Pet Books

So many of us adopt a dog and then find out that he/she is aggressive toward other dogs while out walking. I appreciated learning the word "reactive" because it was so apt. This book should be in the hands of everyone who adopts a dog, particularly an adult dog from a shelter. I figured out how to manage without the book but loved reading Brown's book as a check on how well I handled my dog's spontaneous eruptions whenever he spotted another canine anywhere near. I wish I had read this book at the time I most needed it. My 50 pound ruffian still erupts when another dog gets in his face, but now I know what to do. This is a slim easy-to-read manual that gets right to the heart of the problem, explains it, and tells you what to do. And it works.

I bought the book to help me understand a dog I had adopted who had severe issues. I was on the verge of seperating her from the rest of the family before I read this book. Now with a better understanding of why she has these behavior issues and how best to deal with them, owner and dog along with the other dogs in the home all live happily together. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who has a dog with behavior issues and truly a desire to work through them. I gave it four stars only because it did not address every problem my dog had.

I read "Scaredy Dog" feeling overwhelmed with my newly adopted reactive dog. The book clearly explained what was going on with my dog, and the step-by-step way I needed to work with her to overcome her reactive behavior. I was very pleased with the common-sense approach and would recommend this book to anyone struggling with a reactive or aggressive dog. I would also recommend "On Talking Terms With Dogs: Calming Signals" by Turid Rugaas. It helped to explain what kind of signals I was sending my dog when she reacted to other dogs, and how to send the correct signals to calm down the situation.

I read this book right before meeting with a client with a reactive dog and the little bit I learned was critical.

Very good information in dealing with the difficult reactive dog. Not a textbook, but an easily read paperback.

Interesting reading. Many stories to make you wonder if there may really be an afterlife, and which can contact this life. Very helpful to read about other's experiences after losing one's one pets.

This is a comforting book for someone who has lost a beloved pet. The author believes wholeheartedly that pets also have souls and that often they are able to return and comfort us after they die. This book was given to me after the death of an animal and I purchased this copy for my sister when she experienced a loss.

I cannot begin to say what a wonderful book this is! Having lost a precious companion (Tyson my cat - tragically hit by a car), Ive read a lot of books on pet loss. This book was by far the most helpful. Kim Sheridan is a talented heartfelt writer and her collection of theories and stories are reassuring and heartwarming. I was incredibly lost before reading this book, and since reading it my life is forever changed - for the better! My heart, body, mind and soul have been transformed and I now know that there really is no such thing as death because the afterlife is very real. I am so grateful for Kim to share her experiences and to write this wonderful book, and I have even bought more copies to share with people that have also lost a beloved creature. I cannot say enough good things about this book. If you or someone you know has lost someone special, this book is an absolute MUST READ! 5+ stars to Kim Sheridan!!!

I absolutely loved this book. It was a great help to me during my time of grief. This book would make a wonderful gift to anyone who has recently or ever lost a pet. I look forward to future books by this author.

This book was not only healing but an inspiration that led my husband and I to animal rescue work. Working with local shelters and rescue groups, we provide a final home and end-of-life care for small animals that are too emotionally or physically ill to be successfully adopted into the average household. Our current "furry crew" consists of rabbits, chinchillas, fancy rats, gerbils, a mouse, a dwarf hamster, as well as the resident matriarch, our white-face cockatiel Pheonix.

This book is riddled with mistakes and misinformation. The CT, PET and NRC guidline sections are particularly weak. It is difficult to trust anything in this book, so I have had to rely on other sources for accurate information and studying for the boards.

The book is in perfect condition and is everything that they said it would be, but I paid for a specific shipping date to be sure that I would receive it in the amount of time I need it, but the book was received one day late and they gave me some lame excuse as to where the book was and why it was late...plus there was some stupid labeling thing that stated that the book was in stock which apparently means that they have it but it is going to take and extra 1 or 2 days on top of the shipping that you paid for so be ready to wait, but there is nothing on the website that informs the customers about that...I am satisified with the book but not the service and the run around I received from the company!

Great book. Lots of color pictures. Well written. It doesn't have that COLLEGE TEXTBOOK language going on where you feel like a peasant trying to figure out what the usual jargon MEANS.

only downfall is that it, like all college textbooks, is expensive.

Nothing new here, lots of talk very little instruction. No new ways of
teaching and no basics, just assumming you know

I bought this book about 2 months ago. My female dog already knows some triks, but in this book i also found some new that are interesting for my dog. She is really learning fast and i didn't have any idea what else could i learn her.

