I've been surrounded by dogs from the day I was born, I learnt to walk holding onto the dog rather than a baby walker, my dogs were my best friends as a kid. I've only been without a dog for a couple of weeks in my entire life. We had easy dogs, very difficult dogs and everything in between and they all teach us something. I read a fair bit more out of interest than to learn anything specific but tend to stay away from scientific reports etc, don't do seminars etc I think all dogs are individuals there is no one size fits all way of training them. I tend to be quite intuitive with dogs. I get dogs and they get me .