by Sarah Fisher
The renowned animal trainer shares her unique behavior management techniques to get your dog happier, healthier, less stressed, and more obedient.
Animal trainer Sarah Fisher is known for transforming the behavior of dogs who are beyond ordinary rehabilitation techniques. She also helps dog owners go beyond passive dog ownership to become observant, understanding, and pro-active dog guardians. In Unlock Your Dog’s Potential, Fisher offers step-by step instructions to using her methods at home. With simple exercises and invaluable training advice, you can safely and effectively reduce unwanted behaviors such as leash pulling, barking, and chewing, You will also learn to recognize symptoms of stress or concern in your dog, and how you can alleviate these tensions to improve your dog’s well-being and strengthen your bond. Unlock Your Dog’s Potential covers a wide range of unique dog management techniques, including handling and bodywork exercises to improve movement and trainability. Case studies of dogs Fisher has worked with appear throughout the book to show how her techniques relate to real-life situations.
by Anahí Zlotnik
A simple but profound book, this is a valuable contribution to the serious study of animal behavior as it pertains to horses. Outlining some basic techniques for effective communication between people and these magnificent quadruped creatures, it also includes personal anecdotes and stories about experiences with ill-treated horses and their rehabilitation. Perfect for equestrians, stable workers, veterinarians, and riding instructors, this account distinguishes between different signs made by horses and promotes understanding.
Tim Lewis, PhD
Biology of Dogs takes you on a series of tours through all the major biological systems – reproductive, nervous, musculoskeletal, digestive and more. Tim leads these tours in a fun and irreverent manner, offering insights that will enhance your dog-human relationships so much that you will abandon all of your human friends to spend more time with your dog! And for those of you who slept through your biology class in school, you will learn a lot of useful information about human biology as well.
by Dani Weinberg
The dog-training instructor's first job: teaching people!
Our human students require much more attention and understanding than do their canines. If we don't inspire their interest and cooperation, they will not be successful in training their dogs. Dani Weinberg’s experience offers insights, information, and ideas that will help all levels of instructors both develop and maintain dog training enthusiasm and work more effectively with the human students. This two-part book looks at both the student and the instructor.
You will learn:
• Ways to communicate more effectively and how to reach “difficult” students
• How to guide students towards new belief about their dogs
• What type of instructor you are and how you can adapt your type to better assist your students
• How to receive feedback, set yourself up for success, and prevent burnout
by David Meyer
More than 200 tips on choosing and caring for your new feline friend, from North America’s largest non-profit pet adoption website. Includes photos!
From adoption and care to behavior and communication, this comprehensive guide to cats comes from the experts at Adopt-a-Pet.com, who have spent many years connecting homeless pets to their new families. It covers: Basics: Understand your new kitten or cat, prepare for a new arrival, get the skinny on supplies and toys, and learn everything you need to know to integrate a kitty into your home and life.
Behavior: Get the scoop on breed characteristics, troubleshoot problems, and learn how to communicate with your new friend. Care & Health: Choose a veterinarian, treat common ailments, and keep kitty clean, happy, and safe! With useful tips, wonderful photos, and information that’s helpful no matter the breed or age of your cat, The Total Cat Manual gives you the whole kitten caboodle!
by Kate Titus
Welcome to your dog’s emotional world. Did you know that varying emotions influence your dog’s movement decisions every single day? Injured, aging, and mobility-challenged dogs may not be able to do all the things they used to do. But as a pet parent, that doesn’t mean you have to idly sit by and watch your dog’s quality of life suffer. Join canine mobility expert Kate Titus on a journey to give your dog more of what they need to thrive—no matter what their current physical capabilities may be or what stage of life they’re in. Her new book Emotion to Motion: How the Mind Impacts Your Dog’s Mobility will offer you all the tools you need to help your mobility-challenged dog start leading a fuller, happier, and more active life today. This second title in the Loyal Companion series will reveal to you how to better understand your dog’s emotional life as it relates to their mobility. It will also show you how to listen for and interpret those emotions—and what to do with that information. Emotion to Motion is packed with practical suggestions, case studies, worksheets, checklists, and tips to improve the quality of life for your mobility-challenged dog.
