Pet Books

Yeah, it's film centric but much of the information is great for digital too. If you are a wannabee, hobbiest nature photographer like myself, this is a great read.

All of John Shaw's books are great. There is some overlap between them as he goes over the basics but they are all worth a read for any aspiring nature photographer.

I learned a lot about exposure, composition, and lighting from this book, but it definitely is a "pre-digital era" publication, so if you're looking for anything specific to digital photography, better check elsewhere. Would seem to me that Mr. Shaw or a digital photographer could bring the equipment section (now titled "Equipment and Film") up to date by at least contrasting film and digital issues--here digital is not mentioned at all. The section on lenses, while very well written, loses pertinence since the majority of DSLR shooters are using cropped sensors. The reader is left to figure out the focal length equivalents to make sense of Mr. Shaw's sage advice.

Don't get me wrong, this man knows landscape photography, and the chapter entitled "The Landscape as Design" is like poetry: "First you must find a visually interesting subject. YOur goal is to present this subject to your audience in a pleasing composition..." He goes on and really hits the target in terms of what separates a good photograph from a great one.

This book is worth owning, I just wish it reflected more about how most people are shooting today, with digital technology!

This is a pretty good basic book with some great examples. I gave it only 4 stars because there are some other great books out there on Landscape Photography which I liked better than this one. John Shaw is a good author to explain the basics and sometimes you see him repeat what you read in the earlier chapters, for me I like it because it kind'a reminds you and you can remember it. This is important for the final shoot out day. ** Close-Ups in Nature ** is another great book from John Shaw and I love the theory and examples in this book.

This book influenced my outlook for the wide angle lenses, the use of Velvia, and polorizing filters. I now use all three liberally. Thanks John Shaw

This is very nice book with wonderful pictures and very practical advices.
I will recommend it to all semi-prof photographers and amateurs as well.

I loved this book. I don't read alot outside of work, but I really enjoyed this endearing book. I highly recommend it for all dog lovers!

Mr. O'Hurley is a talented writer and his observations on life through the eyes of dogs are thought-provoking. They made a lot of sense. And it's so funny. I think it's also touching that he wrote about the different dogs he had in his life and what they have taught him. The book is very encouraging and just like the title says, it's okay to miss the bed on the first jump.

I started to read the first few chapters, but lost interest in it after that.

the book is well written and gives information as to why dogs do what they do and how we can learn from it. reminds us to slow down and enjoy the simple things in life and to be ourself.

This is a very funny book with lots of true life experiences as well.
Plenty of value for the money.

This book is a much needed guide to bird sign and tracks. It complements Elbroch's guide to Animal sign. It is well written and informative.

This is a guide to identifying bird families or individual species by clues they leave behind of their presence. The title may appear, at first glance, to be a typo. It is not. As the authors explain on the first page: "Sign refers to all the possible signs of their passing: sign of feeding, gathering material for nesting, the nests or cavity holes themselves, pellets, droppings, feathers lost during molt, or kill sites."

This book appears to be packed with too much information for a beginner to digest. But its actually quite good for anyone who is interested in birds and would use such a book more than once or twice. The information is organized by types of sign - tracks, feathers, feeding signs, droppings, nests and roosts, etc., rather than by species. This allows you to read about whichever subject you're interested in and to take in the basics behind, say, interpreting signs of feeding, rather than getting bogged down by details specific to a certain species.

Due to the nature of the topic, the squeamish may not enjoy all the pictures. However, the pictures are certainly not as gruesome as they could have been.

In the introduction, one of the authors writes: "real tracking is bigger than one lifetime. Tracking, as our ancestors knew it, was a body of knowledge handed down from generation to generation. Each person added to this knowledge..." The authors clearly see themselves as a continuation if this process, referring to and giving credit to other excellent books, such a Rezendes' "Tracking and the Art of Seeing".

