This is a very old thread but worth reviving as Forum members who have joined in more recent years may have books they would like to recommend now since so many new publications have come out in the past decade and approaches to dog training etc. have also changed or been expanded to include new ways of viewing the relationship between dogs and humans.
I have just finished reading ‘Beyond the Breed’ by Heather Stevens which was an interesting look at how certain aspects of an individual dog’s character - the Functional Character - may be set from birth, irrespective of breed, and how that may affect their behaviour in general and specifically their interactions with other dogs and humans. The author describes the ‘Functional Character’ as determining a dog’s function within a social group and as such how it may affect the way in which it deals with canine / human relationships and also how it behaves in different environments. For anyone who is training their dog, or trying to address or just understand a dog’s behaviour, this can give added insight and, while the author acknowledges that a variety of other influences can affect how the Functional Character is displayed, aggravated or suppressed, it is a very interesting analysis of dog characters and well worth checking out.
It is an easy to read (quite short) book and has a number of links to relevant websites for more information on other topics from nutrition to health. I did enjoy the chance to take a different look at our own dogs’ characters and identify one Functional Character among our little pack very strongly defined in the descriptions and something I would not have considered before reading this. It is available from a few different outlets, including on Amazon Kindle at a reduced price but there is a link to the book website page:
https://www.beyondthebreed.co.uk/