by Joan Tate
This book is about understanding your dog --- just why it behaves in a certain way. For instance, when a dog buries a bone--- whether it is in a hole in the garden or under the cushions of the sofa---it is behaving in an instinctive way that it has inherited from its wolf ancestors. Ethologists, scientists who study animals and their behaviour, have made many interesting discoveries about dogs, and we now know that their behaviour is made up partly of instincts inherited from wolves, and partly of habits learnt as puppies and young dogs.
by Susannah Charlson
After a grisly search-and-rescue operation led to troubling consequences for author Susannah Charleson, she found that her relationship with Puzzle, her search dog, made a surprising contribution to her own healing. Inspired by that experience, Charleson learned to identify abandoned dogs with service potential, plucking them from shelters and training them to work with disabled human partners, to whom the dogs bring assistance, comfort, and hope.
Similar to her best-selling first book, Scent of the Missing, Charleson’s The Possibility Dogs goes beyond the science that explains working canines to tell the stories of the dogs themselves. Like Merlin, a black Lab puppy who had been thrown away in a garbage bag and now stabilizes his partner’s panic attacks. And service dog Jake Piper, a formerly starving pit bull mix who went from abandoned to irreplaceable. This heartwarming combination of memoir and research is sure to both inform and inspire.
Super Sniffer Scent Games by Debby Kay
Tests involving a dog's sense of smell are one of the fastest growing areas of competitions today. They are fun for dogs and people alike, the training is fun and easy, and no fancy equipment is necessary. Scent Games not only offers invaluable training advice for participating in these events but has challenging new games to keep you and your dog's skills sharp. It is one book you must have for your collection. Debby Kay has been a pioneer in many areas of scent detection work. Her highly acclaimed Super Sniffer® program has been taught in over 20 countries around the world.
Raymond Coppinger
Of the world’s dogs, fewer than two hundred million are pets, living with humans who provide food, shelter, squeaky toys, and fashionable sweaters. But roaming the planet are four times as many dogs who are their own masters—neighborhood dogs, dump dogs, mountain dogs. They are dogs, not companions, and these dogs, like pigeons or squirrels, are highly adapted scavengers who have evolved to fit particular niches in the vicinity of humans.
This book present an eye-opening analysis of the evolution and adaptations of these unleashed dogs and what they can reveal about the species as a whole. Exploring the natural history of these animals, canine behavior experts Raymond and Lorna Coppingers explain how the village dogs of Vietnam, India, Africa, and Mexico are strikingly similar. These feral dogs, argue the Coppingers, are in fact the truly archetypal dogs, nearly uniform in size and shape and incredibly self-sufficient. Drawing on nearly five decades of research, they show how dogs actually domesticated themselves in order to become such efficient scavengers of human refuse. The Coppingers also examine the behavioral characteristics that enable dogs to live successfully and to reproduce, unconstrained by humans, in environments that we ordinarily do not think of as dog friendly. A fascinating exploration of what it actually means, genetically and behaviorally, to be a dog, What Is a Dog? is likely to change the way beagle or bulldog owners reflect on their four-legged friends.
The Last Walk by Jessica Pierce
“Should be required reading for every pet owner. Readers will identify with Pierce’s feelings of ambivalence…as they read about Ody’s antics and challenges.”—Library Journal Watching our beloved animals grow older is never easy. This book, by a bioethicist who recounts the moving story of her dog Ody’s final year, also presents an in-depth exploration of the practical, medical, and moral issues that pet owners confront with the decline of their companion animals. Combining heart-wrenching personal stories, interviews, and scientific research to consider a wide range of questions about animal aging, end-of-life care, and death, Jessica Pierce tackles such vexing questions as whether animals are aware of death, whether they're feeling pain, and if and when euthanasia is appropriate. Given what we know and can learn, how should we best honor the lives of our pets, both while they live and after they have left us? The product of a lifetime of loving pets, studying philosophy, and collaborating with scientists at the forefront of the study of animal behavior and cognition, The Last Walk asks—and answers—the toughest questions pet owners face.