Regards,
Petra

I have learned so much about teaching a pup easy tricks with this book. My dog learned to ring the bell to go potty. It was easy for this dummy to pick up the concepts and pick the ones I was willing to commit to (cuz it does take practice). The pups love the attention and the stimulation. I wish my mom had a book like this to train me....Really..the book gives great tips on training tricks, but also gives information on understanding and managing dog behavior in general. I highly recommend it.

Sarah Hodgson does a great job of giving step-by-step instructions for training tricks, something that is harder to do than it looks! Everything in here is dog friendly and fun. I taught my dogs several of these tricks, and we made up a few new ones based on what we'd learned.

I wish that there was more content to the book, though. Perhaps 75% of it is filler. There are whole chapters on feeding, medical care and basics like sit, down and stay. Certainly, all of these topics are important, but they have only tangential relevance to trick training.

There are several other filler chapters about dog sports. Why fill 50-odd pages with brief overviews of skijoring, carting and flyball? Each of these sports has more than a few good books that readers can refer to if they're interested. Being a Border Collie owner in Texas, I have no use for info on the Iditarod!

I would much rather have a smaller volume filled with stuff that I want to read. All of this filler dilutes the book, and makes it harder to pick out the valuable info.

I'm teaching my dog some of the tricks from this book. The book helps you understand how dogs learn and develops the tricks quicker than I thought my dog was willing to learn. The only disagreement I have is the author uses a clicker, but nothing in the book says you really have to have one

The book is perhaps of historical interest and contains some adequate illustrations that may help you recoginize some genera. It is, however, fairly useless for identification to the species level.

I am a professional ecologist and spend at least 100 days a year in the field characterizing vegetation communities and plant species. It is difficult to tell which part of the country this book would be best suited for, as it would be considered incomplete in the areas I have used it in (Northern and Southern Rockies, Black Hills, Intermountain West and Northern Great Plains). I found it's treatment of rushes especially wanting. This book has made it to the field with me only a few times and was seldom used then. The most redeeming quality of this book is it's size, which can easily fit into a back pocket, but when it's taken out you will probably not be able to key the more difficult and uncommon graminiods found in the U.S.

Decent book, the sketches are very helpful for attempting to key out species.

This book is suitable for a first introduction to the grasses and their relatives, but nothing more. The other reviewers here are correct when they say that the book is of limited use for serious work, but then I have those books too, and they're about 900 pages long and weigh many pounds, and don't travel well. The treatment of carex or the sedges is limited as people have said, but carex has many species and a small book like this just isn't going to cut it, but as I said, professional level graminology books are going to weigh even more than your usual taxonomic book because just the grass family itself has about 14,000 species.

The illustrations are well done, though, and there is some knowledge to be gleaned from the book. But use it as a stepping stone to other more advanced works on the grasses. The four volume work by the Smithsonian on the grasses of America is one of the big, weighty one that I was referring to, and that's worth acquiring if you're serious. These are large format volumes and very heavy, so the problem there is that they don't travel well.

For helping you learn about the grasses, I would recommend you buy Agnes Chases's wonderful little book, A First Book of Grasses, to learn about them first. She takes a conceptual, top-down approach, teaching you the basic concepts of grass structure on which the keys are ultimately based, and after that, you can start using the keys with much more confidence. For example, starting from the premise that the grass spikelet is a reduced, leafy, flowering branch, she leads you from the most basic spikelets, such as those in Festuca, to the most modified or complex ones that show the greatest deviation from the basic spikelet plan. After reading her book through several times, I found I could identify many grasses to the genus level just by eyeballing them, and then I could drill down to the species from there.

The bottom line is that becoming a good field graminologist is just something that takes special study and effort. I learned to be able to key out just about anything in the group in about a month of intensive study of the books, plus several hours a day working in the field. And by "the field," I mean the sand lots near my house, and several local parks, and people's front yards. The nice thing about the grasses is that even an apparently dull, boring sand lot devoid of pretty flowers or trees can provide you with hours of fun trying to identify the grasses. It can be learned but it's something you'll probably need to allot some separate time to from the rest of your work and/or studies, but you can get a significant leg up on the topic just working around your own neighborhood.

great drawings depicting mst abundant species although they just go to descriptions for the more rare species.

good price, good on grasses less on sedges and rushs.

A very good book that has problems and solutions for issues with horses. All of his books that I have read have been well worth reading and this one is no exception.

