Looks like we have the final cover for my next e-book, “Listening To Dogs: How To Be Your Own Training Guru.” I love the very stylish and effective cover design for this book, done by author and designer Robert Rodi. Thanks also to my agent Christopher Schelling of Selectric Artists, who is overseeing this book, due out next month, and who is helping steer my ongoing evolution into the new world of the writer. We’ve finalized the sub-title also – “How To Be Your Own Training Guru” – which captures the theme of the book – empowering people to train and communicate with their dogs more effectively and with less emphasis on sometimes expensive training gurus.

I believe that dog training, like so many other things, has been greatly corrupted by the notion that no one can train their dogs without expensive books and videos and TV shows and training programs. The idea of many of these books – just like the idea behind many creative writing classes – is that this knowledge belongs to a chose few and is beyond the understanding of ordinary people. This separates people from their dogs, from truly understanding and communicating with them and training them well.

E.B. White wrote that out forefathers had a keen understanding of how to housebreak a dog – separate the puppy from the house for a few days. I love the simplicity and effectiveness of this idea and it is true that training dogs used to be something people did without armfuls of $30 books. We have made dog training so complex, emotional and expensive few people actually do it.

I’ve never used training books or followed the popular and often rigid training theories many people employe. Training a dog is personal, individual, idiosyncratic. That’s why I wrote “Listening To Dogs.” I love the cover, the first step towards a successful book. It will be published in May, available wherever digital books are sold and can be read on computers, tablets, e-readers, Kindles, Nooks, Kobos, smartphones, purchased at Amazon, Bn.com, Ibooks. Lots of places to buy it. I’ll keep you posted.

The week of publication, I’ll host a week long discussion of the book, of the subject on the blog and on Facebook.