Pet Books

Gincy Self Bucklin is the trainer I wish I had had all these years I've spent riding! I have been training with qualified instructors for 18 years, and I have still learned SO much from this book. I cannot say enough about this book and its sequel. This book is wonderful and it FAR exeeded my expectations. I only wish I had these books when I first began riding - I could have saved so much time, trouble and bad habits!

I reccommend this book to everyone who rides and loves horses, whatever level, whatever style. I first bought it because, in my youth having ridden wonderfully kind horses that pretended like I knew how to ride, I wanted to get back into riding when I was in my late fifties. After a year of lessons with a well-qualified instructor, the school horse I was riding got fed up with my mistakes and sent me sailing. Two operations and two years of physiotherapy later, I went back, just to make a point. It took me a year to get back to about where I was before the accident. Then I hit a block. I didn't seem to be making any progress, in spite of two or three lessons a week. That is when i read this book and a lot of lights came on. Gincy's "active hand" transformed an irritated,head-tossing horse to a calm, attentive partner. Once I grasped her explanation of lateral centering, the horses I rode stopped cutting corners. My instructor and the people I ride with started paying me compliments on my position and my progress. I continue to read and reread her books, and the lights are still coming on. Some people may complain about the detail, but if that's the particular problem you're working on, you want all that detail. Someone commented that Gincy writes for instructors, to help them be better teachers, but if you don't have an instructor, or if he knows it all and doesn't think he has to read books, students can learn directly from the book. As Gincy mentions, many instructors know what you should be doing, but don't know how to explain to a student how to do what is an automatic reflex for an advanced rider. It's certainly helped me to understand why my instructor was always saying "shoulders back, heels down!" etc. I reccommend it to my friends, but as someone else mentioned, it's not a book you can lend, because it doesn't come back. And perhaps the best thing about the book is Gincy's wonderful attitude towards horses and understanding their behavior. I found that Gincy accomplishes everything she set out to do in her introduction.

This book has inspired me to work on bareback exercises this summer to retrain my balance. I'm sure my horse will thank me. Having ridden with the author when I was a teenager (40 years ago), I remember the value of the bareback riding after this book reminded me. I have tried to read Sally Swift's "Centered Riding" but just didn't engage me. This book has and I will be applying the lessons to myself.

How Your Horse Wants You to Ride: Starting Out, Starting Over

If our horses could have a verbal conversation with us, it would be about how they want us to ride on their backs. So, if that is the information you are looking for, this book will do that for you. Coming to horses late in life, with only weekend trail riding and no ownership in my background, learning to train my horse and ride her has, at times, been overwhelming. All bad habits that horses have are from bad training, not from stubbornness or naturally occurring mean spiritedness. Every interaction we have with our horses teaches them something, good or bad. Gincy is a patient person, I know from interacting with her on her Riding with Confidence list group on Yahoo. She has great insights into muscle memory, fear, breathing, etc. and the way those things cause horses to react in one way or another. How Your Horse wants you to ride is not a quick fix answer. It is deep and thoughtful requiring work on the part of the owner/rider. The reward is as great and worth striving for. After all, if you have a horse, you want to have fun with it, not be fearful of it.

I started riding quite late in my life and this book has been a great help to me. Whenever I encounter a problem I consult it again and it always gives me new ideas which work. I like especially the mixture of at home, on the ground and on the horse exercises. You can try basics safely first before you mount your horse. I am a Western rider and although its focus is English riding I was able to use it.

If you love nature, have children, teach or are involved in Scouting, you should own this book. It is a wonderful treasure and full of interesting diagrams, studies and information. This is a tremendous guidebook that will help familiarize you with plants, insects, trees, mushrooms -- you name it!

We found this book and my daughter fell in love with it! She is 8 and enjoys just sitting and reading the information. Whenever she gets inspired by nature, she looks forward to sitting down to research what information the Handbook of Nature Study offers.

This book is amazing! I was totally surprised with how thick it is. This was written by a woman who was literally showing other teacher's how to approach nature study. This I don't think is meant to be read from cover to cover but instead use a specific subject in the book as you're getting ready to teach it.

Words cannot at all describe how valuable this book is - especially for the homeschooling family.