This is a book for someone who is already a horseman and is looking for clearer ways to think about his horsemanship. While probably not for everyone I find this type of book much more helpful than the "do this and then do that" type of material.
If you liked this book you'll like True Horsemanship Through Feel by Bill Dorrance and Leslie Desmond

Mark Rashid really has a way with words! And with horses.
He makes you feel right there with him, and learning everything
right along with him. Very enjoyable reading.

Easy to read and understand makes all horse people really open their eyes!! I just got the book this afternoon and am almost finished with it a definate MUST READ for horse owners!!!!

Mark Rashid's story format is very mindful of my days under the spell of cowboy and farrier story tellers. Mr. Rashid is absolutely generous in getting a point across without shaking a finger or being cryptic or evasive. He softly delivers the idea and lets the reader sift out their own application.

I love the 'old man'. I actually think I might have known him, in probably about 20 different people who counseled me in my early horse days. Whether the old man is/was a real person is superfilious as he functions as a terrific metaphor providing the conduit for learning and understanding.

But,actually he really is a very, very real personality in the cowboy and farrier world at large.

Well written and highly informative, especially regarding the politics of the delightful new country that is Belize. Great background reading if you're planning a trip there - and while there, be sure in include a visit to the Belize Zoo - absolutely amazing!

First, a disclaimer -- I'm related to Bruce Barcott, and so was preinclined to like this book because of family and locale references I would recognize. However, this book was much much more than I expected. I'll mention just two things I especially liked about this book. First, it is a true page-turner. I didn't know how the dam project would end, and Bruce's non-fiction story-telling kept me on the edge of my couch throughout. Secondly, I really liked the amount of somewhat tangential information Bruce wove into the main story. He would veer off on some interesting and helpful side road, but always bring the reader back quickly to the fascinating main story and players in the drama. I look forward to the next explanatory journalism that Bruce undertakes.

Barcott does a marvelous job of weaving the diverse elements and characters involved in this story into a comprehensive narrative. Better than that, he makes what could be very tedious legal proceedings a stimulating read. Well, the reading is stimulating, as is the subject matter. The situation itself, an instance of convergence on Belize of global forces enacting the doom of another unique wildlife habitat, is less than edifying.

Barcott obviously sides with the environmental forces that ally themselves to fight the erection of a dam that will flood the nesting site of the largest scarlet macaw population in Central America, estimated at less than 200 birds. At times his partiality causes blindness to perspectives he does not share, but overall he does an excellent job of presenting the reasoning of all major stake holders.

Barcott chose his subject well. The story is almost like a novel, with corrupt colonialism-playing politicians, heroic but flawed ex-patriot Americans, big international environmental players and corporations, local businessmen caught in the middle, and even the Law Lords of the British Privy Council. The combatants on both sides are committed, highly motivated, and adept at working the system.

All told, this is a very well-written and enlightening telling of one of many current battles being waged over our planet's last remaining wild lands - what's at risk and what's being done to both exploit and to preserve the remaining pockets of natural diversity.

"At times the earth's fate seems so dire and inexorable that I'm tempted to throw up my hands and say to hell with it." The words are by Bruce Barcott, and they reflect what a lot of people feel when faced with global warming, the current destruction of species that many biologists think is a "sixth extinction crisis" (a previous one wiped out the dinosaurs), or the ruin of natural regions for profit. And yet, Barcott found a story of optimism and hope (even if they might have been eventually misplaced) when he heard about Sharon Matola, better known in her adopted country Belize as the "Zoo Lady". She has become an authority on the scarlet macaw, and led a remarkable effort against strong odds to keep the macaw's only known habitat in Belize from being flooded behind the proposed Chalillo Dam on the Macal River. Barcott tells Matola's amazing story in _The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw: One Woman's Fight to Save the World's Most Beautiful Bird_ (Random House). It's a story that might have remained obscure, but it becomes an epic in the way it is told, and it is also a legal thriller as Matola and her cohorts pursue one effort after another within the Byzantine Belize legal and political system.

