Pet Books

I had this calendar in 2007. The quality of the photos is superior to that of other cat-a-day calendars I've had. Simply beautiful. I've just ordered the 2009 calendar. If it doesn't live up to my expectations, I will update my review.

As a dog psychologist and being an author myself, the concept behind this book is simply--practicality--and making it easy and fun on the eye. You wouldn't know it unless you are a writer or even better, have your own book published. You'll be amazed how many times I told my clients, "Yes. I have covered it in the book. It is in chapter fifteen, page 217, second paragraph and blah blah blah." Well, you get the idea. Sadly, not everyone reads or can make the time to read. This one won't get you that lost. So I agree the information isn't new, but the concept is. This is because we are lazier and busier than ever and cards sometimes make more sense. You stick it on the fridge and can remind yourself over and over again. Hey Cesar, you owe me one. :-) Kevin "The Dog Prodigy" Author of, "Hidden Secrets Behind Dog Training" - Revealing the Best & Worst Ways to Train Your Dog. (Soon-to-be Available on Amazon)

This newest resource, from Cesar Millan, Inc., is an excellent resource for the busy dog owner. Published on a set of playing-sized cards, each card offers helpful tips and hints for solving everyday problems that occur in the course of canine ownership.

Highly recommended for all dog owners - from newbies to the experienced owner, everyone can learn something from Cesar's Way.

Can I just start off by saying I love this man!?! Cesar Milan has changed the way I deal with dogs forever! I love the fact that hear is a person who understands completely that a dog is a dog and should be treated as such. There is nothing bad, or cruel, about it. In fact I would challenge anybody who says their dog is happy being treated any other way. This deck of cards gives quick tips for dealing with problem areas. You just pick the card that seems to fit your needs. The information is short, sweet and to the point. And because tt's so easy to read it's a good refresher course for helping you stay on track with your dog.

There isn't anything new here. These cards are just excerpts from his books. The information isn't very concise or pointed either.

I first read this book about thirty years ago, and would regularly re-visit it and other titles by this author, until I grew out of so called picture books. That I can still recall the pictures from Seabird, and the images that the cast in my mind testify to the quality of the writing. The journey from coastal whaling off Nantucket, to Greenland, the Pacific and the Yankee clippers that have forged their way into Legend, ending with one of the protaganists and his grandchild on a steamship in the 1920s will never leave me. Books like this should never die or be forgotten. You owe it to your children to make sure they read it.

From its inception in the 1940's, Seabird has offered children of all ages a rich blend of New World nautical history, from tall-masted ships to steamships, all woven into an adventure of global exploration by sea. Highly recommended.

To this day Seabird evokes sights and sounds of whaling days and early coal-powered ships. I smell the greased hemp lines and the rendered blubber, the sulphurous fumes of steamers, kelp, and the sea itself.

The early youth, perhaps reading alone or read to, becomes a lean young sailor, develops character, and passes into old age through four generations -- a most remarkable transition when one knows so little of aging or history. Holling was a master author, first of Paddle to the Sea, later of more land-based novels, each rich in full-page color images.

Any of Holling C. Holling books are worthy of a space on your personal library shelf. "Seabird" is a wonderful story celebrating the art of sailing as passed down generation by generation while exploring topics of geography, sea life, geology, and history. It engages the mind and investigates new interests. The illustrations are impressive and intriguing.

I haven't forgotten it in the 20 years since I last read it. I'm ordering it right now to read it with my sons. This is a lyrical book that can survive a post-politically-correct viewing without losing any of its character.

I bought a lot of chicken books before I got my first day-old chicks this past spring; this is my favorite one! I keep referring to it over and over. Great basic info. for those of us who have never done chickens before, with lots of practical tips and tricks from those who have been doing it forever! A few goofy, annoying typos and such, but I was willing to overlook those for the good info.!

Enjoyed the way the book is written and am pleased with all the good info.

I just began raising chickens a few weeks ago. I have learned so much from this book, such as why my chickens are losing their feathers. (They're molting) Who knew? Haha. I highly recommend this book for beginners.