This book is just old enough to be a record of how people used to think about going outside and why fresh air/nature experiences were needed in a child's life/education--and yet it is modern enough to still be really useful in the information presented pertaining to birds, plants, weather, and the night sky. I also found the excellent introductory material a challenge to all educators (home, public, and private) to step up and help children relate to the created world better through observing nature all around them. Excellent parent resource!

This book is not what I expected. I expected a Nature Guide, what I got was actually lessons on different aspects of Nature. This book is amazing for a homeschooler who really wants to go in depth about Nature with their children. I do not recommend this for someone who would like some casual reading.

Our dog abruptly went blind on Father's Day which is not that uncommon
for our breed. We subsequently had to have his eyes removed due to irre-
versible and painful end-stage Glaucoma. We were, of course, devastated
as our dog just turned 6 last March. Our animal Opthalmologist suggested
this book as a great source for us and our acceptance of his delemma and
also some valid suggestions for helping our pet have as normal a life as
possible. These suggestions have worked well so I highly recommend this
book for others to read in similar circumstances.
Mary J. Hathaway

The majority of us dog owners love our pets but know little about what happens--or in the present case fails to happen--behind those happy eyes. Caroline Levin's lovingly written guide to living well with and for man's best friend when he can't see is a tremendous resource for such human pack leaders, brimming over as we are with good intentions but a little slim on the science side.

It's telling that so many reviews of Levin's work begin by telling the story of a beloved dog's loss of vision. Few of us come to Levin's instruction out of theoretical knowledge. Rather we desperately need to know what to do.

This reviewer and his family have not seen a dog lose his vision. Rather, we recently adopted an abandoned Rhodesian Ridgeback who is already blind. Sammy joins a home with a seeing Ridgeback who has done extraordinarily well in adjusting to life with the bumptious fellow.

Levin's book helps me understand our new dog's psyche, how to ameliorate his fears, and why he loves our voices and cowers when strangers speak the same words.

Sixteen chapters begin with the basics of how people and dogs grieve, how the canine eye is designed to work, and the reasons why it stops doing so. From there the author expertly leads us through behavior change and how to adjust our lives to that our sight-impaired pets can get on with theirs.

The book is peppered with photos of blind dogs and their owners and affectionate reassurances that living with a blind dog can be as joyful as tragic and often more so.

The book has large print--one wonders whether a nurse of ophthalmology presses her editors for this concession--and wide margins. As such, it reads quickly. In this reviewer's case, it will occupy an easily accessible place on a shelf for quick reference as we help our Sammy rediscover the playful, confident sub-alpha male that bounds playfully in his dreams and behind his happy smile.

My vet recommended that I get this book. I am so glad that I did take his advise. What I have read so far has been a big help. Before getting this book, I felt helpless. Now I know that Merlin and I will still have a great life together. Thank you so very much.

Sincerly,
Peggy Parker

This book was such a big help I thought my dog that went blind in three days would never have a good life. But since reading this book and using the information I gained from it I and my dog are enjoying things again and we are doing all the same things but just a little different.

I didn't find this book to be very helpful. It seems to be geared to having a pack of dogs as opposed to a single dog.

Either my dog is incredibly bright (okay, he is) or the book implies that dogs need far more training than I have found it to be for my dog.

My dog is completely blind. It happened over a period of a couple of months. He does very well at home and away and does not require all the aids the book suggests a blind dog might need.

I'm a teacher and I do enjoy children's literature. Books that draw me to read them again and again are a special joy, and this one is tops! Paulsen shares special stories of dogs he has known since childhood. Each story can be read independently, but there are several surprises that link dogs and stories through different periods of his life. This book made me understand and believe the incredible powers of 'man's best friend.'

This was a very unique book. I enjoyed every chapter, as I learned about each new dog that passed through Gary Paulsen's life. All of them true stories, of course. I do like the author's writing style very much, and it's amazing how descriptive the book is.

I'd pick it up and read it again!
I loved each & every one of these dogs stories.

Owning Sibs and other breeds over the years I laughed till I had tears reading about Caesar. What a great read. Not that I recommend it for the bathroom reading but that is the only place my hubby will read. I walked past the door one day and he was laughing hysterically. I just knocked on the dog and asked "Caesar?" He replied "Lived that one before!"
After having lived with so many characters over the years it is easy to see that they really are true stories. If you have a dog lover in your life this should be in their stocking.
-S
Redwood Siberians

Book arrived promptly and in the condition as advtised, actually it was better than I expected.