Matola has quite a history. After leaving a marriage by running away to the circus, she wound up in the early eighties helping to film a nature documentary in Belize. The movie featured orphaned animals, and when it was over, she had a jaguar, an ocelot, a puma, and some exotic birds, little money, and no job. What to do besides paint a sign on scrap wood saying "BELIZE ZOO"? As the nationally-known Zoo Lady, Matola has gotten the populace of Belize interested in its natural resources. There are only two hundred macaws on the Macal River where they make their nests, and a dam would not only destroy the macaws, of course, but drive out other animals like tapirs, pumas, river otters, and howler monkeys. Close evaluation of the economics of the dam indicate that it would result in higher energy rates, not lower. The geological analysis that preceded the dam's construction was full of lies. It claimed that there was granite upon which to build the dam, and there was none. The engineers even arranged to have a map of the site lose by eraser a geologic fault line that could endanger it. In Barcott's words, "the dam was a fiasco: environmentally devastating, economically unsound, geologically suspect and stinking of monopoly profiteering." In the middle of the campaign, the government released its vengeful plan to place a garbage dump adjacent to Matola's zoo, another battle she had to fight. She got the help of the Natural Resources Defense Council, the powerful environmental legal team in Washington, and the battle ranged through the local courts and even to the mysterious Privy Council in London. Barcott takes in each legal battle and financial tomfoolery, producing a book that has a great deal of suspense to it.

I won't spoil the suspense by telling the outcome. "The odds are against us", Matola says late in the book, and gets the answer from an environmental-law solicitor, "The odds are always against us." Matola continues at her zoo, and has taken up, among other battles, the protection and reinstatement into the wild of the endangered harpy eagle. Dams continue to be planned and built, many financed outside the nations that will hold them, and placed in third-world areas containing poor people who won't benefit, and politicians who will. Concentrating the story on Matola makes for a brilliant narrative, spangled with instructive thoughts on matters ecological, financial, and political. In summing up at the end, Barcott writes, "People like Sharon are rare and strange and sometimes aggravating... These people aren't perfect. They aren't simple heroes. They are complex human beings. And we need them. Because without them the world would be lost." Barcott's fine book gives us a deep portrait of Sharon Matola, and she gives us one more reason not to give up on humans and their interactions with their planet just yet.

THE BEST FIELD GUIDE TO BELIZE.
EVER.


You probably won't find Bruce Barcott's The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw in the travel book or nature guide sections of your local bookstore or of Amazon.com, but it just may be the best field guide to Belize you'll ever read.

Ostensibly the story of Sharon Matola, founder of the amazing Belize Zoo, and her campaign to defeat the Chalillo Dam on the Macal River in Western Belize and to save the nesting ground of what are believed to be the last 200 Scarlet Macaws in Belize, it's actually a 313-page crash course on Belizean culture, society and politics.

It's also the most riveting, gossipy and entertaining book on the country since Richard Timothy Conroy's 1997 memoir of British Honduras in the 1950s, Our Man in Belize.

Barcott names names. He pulls no punches. As an American writer - he's a contributing editor to Outside Magazine and the author of a book on Mount Rainier, among other things - he doesn't have to worry about making a living in Belize or raising a family there. He points to the high-level corruption that Lord Michael Ashcroft, the British-Belizean politician and entrepreneur, helped introduce in Belize and who "turned the sovereign nation of Belize into his own tax-free holding company," to the fast-buck shenanigans of the second generation of People's United Party politicians, to the seamy Dark Side of the PUP's "Minister of Everything" Ralph Fonseca, to the shrill shilling of party spokesman Norris Hall, to the fellow-traveling of the Belize Audubon Society and even to the bumbling efforts of some well-intended but barely competent Belizeans.

I've been banging around Belize for more than 17 years, but Barcott's book is full of insights I've missed or didn't understand. It took Barcott to tell to me why so many Belizean politicians wear guayaberas and other open-neck shirts (to set themselves apart from their English colonial masters who slaved in the heat in coats and ties). Barcott explained why and how the Belize Audubon Society, which one would think would be on the side of the at-risk Scarlet Macao, helped get the Chalillo Dam approved (the Belize Audubon Society, under President José Pepe Garcia, at that time a quasi-arm of the Belize government, claimed the Scarlet Macao subspecies wasn't really endangered in Belize and that the habitat of the Macal River Valley was duplicated elsewhere in Belize.)

If there's a fault to Barcott's approach, it's that he relies heavily on the gringo side of the outsider-local divide so common in post-colonial countries, including Belize. Many of his primary sources - Matola, ex-Fleet Street newspaperman Meb Cutlack, Lodge at Chaa Creek co-owner Mick Fleming, butterfly expert Jan Meerman, geologist/dolomite miner Brian Holland and others -while long-time residents of Belize and in many cases Belize citizens -- will always be viewed by some Belizeans as expat, white perpetual tourists. Barcott tried twice to interview George Price, Belize's ascetic, incorruptible George Washington, but was turned away: "He's too busy," the retired Price's sister told him. We hear little or nothing directly from Said Musa, King Ralph or Lord Ashcroft.