I would hate to hurt anyone's feelings, but I didn't really learn anything from this book and it didn't appear to have anything new to say. I should have returned it when I got it, but returning items are a hassle to me. I was just hoping for some new insight or something more daring or direct. hats off to anyone that attempts writing and the criticism that evolves from such work. I hope her next effort is more interesting.

A great book. Easy to read and full of useful information for a small scale operation.

While the drawings in this book are beautiful, I cannot use this book at all. The back cover states that the images are copyright-free, but the copyright inside the book states otherwise. I e-mailed the publisher and was told that I could only use the images for personal use, not commercial use. As I had purchased this book to create digital scrapbooking supplies to either sell in an on-line store or give away for free, I needed the images for commercial use. I am very disappointed in this because the images are indeed wonderful. If you want this book for personal use, go for it. But if you plan using it for any sort of commercial work, I do not recommend it.

BUY-IT! If you are a designer looking for ref books for inspiration, this one and 4000 Flower & Plant Motifs: A Sourcebook are amazing books for inspiration! Cannot stop browsing thru them!!!!

This book would be great for anyone who likes to applique. The bold pictures are easy to copy. There are many varieties of designs with these chapters: Stone Age Europe, Neolithic Europe, Mesopotamia, Egyptian, Minoan, Mycenaean, Greek, Chinese, Early Celtic, Barbarian, Byzentine, Romanesque, Gothic, Japanese, and Art Deco. I can also see someone who likes to make their own stencils use this book also.

If you're looking to train your dog, this is a good book that shows you how. I would recommend Train Your Dog - The Positive Gentle Method and maybe a dog obedience class (that will help your dog learn to socialize) also.

When this book was published in 1985 the concept of natural training was revolutionary. The Monks of New Skete followed in 1991 with a book advocating the same concept of training. However, the principles of a more natural training method have been greatly refined over the years and some of the advice that is contained in this book is wrong (or wrong in most situations).

The author is adament that food should not be given as a reward, reward should be positive attention only. The Monks also believed this but weren't so adament. More recent books have recognized that different breeds respond differently. Breeds bred for close human interaction, primarily the herding breeds, are more closely focused on humans, breeds bred to act independently such as Beagles, and other hounds, and terriers, are not closely attuned to humans and respond better to food rewards. Hey, it's animal behavior 101 that lab rats are rewarded by food and learn from those rewards. Interestingly both Benjamin and the Monks work primarily with German Shepards.

Benjamin also maintains that you can bring a dog back to the scene of its crime, i.e. where it destroyed a pillow, show it the destroyed pillow and correct the dog's behavior. All the recent books acknowledge that you can only correct a dog's behavior if you catch the dog while it is in the act.

Potentially dangerous advice that she gives is to grab a dog by both sides of the neck and get in its face to stare it down. That is threatening and confrontational and may work with puppies but other books warn against that approach with agressive dogs as it will incite them to attack and bite.

There are better books out there pass on this.

This is a very good book for training yourself to talk to dogs.

I have been a dog trainer for many years. This is one of two books that I suggest to my clients. So much common sense with a dash of humor. Easy to read and implement to your training program. Great book.

Big suprise, dogs know that we aren't dogs. The gig is up, dogs don't relate to us the way they relate to dogs. Get a book that really teaches you how dogs think and learn.

I'm not Jewish but I loved this. Sent to a Jewish friend who said they really identified with the book

Very dry humor, but right on point. I recommend it to psychologists to help understand jewish guilt.

Very cute point of view, if a little much at times. May I recommend, "Yiddishe Mamas: The Truth About the Jewish Mother" for an eye-popping, serious, yet entertaining, and absorbing look at this maligned stereotype.

This was a great book - very easy to read and extremely funny!
I bought this for my kindle but am going to get a hardcopy for a co-worker- she is raising a Jewish dog and doesn't even know it!

Very few books make me laugh out loud as frequently as this one did. I especially loved the training lessons, and am impressed with what brilliant actors they found to portray the dogs in the evocative photos that illustrate each step of the program. I eagerly await the sequel, How to Raise a Jewish Cat.

I have bought this book as soon as I've bought my labrador, and she is still alive... I'm just joking... I have the female labrador and this book really helped me to teach her some manners and right now I have a great dog that can be with me wherever I go. If I go to the coffee shop she is with me, if I go to the beach she is with me and I have no problems with her.

