review written and read live on the bookshow by Ro Bennett 13th Oct 2016
I’m not a dog owner now, although I enjoy dog
sitting occasionally, however my childhood home was rather a menagerie with
assorted animals and a variety of dogs - Spaniels, a Border Collie, a
Boxer. When I had my own family we had mainly German Shepherd dogs - My
favourites being long haired Sabre and especially Zak who was huge, black and
magnificent.
Consequently I am always fascinated by programmes
like the Dog Whisperer and have read many books on dog handling, some better
than others. Some have been heavy going. This book was a delight to
read. I enjoyed every single page and I learnt so much from it.
The book is a collection of case studies and aspects
of dog behaviour and each one was interesting. I was gripped from the very
first story - especially since the dog was called Zak! It was a very dramatic
and traumatic introduction to the book which deals with topics like dogs which
bite people and dogs which are aggressive with other dogs, dogs which suddenly
start to behave erratically or seem unhappy. Like life it is a mixture of
the tragic, sad and humorous. The author is very honest about mistakes she has
made and problems she has encountered.
The author has a good writing style so I felt
emotionally involved in the stories. She seems an extremely warm and caring
person and she is also very frank about her personal life and the affect it had
on her own dogs. She obviously adores dogs and is passionate about their
welfare and helping dogs and owners to have happy, rewarding relationships and
interactions. I think every dog owner would learn something from this book, but
it would appeal to even those who do not have a dog, because the stories are so
interesting. There are some lovely photos as well. I found it a real page
turner and thoroughly recommend it. I was so impressed with it that I not only
bought my won copy to refer to again, but also bought a copy for my daughters.
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