A good book for people of all ages who love dogs. Although, like many of Gary Paulsen's books it is geared toward teens, this is a quick read for anyone. Laughs and tears throughout!

As a Christian, I knew going into this book that the author is a minister of a Unitarian "church" that is not recognized as Biblical Christianity, so I accounted for that. This church's theology rejects Christ as the Son of God and equal with God, and their faith is guided more by reason and science than by the Word of God. Hence, there is a sense of spiritual and even emotional detachment when dealing with experiences and emotions. So I'll say at the top here that many of his expressions of faith come across as 'detached', so you'll have to move on from that and consider his presentation of nature and "the circle of life" which does have some benefit.

Kowalski's scientific approach held some value for me because it helped me to reconcile the fact that losing my dogs (I lost both within 5 months of one another) was natural, beneficial for them and an experience of life at its most natural. In other words, death is a natural part of life; so if you prefer a more scientific-type approach to these matters, his writing may appeal to you. He does express his own love for his pets, there are some quotes in the begining of each chapter that are nice, and you'll find some compassion and affirmation there, but his view is so scientific in nature that you may imagine a very composed, straight face looking at you and saying, "Friend, it's a part of life. It's the way it is. Embrace it." Personally, I like a better balance between that sort of reality and the ability to reach into one's emotional experience at the same time.

I think I highlighted a handful of helpful thoughts as I went through the book, and overall I appreciated his writing, but it was one of those books, for me anyway, where one reading sufficed. Whereas, another book "Coping with Sorrow on the Loss of Your Pet", was a much more practical, walk-with-you approach that I gained an abundance from by comparison to Kowalski's book. It was much more therapeutic for me.

God bless you and bring peace to you as you go through this time of grief, and if you are looking to buy a book for a friend who is going through it, I personally would recommend the above-mentioned book by Moira Anderson before this one.

I don't know, I guess I didn't care for the religion part, but it didn't really help. But then again, maybe nothing helps when you lose your dog. Maybe it's just me, but I didn't like it at all.

I sent this and the other Kowalski book to my brother after his best friend, Smokey, died in his arms. He told me that it was helpful as he was grieving.

Loosing a pet is never an easy experience. This book helps us all to realize that we are not alone as we travel down the bumpy road of sad feelings mixed with happy memories.

After loosing my two girls aged 11 and 12 just 40 days apart, I could not deal with my grief of one much less two. Then after my wonderful Angie crossed over, I was devastated. Both had to be "put down". Our Jessie had a fusing back and went to pee, and collapsed, back breaking and nothing able to be done neither several years ago when x-rays were taken nor when she eventually collapsed.

My Angie, who made me Hers, could not live without her "sister", and I had to let her go was my twelve year old, and I was owned by since she was about four weeks old and rescued. She had her kidneys shutting down and no longer eating. That by far was the most difficult thing I had ever had to do in my life.

After all this grief, I had emergency surgery two days later. I saw them in a field playing together, and did not want to come back. I considered very seriously suicide for over a year just to be with them, as they were my ONLY fiends - for a very hurtful difficult subject. This book helped me deal with my feelings after a year and a half of pain and deep, deep depression.

After reading this book, it helped me deal with the euthanasia, and the fact that I already knew - of seeing them again. It is still very hard and always will be and I know that too. I am no longer suicidal - thank G-D. I will be OK, and I will be reunited with them both, along with all the others I have lost- it just helped me reassure knowing that.

I recommend this book highly for anyone who has lost ANY kind of pet.

Any pet lovers should purchase this book as guide line to cook for their pets. I cook for my dog since he was a puppy, he is 16 months old now and he looks great and healthy.The recipes are easy to follow and make.

Hello,

I was reading the reviews and noticed that everyone was writing their individual experiences with their new product (which is fine). However, I think if you want to help the consumer, please also state what you WERE USING to begin with! That would help so much with people trying to figure out allergy issues, etc. LIST BEFORE ISSUES!!!