It also bugs me that Barcott's publisher, Random House, didn't do a bloody index.

Sharon Matola comes across as a complex and sometimes exasperating woman, neither Joan of Arc nor Wangari Maathai. A fluent Russian speaker, a fungi expert, a former bikini-clad circus tiger trainer, the founder and miracle worker of "the best little zoo in the world," Matola, at the height of the anti-dam, pro-Scarlet Macao effort, almost forsake the battle. She became depressed and for a while, as a long-time Rolling Stones fan, turned her focus to a new campaign to get the city fathers of Dartford, a small working class town near London, to build a shrine to native sons Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

Even with Matola at her passionate best, the campaign to stop the dam failed, of course. With most of the economic and political power structures of Belize supporting the pork project, and the giant Canadian utility Fortis dead set on damming as much of the world as possible, there was never much chance it would succeed.

Tellingly, however, Matola did win the Battle of the Garbage Dump. Vindictive members of the government allegedly planned to put Matola in her place by building a dump at Mile 27 of the Western Highway, virtually next door to the Belize Zoo. After some clever maneuvering, some of it involving Britain's Princess Anne, the government backed down and decided to locate the egregious dump elsewhere.

One irony came too late for Barcott to include in his book. The environmental consulting company, Tunich-Nah Consultants, headed by José Pepe Garcia, the former Belize Audubon Society president, conducted the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for Ara Macao, the overblown planned development on the Placencia peninsula. Ara Macao, Spanish for Scarlet Macaw, received approval to build nearly 800 condos and villas, a marina, casino, 18-hole golf course and 400,000 sq. ft. commercial center, all this on a peninsula with no paved road access and a population of about 2,000. The beautiful, smart red parrots must have shuddered, as they searched for new nesting grounds in their fast-disappearing habitat.

In the end, though, Belize is Belize.

With a population of just 315,000, about that of a small provincial Canadian, U.S. or British city, everybody who is anybody knows everybody else, and it's hard to stay mad. As Barcott visits Belize for the last time in researching this book, in 2005, Matola is getting ready to attend a party at Beer Baron Barry Bowen's Belikin headquarters. Bowen, one of Belize's wealthiest men and the country's political check writer extraordinaire, had helped kick Matola's butt. Now, Barcott learned, it was time to kiss-kiss and make up. That's Belize for you.

..............

Review and Opinion by Lan Sluder

My dog loves to go places with me. A walk is his all time favorite, and he's always ready to jump in the car and just go -- I swear he knows the new from the old and always gets excited no matter what. Well, I had just about run out of new places to go with him and was starting to get a little bored when I heard about this book. It has opened up our world even more, and in doing so gave me the confidence to explore more with my best friend.

This is definately a book for the car or in my case, my dog's luggage!!! I found a bunch of parks in my area alone I didn't even know were there! I bought this because we take my dog everywhere and I wanted new places to go. This also covers areas where the Bay Area book stops. I even ended up sharing some parks with my friends who have dogs.

Bought this for myself, unfortunately just weeks before deciding to leave California and move to the East! Gave it as a gift to a close dog-lover friend who loved it. I think it is a great guide for finding out where all the dog-friendly places are. It would otherwise take years to figure all these things out on your own by simple trial-and-error and networking with dog people. Also great for socializing a new puppy (which is what I bought it for).

When I read all the stellar reviews for this book, I thought it was the perfect book for me. We have had our dog for two months, and are now venturing out to different places with her. We bought this book last night (and paid full price for it--fancy THAT) in anticipation of a free-roaming day trip today.

First, I do have to say that creating a comprehensive guide is exceedingly difficult. The number of hotels, restaurants and attractions you'd have to visit...well, it's mind-boggling. However, there are both good and bad points to this book, depending on what you're looking for.

Good Points:

1. Very detailed information about the parks, beaches and recreations areas, complete with an easy-to-read rating system (1 to 4 paws) and a clear indicator of off-leash venues (running dog icon). She also includes parking and entrance tips, park amenities that would appeal to your dog, what trails or areas are dog-accessible, etc. Very good listings. This is the main reason you'd want to buy this book.

2. Detailed information on SOME restaurants and hotels and basic information on others. Just thumbing through the book, it's clear that Maria's favorites get lots of detail. For instance, I was thumbing through the book and Roses's Cafe (page 486) in San Francisco gets a full 2/3 of a page. Of course, there was a story attached to that listing of how Maria was introduced to the place, and her experience with it. Other places just list that there is outdoor seating, dogs are allowed, etc. Your mileage may vary.

