WHO ARE YOU, DOG?
Decoding the Canine Essence
from the Ground Up
The ultimate roadmap for understanding, diagnosing, and connecting with dogs.
Based on 40 years of field experience with thousands of dogs and the revolutionary CDPEM model.
Forty Years of Experience in the Field
This book is the life’s work of Max Taylor, who has dedicated four decades to working with dogs in their most complex states. This knowledge was forged in the trenches:
Complex Rehabilitation: Working with shelters to save and rehabilitate dogs from extreme abuse.
Operational Excellence: Training real-world protection dogs and search and rescue units.
Behavioral Diagnostics: Developing professional standards and diagnostic tests for the most challenging cases.
Family Harmony: Guiding puppies and family dogs toward a safe and balanced life.
Beyond Training: Understanding the Mechanism
To truly understand why a dog acts, we must understand how a dog is built. This book moves beyond surface-level tricks to explore the entire operating system of the canine:
The Foundations: What is unchangeable in genetics and why developmental behavior is the bedrock of personality.
Early Exposure: The fine line between healthy socialization and the wrong exposure that causes lifelong damage.
The Sensory Gateway: How your dog interprets the world through sensory mechanisms that trigger specific actions.
The CDPEM Model: 116 Elements of Personality
For the first time, canine personality is broken down into a high-resolution map. The Canine Dynamic Personality and Elements Model features 22 categories and 116 specific elements.
The book includes practical diagnostic tools you can apply immediately:
Initial Diagnostic Questionnaires: Field-tested forms to help you identify the active elements in a dog's personality.
The Canine Suitability Triad (CST): A framework to ensure the right dog is with the right owner.
18 Rules of Communication: Essential principles for building a relationship based on clarity, not just control.
Who Is This Book For?
Professional Trainers and Behaviorists: Transition from generic methods to a data-driven diagnostic approach.
Veterinarians: Deepen the understanding of the link between sensory systems and behavior.
Dedicated Dog Owners: Stop guessing and start communicating to avoid the injustice caused by misunderstood behavior.
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About the Author
I am Max Taylor, a dog trainer and canine behavior expert. For over 40 years, during which I worked practically with thousands of dogs, I accumulated tens of thousands of hours of training, rehabilitation, and education.
My expertise is in treating complex behavioral problems, including cases of extreme anxiety, aggressive and dangerous dogs, and rehabilitation of dogs that have suffered severe abuse.
Over the years, I worked in cooperation with dog rescue shelters, mainly in cases considered hopeless, and led significant rehabilitation processes. Additionally, I trained real protection dogs, search and rescue dogs, puppies, and family dogs. At the same time, I was involved in breeding German Shepherds from working lines and Rottweilers, which deepened my understanding of puppy development, the influence of genetics on character, and the heavy impact of genetic components on shaping behavior.
This experience led me to develop the CDPEM (Canine Dynamic Personality & Elements Model) - a unique method based on a combination of deep genetic understanding and the environmental influence on personality formation. The theory describes how different elements in the dog’s personality actually determine its behavior at any given moment. In every situation, there is one or more dominant elements, that guide the behavior in real time.
Today, after retiring from professional activity, I raise my own dogs and train them with great love. Out of true passion and a desire to pass on the knowledge I have accumulated, I decided to share the tools and insights I have developed over the years in the book - “WHO ARE YOU, DOG?”
