both the explanation and the plan. It is written for dog owners, prospective owners, trainers, veterinarians, groomers, rescue workers, and daycare and boarding professionals.
A Note to Readers
This book challenges widely accepted beliefs about dogs, training, and responsible ownership. Some conclusions may surprise, challenge, or even upset readers. That challenge is intentional.
Readers expecting familiar advice will find something different here. For those willing to question familiar assumptions and consider behavior from the dog's point of view, this book offers a clearer understanding of the dog, practical answers for changing behavior, and a stronger path forward together.
Meaningful change does not begin with another command.
It begins with understanding why the behavior is happening - and knowing what to do next.
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