When I bought my little yellow lab puppy, I searched the internet and scoured reviews to buy the best book to prepare me for my new endeavor. I purchased this book, and I am sad to say, I was a little disappointed. It barely skims the surface of each topic, and did not prepare me to be a first-time puppy owner, or a first-time lab owner. I highly recommend Barron's "Training Your Labrador Retriever". I just bought it (my puppy is three months old) and I wish I had bought it first - it has much more information on how to handle your new puppy!

Cool book. I'm a lab retriever owner and loved the information from the book- brought me up to date on everything I should know about this breed...

This book was easy to read. It had a lot of general information about all dogs. It had really good training tips.

On December 11, 2006 I adopted a 7 week old lab puppy who needed a home. So, as a retired teacher, I needed a guide! Walton's book is practical and well written to help new, or experienced,pet owners. It has practical tips and humorous insights that make it easy to read and full of useful information. Lucky, my lab, is growing happy and healthy and I am not tearing my hair out trying to figure things out on my own.

Love this book, gets you to think in terms of plant groupings & not just on a singular level.

I was looking for a book that would give me a comprehensive guide to xeriscaping with native plants. This book contains one section that approaches my needs but is more of an overview over the native plants of the many diverse vegetation zones of the states. For what it is, it is a nice book. Just not a match for me.

This book is a must have for the California native gardener. I'd say the book's biggest strength is in its' inspiration- contains nice photographs of natural landscapes and gardens modeled after them. It groups plants by communities which is nice, though maybe hard to do. I know I live in an area which doesn't fit exactly into of any of the communities they list, but I can still get the idea they are trying to convey, and look around at what is in my community. California is so diverse you almost want a bunch of more specific and in-depth books for different areas inside California, but I guess maybe those areas of interest are too small to sell enough books to make it worth the while.

It does a good job listing different kinds of plants, my only complaint with this book is that I would have liked more pictures accompanying each plant for which information is given- because you really can't tell from the brief physical description what the plant looks like. As someone else has mentioned, this book is best paired with California Native Plants For The Garden. However, this complaint should be taken with a grain of salt, for designing a California native garden I think this book is the best on the market. Together, these two books provide the backbone to build your California native plant book collection around.

-We need more books like this to make Native Gardening more amenable. What "Landscapers' Challenge" did for Landscaping, this book will hopefully start to do to open up the still rather arcane world of Native Plants. It is practical and full of detailed, appropriate, high quality photographs of sample materials. Visually on par with "Landscape Plants for Western Regions" by Perry.

This book is excellent, with many good photographic examples of complete native landscape. It also set for an excellent philosophy for landscape design for the both the use of native and non-native plants. However it really shouldn't be thought of as a complete source for native gardening. I would also suggest that you pick up 'California Native Plants for the Garden' by Carol Bornstein, David Fross, and Bart O'Brien. Even between these two books all of the possibilities for beautiful California native plants and landscapes created using them have not yet been fully explored, but these books are an excellent start.

This is the classic story where a girl comes home from a school trip and tells her mother what happened - but backwards and forwards in that roundabout way kids have, skipping half the details. Her mother has to try to fill in the gaps that way.

The illustrations are a riot. This one is definitely a keeper.

The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash

This book is a must read for anyone who wants to laugh at the round about way kids tell stories, taking you on a winding and tiring road that makes you put the story pieces together in a straight line. I originally bought this book when our son was very young, and recently re-purchased it (he is now 16) to get a chuckle out of his long winded, end-to-beginning way of telling stories!

This is a true children's classic, and I don't care that it was not written back in the far day with cutesy pictures. This tells a great story in a "backwards" format where what should have been a simple explanation becomes worse and worse as more details are brought in. The illustrations are amazing and hilarious and do more than their part in telling this charming story. This is a great way to show logic and sequence and more kids need to know this story!

I'm 21 and I still love this book. Maybe it's not exactly a comedy routine, but it's so much fun; you have to smile reading it.

I liked this because the boa ate the wash. My favorite character is Jimmy. You should read this book because it is a really good book.