3. Coverage of the entire state. More breadth, less depth. However, you would think that the local area editions are more comprehensive. Nope. The Bay Area edition seems to have the same information contained in the California edition.

4. Doggie Diversions. Maria lists some great things to do with your dog aside from parks. Shopping, attractions, fun stuff to do. These are sometimes surprising.

5. Other information. I never knew that you could take a dog onto a San Francisco Muni bus or a Cable Car. Maria includes the requirements (muzzle, non-commute hours for Muni) and costs. I also never knew that Nordstrom's welcomes dogs. Dogs and shopping...oh boy!

Bad Points:

1. Only the parks are on the area map. Okay, so let's say you're in San Jose and need a place to stay, a place to eat, and a place to run your dog. You can look at the map and see where to run your dog, but how so you know where the restaurants are in conjunction to your dog park? Hm. GPS, I guess.

2. Could use more listings for hotels and restaurants. For instance, dogfriendly.com has 22 listings for restaurants in San Jose; the book has TWO. San Jose is a pretty big city, and the inclusion of only two restaurants is pitiful.

3. Place you can't take your dog. In some instances, Maria includes this info. For instance, you can't take your dog to California State beaches. Rats. However, I was thinking of going to Muir Woods yesterday, and the book didn't say whether dogs were allowed or not. This is a major attraction in Marin County. Perhaps Maria should consider a list of major attractions in tourist areas where dogs ARE and ARE NOT allowed. For instance, are dogs allowed on Pier 39 and Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco? Hm. I had to sleuth a bit and read the info on Aquatic Park and the RESTAURANT section...the info was there (the answer is yes).

4. Small nit pick: Listings should include name, address, phone number and THEN the info on why it's good. Sometimes the address info is buried within the text. Most times, it's at the end. A good editor would've made this a bit friendlier. It's a bit of a nit-pick, but it's annoying.

All in all, it's a decent book, but it has its flaws. I think it is better than many of the other books out there (better detailed info than dogfriendly.com's book, and rates each of the parks), but has fewer listings than others. I think it's worth your going to a store to check it out. Even with the good reviews here, I was a bit skeptical, and I needed to compare and contrast the book with others in person to make a final buying decision.

Swell book but WAY out of date. This is the 5th printing but I've been unable to verify that there is any new information since 1993. We used it on a trip last week and most of the places we checked out had changed their policy or had gone out of business.

This is another good book that I would recommend to those getting into this business. Good info and Ideas.

A professional dog-trainer, Veronica Boutelle is also the former Director of Behavior and Training at the San Francisco SPCA. In "How To Run A Dog Business: Putting Your Career Where Your Heart Is", she draws upon her many years of experience and expertise to show aspiring dog trainers wanting to start their own business how to analyze their market, set prices, and advertise their services; determine what licenses, insurance, and professional affiliations are needed; create systems that profitably streamline the business; and how to balance work demands with having a personal life. Exceptionally well written and superbly organized, "How To Run A Dog Business" is very highly recommended for aspiring professionals, as well as non-specialized general readers who enjoy the company and training of their canine companions.

I've been running a small dog training business for around 8 years now and after reading this book, have realized how many things I could be doing better. Her ideas are simple yet effective. This is a definite MUST READ if you're thinking of going into a dog related business or even if you're already in one!

I deal with alot of horse's, This book is a easy to understand and use in the feild. It is written in such a way that everyone can get something
out of it. If your just starting or an old waddie!

Great for all horse lovers from beginner to advance. It was easy to read and understand. It covered everything I wanted to learn & teach to my horses. I'll be using this book all through my training on my 4 yr. old Paint gelding. Great details!

Though I have not had a chance to sit down and read through it all, it appears to be very informative with a lot of pictures to help along the way. It will be a very handy tool to have around.

Excellent guide for anyone that needs help with spook proofing your horse. I am sure with persistence this book will pay off. You must have access to certain materials before you will be able to make it work (ex: mattresses, cones)

The idea of the book is good. In actuality, it is poorly written and not very helpful...unless you know absolutely nothing about horses. If you buy a horse that is difficult to train and easily spooked, you should already know the grand majority of information found in this book. I bought it and read the first couple chapters then skimmed through the rest. In my opinion, it's tedious and excessively wordy. It merely advocates patiently exposing your horse to various objects so that in time you desensitive your horse to things that could potentially spook it. Most horsepeople already know this. I was hoping for something more revealing and innovative.