I haven't purchased this book yet, but I have many bichons. I just switched to "Natures Organic" and will see how they do. I have had two bichons for a very long time that were on Hill's Science Diet (before all the Hoop La). They BOTH have lived over 14 YEARS on this food from DAY ONE. I cannot see how all of a sudden this is 'not that great' food. If it treats a specific issue, fine. Dont' knock it until you've tried it. Snicky's 14th birthday is tomorrow and she is still going strong. :o) My Sophie is having 'nipping' issues.

Thank you.

Best regards.

The book was good. I used the chicken stew to get my dog bag on track when she was sick. A couple of things to be aware of are that there are different schools of thought regarding garlic for dogs. Also if you decide to use supplements be very careful about the measurements. Just like humans some animals may not tollerate them well.

This book was WONDERFUL! Wow, I had no idea how to feed my dogs...now I feel so educated. Both of my dogs had horrible allergies and now they are completely GONE!! It is amazing. I highly recommend this book :)

This book is an excellent introduction into home cooked food for your pet. It provides a basic education, some recipes to start with, and a wonderful perspective.

Could you feed your dog forever with onyl this book? Yes. Is it likely to be the only book on canine nutrition you ever want to read? No, not if you're like me and want to balance your sources of information.

Get this book, get started. Track your progress with the journal and see what happens at the end of 8 weeks. If your dog is responding well, keep going! Keep reading, try new recipes from other trusted sources like Pitcairn and Strombeck.

Canine nutrition shouldn't be rocket science. Nor should it be a secret collection of data available only to the folks who make commercial dog food.

Sally does a great job at teaching this critical aspect of riding. My child has leaped ahead and understands the dynamics of horse and rider together.

This is really the only decent book on how to ride centered. The only problem is that the imagery is more confusing than it is helpful at least for me. But I am the kind of person that needs to be told how to do something(tilt your pelvis, relax your ankles) rather than be told to think like a tree(whatever that means!!!)

I still recommend this book because it does contain excellent detail on the proper way to ride. The anatomy lessons are excellent and explain WHY(based on physics) you have to sit a certain way. I just find myself rereading this book over and over to get a full appreciation of the information.

I love this book. I ordered these books for my riding students for Christmas. They were shipped just in time for Christmas.

Being a novice rider who has been interested in zen methods and meditations for years, I would have bought this book even if it contained only this one piece of advice that I've seen in no other publication. The advice: Ask someone to check your posture while you're sitting on the horse, looking at you from behind because one side is usually stronger than the other and the stronger side tends to be shorter. This unevenness can be observed from the back because the line of the spine and the pant's seam do not come over the horse's backbone. The author then explains how to correct this problem, even though it feels wrong at first and it takes time to become comfortable with balanced riding.

Sally Swift's use of visualization to practice correct breathing, maintain soft eyes, etc. is also quite useful to me, because it gives me a way to direct my attention to the discipline at hand and less to trying so hard to do it right.

"Centered Riding" is a book that I was thrilled to find and it will be a valuable reference to me as I begin to learn to ride correctly on the sweet and gentle Standardbred gelding that I recently adopted from the Second Wind Adoption Program in West Union, West Virginia.

excellent book for any rider.great book to keep for future reference. excellent drawings that help you visualize what the author is referring to for certain lessons.

My five year old has been loving Henry and Mudge for months now and we have checked every one of them out of the local library. We finally decided we just had to know how the story all began and saw a reference to The First Book. We quickly ordered it and couldn't be more pleased. The story explains the beginnings of Henry's deep attachment to Mudge. These are wonderful books. I don't know anyone we have recommended them to who hasn't fallen in love with Henry and Mudge.

My sons adore Henry and Mudge. These books are fun for them to read, and the classic "boy and his dog" characters are very endearing, particularly big, drooly Mudge. Well-written and entertaining, this series is great for kids who think they don't like to read or who have trouble reading, because they're funny and easy enough so that the child won't get bored or frustrated trying to read it. A definite must-have for any kid's bookshelves.

I bought some of these Henry & Mudge books for my 9 year old nephew Buddy when he was in the second grade. I gave him one or two, he read them, and kept asking me Are you bringing anymore of Henry & Mudge. I said Yes do you like them and he said Yes. Now my youngest son Ramon who is 7 loves them. The stories and the pictures are great for children and are perfect for second graders. I would recommend them to any second grader in a HEARTBEAT.