To my knowledge, this is the only book like this specific to birds. I feel this would be an excellent gift idea for that hard-to-buy-for bird watcher.

petervtamas@mail.com

Collaborative written by Mark Elbroch and Elanor Marks, Bird Tracks & Sign: A Guide To North American Species is a gorgeous birder's guide filled cover to cover with full-color photography on thick, glossy, sturdy paper. From bird trails and feathers to pellets and nest, bird signs of every shap, size and format are presented, described, and lavishly illustrated. Portable, authoritative, and "user friendly", Bird Tracks & Sings is very highly recommended for North American birdwatchers and aspiring ornithologists of all ages and skill levels.

I really got excited when I saw this reviewed in National Wildlife magazine. I often see bird tracks or even a nest when out walking but didn't know how to translate that into useful information. This book clues me in on the bird that matches those signs.
The author, a renowned tracker, spent 14 months, 12 hours a day studying bird tracks, scats, nests, feeding signs and roosts plus collected information from museums for this book.
Users of this guide may also want to try:
-Flattened Fauna: A Field Guide to Common Animals of Roads, Streeets and Highways
-Scats and Tracks of the Southeast (also guides for other areas)
-A Field Guide to Desert Holes
-A Key-Guide to Mammal Skulls and Lower Jaws
-That Gunk on Your Car (insects)
Bird lovers now have another tool to identify birds.

Call me cynical but in the last twenty years I have seen field guide publishers recylce the same old info over and over again, just adding a new tabulature or color photos. The text is minimal and always leaves me wanting more.

Not so with this book! Mark and Eleanor have created something that goes well beyond any field guide currently on the market concerning birds! This stuff is new and never before seen except for experienced birders in the field. It is easy to use, fun to use and it will help anyone learn more about birds, their habits and sign. The photography is stunning as well.

I cannot over-recommend this book. Go get it, now!

Ricardo Sierra

Easy to read book with lots of color pictures of goldens in every day life. Well organized. Helpful hints in blue boxes that catch your attention. Goldens are smart dogs who can easily think of things to do when bored; book has helpful information on counteracting this problem. Would recommend this book as a good first book for anyone interested in goldens.

An excellent oveview for starting a pointing dog puppy. Uses techniques from various trainers. Highly recommend.. It works too!

The basics of this book are exellent although sections of book such as callback pens are not applicable to new zealand

I ordered this book in hopes of receiving an up to date training book. I was somewhat disappointed. The book looks like it is a new updated training book; and even states inside that it contains the authors older material with new updated training methods, but I found it to be only dated marerial. The pictures are from the 70's, and not good ones at that. I do feel like the methods would work for a person training a pointer; I was trying to obtain information in the training of a lab for upland game, and this book was lacking in that reguards. If you are looking for a newer material, you may want to check other sources. I am trying The Labrador Shooting Dog next.

This book is good. It provides some basic technics on methods of training. I personally prefered "how to help gun dogs train themselves". But, this was a good book with good training ideas.

This book is GREAT! My husband got me interested in training bird dogs after going on a quail hunt recently. I reviewed the books on Amazon that were available on the subject and chose this one to get an idea of what bird dog training would entail. I was skeptical that I could actually do this. I am hooked. This book made so much since to me! I am ready to get started with a puppy today. It is a lot of work I know but this book is an excellent way to get started. I know it will be an excellent resource after I get my pup. I have talked with a few folks that actually raise and train pointing dogs and they say I'm on the right track. I highly recommend this book.

It is a great book, answering everything an owner has to know for an African Grey parrot.

This little book is packed with information about how to care for, and be a good companion to, the incredibly intelligent African Grey parrot. It's a very good how-to with lots of advice and information - and more importantly, for those considering bringing one of these amazing birds into their families, it provides a good synopsis about the nature of the lifetime commitment that comes with that decision.

So please - if you're a new Grey owner, or just thinking about buying one, pick up this book. You'll be glad you did.

