Whether your pooch is a companion or a “working dog” they all have brains and character. Why do some dog behave in an adverse way to various stimuli? Check out the following reading material:

“Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know” by Alexandra Horowitz
I first picked up this book at an airport. I had just adopted my new dog — so unlike any other I'd known — and I thought it would be interesting to see if it had any tips for training this smart and sensitive new addition to the family. Turns out, I couldn't tear myself away from the pages and finished it before arriving back home. This has been one of the most influential books I've read when it comes to dogs — or animals, for that matter. As someone who has been around dogs my whole life, it is amazing the things I didn't know and never thought about. Horowitz takes the science of dogs and unboxes it so that average dog owners can understand how our dogs see the world — or rather, how they take in the world through their various senses — so that we can have a whole new level of curiosity, sympathy, and awareness about what our dogs do and why.

“The Other End of the Leash: Why We Do What We Do Around Dogs” by Patricia B. McConnell
Why do dogs greet each other like that? We dog owners are often so very in the dark about why some dogs seem to fall instantly in love with each other while others fall into instant hate; why some dogs fawn all over us for attention while others can't stand being hugged; why some dogs respond instantly to training while others seem to take forever to “get it.” This book — in a joyful, charming and often very funny way — clarifies how we as primates interact with each other, how dogs as canids interact with each other, why our interspecies interactions don't always go smoothly, and how we humans can become more fluent in dog and improve our communication with and training of our wonderful furry friends.

 “Bones Would Rain from the Sky: Deepening Our Relationships with Dogs” by Suzanne Clothier
It would be easy to say this book is similar to “The Other End of the Leash,” but in reality it is not. Like the latter book, this book discusses how our dogs see the world, how they interpret our actions through their canid brains, and how we can better approach our communication and interactions with our dogs to have a trusting and happy relationship with them. But it is different in the same way that asking two different friends for advice yields a different perspective and understanding of a situation while still coming to the same, supportive conclusion. Clothier is an animal lover to the nth degree. Because of this, she has gone farther than the average person to try to view the world as a dog sees it — she even opens the book by talking about her childhood antics of acting like a dog. While its simple to chalk up that act to a child with an active imagination, Clothier's approach is fascinating and she has shown that by approaching situations from a dog's mindframe, we can make real progress in training. By coming at everything from the dog's perspective, we as humans can more quickly figure out the cause of “bad” behavior and much more quickly figure out solutions that will work to make everyone in the equation happy. This book is a joy to read both as a dog owner needing a guide for dog understanding and dog training, and also as an animal lover getting to know a kindred spirit and all that person has learned through decades of training dogs with empathy and compassion.
“Reaching the Animal Mind: Clicker Training and What It Teaches Us About All Animals” by Karen Pryor
This book is a staple for so many dog trainers, it seems a little obvious to include it in this list. But there's a reason it's such a staple: it is a training approach that works, and that builds strong, trusting relationship between a person and a dog. Karen Pryor is the force behind the movement toward clicker training, a form of training that includes using a consistent sound (typically a clicker) plus a treat reward to shape a dog's behavior. It takes positive reinforcement training to a new level by using the click-sound at the exact moment a dog is doing something right, so that the dog knows exactly the behavior you want to see. Over all, it helps dogs learn what we're asking from them in a fraction of the time that other training methods usually take. This book explains the science and technique behind clicker training and teaches the reader how to use this method of training for their dogs.
Genius of Dogs5. “The Genius of Dogs: How Dogs Are Smarter than You Think” by Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods

“The Genius of Dogs” is a new book by Hare, who is the lead researcher behind “Dognition,” a project revolving around the study of dog cognition. How do our dogs read social cues? Just how tuned in to our movements and gestures are they? How thoroughly do our dogs train us without us realizing it? This is the genius of dogs, and in this book, Hare looks at the science behind the social behavior of dogs and their ability to understand both our body language and even our words to figure out the human world around them.

For one more impressive book and to read further information about these others please go to Mother Nature Network.

While using our instincts, while training and trying understand our dogs is always a temptation, it is always nice to know there are some experts out there with well thought-out books to guide us when our expectations fail to deliver!