What's Your Favorite Dog Book?

[tatsxxx11]

What are your favorite dog books? Fiction, instructional, non-fiction? I just received as a gift the most wonderful dog book! It's called "Dog's and Their Women" (Note-not WOMEN and Their Dogs!) By Barbara Cohen and Louise Taylor.
It is filled with the most incredible, personal photos of dogs and the women they "own!"
The text that accompanies each photo is written by the doggiemom (most cases) and is at times hilarious, touching, painful-always beautiful. No other book I have read better relates that special bond. It dispels the notion that this is a "Man and His Dog World!" Any woman or girl who has that special canine connection and bond will LOVE this book. What are your favorite dog books?
Other ones I love are "Dogs Never Lie About Love" "If Only You Knew How Much I Smell You" and anything by James Harriot.

[lhg0962]

I have to give my vote to "Love of Goldens", The Ultimate Tribute to Golden Retrievers. Lovely stories, only about Golden Retrievers. Anything by James Herriott about his days as a veterinarian in England is wonderful too! http://PetoftheDay.com/talk/smile.gif

[carrie]

Joyce Stranger was a favourite of mine as a child and I am introducing her to my nine year old son at the moment. She has a deep understanding of the countryside, the people and the animals. Give her a try no matter how old you are. Her biography of her Siamese cat, Kym, is wonderful.

[karen israel]

Thanks for all the wonderful suggestions! I received 2 copies of "Dogs Never Lie About Love" one year! Will certainly look for Dogs and Women and If you Only Knew..Heriot's books are great! very very cute cartoony book was anonymously sent to me while Cody was recuping from surgery years ago called "my Dog is the Best Dog" about a GR...it was totally Cody (probably any dog) but it was right on and I must have cried, laughed and read it 1000 times. I haven't seen it anywhere (I think my ex, well trained boss sent it to me from s Dakota). Another gift I got was "202 Things Your Dog Wants You to Know" -very amazing facts and adorable vinettes. The authors were working on a follow up which I haven't found. I'm hitting the book store!!!!! Thx!

[AdoreMyDogs]

I would have to say my favorite dog (animal) books are Chicken Soup For The Animal Lovers Soul, and Chicken Soup For The Dog & Cat Lovers Soul. Very touching stuff in those books!

[teena]

I have to agree. LOVED the Chicken Soup for Dogs! Must admit I shed many tears reading that one.

[tatsxxx11]

Someone gave me that book, "Chicken Soup For the Animal Lover's Soul" after I lost my best dog Jingles after a 6 month battle with liver cancer. I know she meant well, but I just wasn't ready to read such heart wrenching stuff then. I could hardly bear to even see dogs that looked like her on the street without bursting into tears. That was 2 years ago last month. Funny, I just pulled it out a few days ago and thought maybe I would give it a try. A book like that is tough to get through even on the best of days. I always have to "brace" myself and keep the tissues close by!

[Doxiedoxie]

I loved "Maya's First Rose", and I also love the Chicken Soup books. Have gotten some good information in the Monks of New Skete books as well...

[Sudilar]

The Chicken Soup book is great. Just be ready to cry all the time! http://PetoftheDay.com/talk/frown.gif The Monks book was very good (and so are their videos).
Su

[dogncatluvr]

I like the Chicken Soup, and the Monk of New Skete ones too, along with a little book called " How to Raise a Puppy You Can Live With". It has your pup's first 6 months down on paper almost step-by-step. Great for a first time puppy owner.

[tatsxxx11]

Doxie
What's "Maya's First Rose" about? If anyone is a lab-o-phile, "Just Labs" is a classic. Also "101 Uses For a Lab"--Funny! Truly, if anyone gets a chance to look at a copy of "Dogs and Their Women" I know you will love it. Can't express well enough how it just so perfectly describes the FEELING of deep devotion and loyalty, the bond, dogs and their women share. Besides, the author is a native of Cape Cod, where I live!

[Albea]

My favorite books, highly recommended for Golden Retriever lovers, are "Yellow Dog" and "Yellow Pup" by Debra Marlin. Extraordinary photos and very moving text.Also, "Love, Miracles, and Animal Healing" by Allen M. Schoen DVM and Pam Proctor, about a Golden who helped his vet owner to heal other animals. Read it with a box of tissues close by!
There is also a "101 uses for a Golden" with great pictures and funny text.

[Doxiedoxie]

Tatsxxx11,
"Maya's first Rose" is a little book about a man dealing with the aging and death at age 18 of his beloved dog Maya. Its incredibly touching and will leave you in tears, guaranteed. But its so very special, its worth reading even though it's so sad. Its written by Martin Scott Kosins.

I also enjoyed Dogs and their Women, we had it in the waiting room at the veterinarians office I worked at:-)

[Karen]

Okay, one of my all-time favorites (had it years ago, bought it for a friend not too long ago) is "How to Live with Your Neurotic Dog." Very funny, very true! http://PetoftheDay.com/talk/smile.gif I guess it's out of print, now, though.

