Hi Sharon;
I hope that you DO give those books another chance. I find that so much of the time the media will take quotations out of books & skew what the author originally intended.
Dr. Coren appears a lot on our Cdn Broadcasting Network (CBC Radio)-- "around the world on short-wave"! -- and he himself has stated that the "intelligence test" has been misunderstood. He also has a dog-training t.v. program on one of the specialty channels here "Good Dog", which actually had a segment that really helped me with Spotty. (We even got to meet the boxer that was featured on that show --"Scarlet"-- at the Lower Mainland Boxer Picnic! She was quite the celeb.!)
I found one of the books especially helpful, as he goes through a kind of "human test" to help a person decide what breed of dog is suitable for them. This helped me decide to go with the boxer! He is not as "smart" as a border collie (which my hubby wanted), and yet more easily trained than some other breeds (terrier types). It has worked for us.
As to "How to Speak Dog", well... I have that book loaned out so many times, that I could hardly remember what the title was, & how to spell Coren's name!
If you are interested, he also has written books on humans & sleep.... "Sleep Thieves" is supposed to be good... haven't read it yet.... But that is a whole different forum, isn't it?
Anyway. Enjoy the read when you get around to it! I hope you will give these books a chance!
S.