My son was reluctant to read in his elementary school days. This series caught his attention and by the time he finished all the books in the series that we could find he was intrigued enough with reading to go on to other books. Now, he is a high school senior with stellar SAT scores. I'll give partial credit to Henry and Mudge!

As of this writing, there are some 20+ Henry & Mug books, each one a small masterpiece. However, this is the one that started it all!!

Everything great or small has it's beginning, and in the beginning of THIS book, which begins, in turn, the whole series, we meet our hero, Henry. Henry lives with mom and dad, but he really doesn't have any friends. No other children live on his block, he doesn't have any brothers or sisters. So, he asks for a dog. That dog is Mudge who swiftly goes from a teeny, handful-sized puppy to the 180-pound pooch we know and love through the rest of the series.

What makes H&M books so wonderful are the bright, simple illustrations that mirror the text and the easy realism of Mudge the dog. Unlike other fictional dogs, Mudge doesn't talk, walk about on his hind legs or save the universe: he is just a big, happy, loving pooch who, like dogs everywhere, is totally dedicated to his pal, Henry. He's like a real dog... a real BIG dog, but a real dog nonetheless. He falls asleep when he's bored, he follows Henry everywhere and is unhappy when Henry's not around, and occasionally he eats things he's not supposed to. Practically any child would love to have a companion like Mudge.

H&M are one of those rare types of books that easily fall between two categories: picture books and chapter books. They're well illustrated and the text is simple and easy to read, but the story is also divided up into chapters (usually three). This makes these books perfect for young readers who may feel that they are starting to move beyond picture books but may not be ready for full-blown chapter books with little or no illustrations. The stories are simple and comfortable and the stuff of everyday life, so a child doesn't need to have a great deal of worldly experience climbing mountains or leaping tall buildings in a single bound to see that reading can be fun.

If you start here with Henry & Mudge, by all means, don't stop here! Go on to enjoy all the other adventures that these two share! You and your children will never be disappointed!

Excellent book. Haven't got the dog yet, but really enjoyed reading it and hopefully the ideas written in it will help me train a champion retriever.

I am really enjoying this book. It came well recomended. It teaches all the basics to have a great waterfowl dog. I only hope I am up to teaching correctly. My dog is at 4 1/2 months so we still have a long way to go. I highly recomend this book.

My Vet was very unhappy to see that this book suggested corporal discipline for canines. Overall, a good training guide.

This book is awesome, although it was writen a long time ago it is a great guide on how to go about training a retriever for waterfowling. I read this book after reading "Game Dog" by the same author and they are great complements to one another. Game Dog is more structured by the pups age, but "Water Dog" gives more detail on some of the instruction and also talks alittle more about disipline and what to do if the dog refuses your commands.

There is no question that the author was a world class dog trainer. It is just as obvious that the book was written decades ago when beating the dog was an acceptable form of discipline. We are a little more sophisticated than that today.

The training techniques and protocols are timeless and I highly recommend them. I used them to train my Lab and the results have been great. But I don't beat him!

This book is amazing! So much information (over 1,300 pages) and such a great resource - as it is written and edited by the same experts that write the manual all vets study to pass their board exams. I appreciate that it is written in such an understandable manner. As a pet owner, I appreciate any information that will protect the health of my pets and allow me to further understand what my veterinarian recommends. With so much crazy information on the internet, it is great to know that there is a resource that can cut through the information clutter and provide sound information to better the health of my pets. My vet even had a copy in his waiting room!

This Merck/ Merial Manual is written more for non-veterinarians or pet owners (than you would expect from a Merck Manual) so you may have less problem understand what it is talking about. But it is mostly about dogs and cats plus about other animals on the cover. If you have a more "exotic" pet this book is not for you.

This is a good reference book to have available whenever your pet becomes ill or for review after a veternarian visit.

Lots of good information on the stuff that can usually go wrong. Won't replace a vet for really serious things, but helps with peace of mind (and care info) for run-of-the-mill problems.

Sometimes the vet does not have time to explain in detail the medications they are prescribing and sometimes you just for get to ask or think of someting after the fact. The book is a good source of information and it its written in plain enlish so you dont have to be a DVM to understand it.