[Smilla]

Not a dog book, but I had to share this wonderful line from the book I'm now reading, Dodie Smith's "I Capture the Castle":

"I found my candle-end and had just knelt down by Heloise's basket to have a few words with her (she had a particularly nice warm-clean-dog smell after being asleep) when he came out again, wearing his coat over his nightshirt."

Aaah, warm-clean-dog smell...kind of makes me wish I had a dog to snuggle with in bed this evening. (Yes, that's right! I spend all this time here and I don't even have a dog of my own--and won't either, until my lifestyle is such that it would be fair to the dog.)

[carrie]

I have just finished reading Dodie Smith's "One Hundred and One Dalmations" with my nine year old son. I, of course, read it as a child and rediscovering it was wonderful. He loved it too and it has prompted me to find other childhood favourites to share with him. The people at the library think I'm weird!

[raynie]

'dog watching' by Robin Schwarts.
it is a book of dog photographs by this person. there is something strange or obscure in almost all of the photos. i look at it time and time again and always find something interesting hidden within this book to smile about. ive seen her photographs in quite a few other books as well.

[raynie]

oh, i got another:
'the hidden life of dogs' by anthropologist, Elizabeth Marshall Thomas. the author observes the pack behavior of several huskys that live with her along w/2 pugs. "what do dogs want most? not food, not sex, but other dogs". i share her passion for studying pack behavior, i have 4 dogs and watching them interact is my second favorite passtime, next to being involved in their pack activities.
tatxx11, i also loved 'dogs never lie about love'.

[tatsxxx11]

I also loved "The Hidden Life of Dogs" Read it a few years ago, and still pull it out to re-read sections while observing my dogs. I have a husky/shep who mirrors a lot of her dogs behavior!

[Smilla]

Yes, yes--I've been meaning to mention Robin Schwartz. I've lost my copy of "Dog Watching", but remember it well. Caroline Knapp (author of Drinking: A Love Story) also has a new book called "Pack of Two: The Intricate Bond between People and Animals" that is supposed to be good.

[Sudilar]

I've enjoyed Roger A. Caras' A Dog is Listening. It tells how dogs view the world and humans around them.

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***Save a life, ADOPT***

[Aussies 'R' Us]

first of all.....i used to be blue_heeler so u might know who i am. My favorite dog books would have to Chicken Soup for Pet Lover's Soul and Chicken Soup for the Cat & Dog Lover's Soul. I also like William Wagman's book about the Weimeraners that they have dressed up and it shows them as pups. Its very cute.

[Jenn]

I have to say I'm partial to William Wegman's books on Weimaraners. I just can't picture my Weim to be that patient!!!!! One can dream. http://PetoftheDay.com/talk/rolleyes.gif

[RachelJ]

I can't wait to get to Borders to check out some of these books that I hadn't known about. They sound awesome.

A couple of my favorite dog training books are "Good Owners, Great Dogs" by Brian Kilcommons and "Communicating with Your Dog - A Humane Approach to Dog Training" by Ted Baer. This later one is published by Barron's.

[RachelJ]

Originally posted by Smilla:
Aaah, warm-clean-dog smell...kind of makes me wish I had a dog to snuggle with in bed this evening. (Yes, that's right! I spend all this time here and I don't even have a dog of my own--and won't either, until my lifestyle is such that it would be fair to the dog.)

Oh, Smilla, I feel so bad for you. Make it a priority to get your situation to a place where it will be different. My dogless years were my lost years.

[Smilla]

I would really, really, love a dog, but at the same time, I want to make sure I'll be an excellent parent. I want to wait until we're in a house or somewhere where there's a backyard, and until we aren't travelling as much. In the meantime, I pet every dog within sight. I ask their owner's consent if the dog doesn't approach me first--and they usually do (they seem to know I adore them)! I'm sure I've petted every dog in my apartment complex. I'm sure their owners think I'm nuts, too. I often wonder what I must look like to them, approaching their pets with hands held out and a delirious grin on my face.

[RachelJ]

Smilla, You are right. In the meantime, enjoy your folks' dogs, everybody else's dogs and, vicariously, our dogs. And at least you aren't alone in your behavior toward other people's dogs. I usually start chatting away to the dogs I meet and have to remember to acknowledge the owner.

I really lucked out and found at the library four of the books that have been mentioned in the posts above. I'm in doggie heaven.

[Smilla]

Just today I took a break at work and decided to walk up the residential street behind our building. Oh happy me, if there wasn't a dog on the sidewalk just waiting to be petted! It made my morning...

Carrie, I finished _Castle_. The fact that Heloise is treated with such love and respect in that book coupled with Dodie Smith's having written _101 Dalmations_ (I hadn't known she was the author), makes me think that she was one of "us". Maybe in the future we should refer to ourselves using the code name "friends of Dodie". http://PetoftheDay.com/talk/wink.gif