by Zondervan (Publisher)
Do you need an inspirational coffee table book that everyone will enjoy? Better Together combines adorable photos of unlikely animal pairs alongside poignant quotes about friends of all stripes on subjects such as love, respect, and compassion. This book is great for children and adults.
Quotes from George Washington to Bono focus on friendship, unity, strength, and harmony between people with diverse viewpoints, lifestyles, or beliefs. Inspiring quotes include:
"Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?" – Abraham Lincoln
"Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: 'What! You too? I thought I was the only one.'" – C. S. Lewis
"I would rather walk with a friend in the dark than walk alone in the light." – Helen Keller
Better Together is full of reminders of the very best things about friendship and is the perfect way to tell someone you love: "Life is best with a friend like you." This coffee table book is perfect for:
Anyone who loves animals
Birthdays, just because gift purchases for him or her, and as a housewarming gift
All ages, 0-100
by Stephanie LaLand
In this heartwarming collection of true stories, animals of all kinds demonstrate the sort of love and caring that makes the world a better place. Anyone who’s had a pet knows how affectionate and intelligent animals truly are. The stories collected in this volume highlight just a few of the incredible and inspiring ways in which they demonstrate their compassion. From the bravery of dogs to the devotion of dolphins, we humans could learn a lot from these beautiful tales. Along with random acts of kindness performed by animals, Stephanie LaLand also shares stories of humans who show their profound compassion for animals. These stories emphasize the unique bond that we share with animals and demonstrate just how powerful that relationship can be.
by Jane Miller
As the more than 65 million dog-owners in America will attest, there's something about the presence of a dog that inspires confidence, nurtures emotional well being, and brings out the best in ourselves. But for some people, the presence of a dog can do even more. Written by the leading expert in an emerging new field of therapy, Healing Companions is the first book to detail how dogs are increasingly benefiting those who suffer from a range of emotional ills, from eating disorders and anxiety, to agoraphobia, depression, and post-traumatic stress. Healing Companions will teach you:
What criteria to consider when choosing the right dog for you.
What kind of training service dogs require.
What to expect and how to respond when you take a service dog out in public.
How a dog can compliment other forms of therapy.
How to navigate the procedural regulations that apply to a service dog.
How to recognize the dog--s needs and provide it with proper care.
And much more.
Run, Spot, Run by Jessica Pierce
We feel love for our companions, and happiness that we’re providing them with a safe, healthy life. But sometimes we also feel guilt. When we see our cats gazing wistfully out the window, or watch a goldfish swim lazy circles in a bowl, we can’t help but wonder: Are we doing the right thing, keeping these independent beings locked up, subject to our control? Is keeping pets actually good for the pets themselves?vThat’s the question that animates Jessica Pierce’s powerful Run, Spot, Run. A bioethicist and a lover of pets herself (including, over the years, dogs, cats, fish, rats, hermit crabs, and more), Pierce explores the ambiguous ethics at the heart of this relationship, and through a mix of personal stories, philosophical reflections, and scientifically informed analyses of animal behavior and natural history, she puts pet-keeping to the test. Is it ethical to keep pets at all? Are some species more suited to the relationship than others? Are there species one should never attempt to own? And are there ways that we can improve our pets’ lives, so that we can be confident that we are giving them as much as they give us? “With gentle humor, clear compelling language, and always in search of the physically and emotionally healthiest lives possible for our animal companions, Run, Spot, Run moved me all the more because it’s written from the inside looking out. Pierce herself lives with three pets and understands the deep urge so many of us feel to connect across species lines.”—Barbara King, author of How Animals Grieve.