Amazon is a very Good service .. no waiting around ;)
an this book ha ha was very Nice only problem was so Nice I Ordered it twice an sent a copy to Mother as We both have African Grey Parrots an She said Richard
.. thats the Book I already sent to You
so Yes very Nice Book !

Book give us all knowledge to start take care of african grey parrots.

Very good Book

I recently read Maggie's book and was very delighted with it. I have never owned a bird, but have always been fascinated by them. This book really put some things in perspective for a complete novice on the nature of these birds. I think it is a very good guide for those of us who know absolutely nothing about them but would like to. Maggie was recently a guest on our online radio show and it was wonderful to hear her birds talking in the background as we spoke and listen to her share her complete love of and admiration for these wonderful birds.

This book has beautiful photography to go along with Maggie's simple to understand and implement writing in this book and I highly recommend it.

We found the book difficult to use as the color plates are centrally located and separate from written discriptions. Further it's size filled too much "valuable real estate" in the minimal luggage we travel with and the weight did not justify it's helpfulness. We saw several birds in the Yucatan - verified by our Mayan guide - that were not included in this book. Even had we listened to one recommendation which was "tear the book apart and take only the parts you think you may need", I would have been left wondering if the birds we saw (but not included in the guide) had been left in the portion of the book we didn't take with us. I'm still seeking a better bird book for this region.

Good pictures and information but a very heavy book to carry around while birding. Perhaps the written information could be seperated from the pictures.

This book seems to be a pretty thorough look at the birds of Mexico. It is a little difficult to use, but it does have a lot of information.

I think few would question that this is the definitive guide to Mexican birds. Few would characterize it as the ideal field guide at 850-plus pages. For portable guides birders in Mexico can use the Peterson-Chalif guide (somewhat dated, but still useful), _The Birds of Mexico and Adjacent Areas_ by Ernest P. Edwards from 1998 (also quite useful and perhaps a bit underrated, though the sequence of some illustrations seems a bit baffling at times), and Van Perlo's illustrated checklist (not really a field guide in my view).

But nothing compares to Howell & Webb. And with some real bargains on used (even worn) copies occasionally found at Amazon, one can (with the help of a copy-printing service) obtain a portable guide that works quite well in the field. It's not a new practice and I may be covering ground already trod by other reviewers, but this is how I did it.

The copy service I used went with a small wire spiral for the plates and a large plastic spiral for the text. The Plates Volumes consists of:

- a laminated copy of the front cover
- a copy of the Color Plates table of contents
- a copy of the Abbreviations page
- all plates
- a laminated copy of the back cover

The Text Volume (kept in the car or hotel room for reference) includes:

- the front cover
- all text pages, including Appendices, Bibliography, and Index
- the back cover

Don't do this with your only copy of this book. My first edition copy is intact and used for reference at home.

This massive volume has a lot of information but, for me, too few color plates or drawings to be a useful FIELD guide, though I suppose it might not purport to be that. I've taken it to the Yucatan twice and found the lack of plates to be frustrating and unsatisfactory, especially on the Gulf coast, from the swamps around Progresso west to Celestun, areas in which species are varied and abundant. It renders the book more a work of scholarship than a friendly field guide, as previous reviewers have noted. Most of the birds I've seen have not been illustrated and positive identification has required consulting additional works, which can slow things down quite a bit in the field, when a bird other than a wader often is here and now it's gone. The authors admit, in their introduction, that while "the color plates are . . . usually one's first reference," the plates in this book will not suffice, particularly in winter. Indeed, the book illustrates only non-migrants: "We have opted to devote plate space to [basically non-migratory] Middle American species." Imagine a "Birds of Eastern" or "Eastern and Central North America" limited to non-migrants, which would be inconceiveable and could not sell. That's what this book represents. It's great for what it is, which is not a field guide, and toting a supplementary library is not my idea of a jaunt in the jungle, swamp/wetland or shore. Plus a good field guide should not weigh 3.4 pounds. I've observed birds from Vietnam to Cape May and I don't like this wonderful book.

This book gave good information and was easy to read. This is definitely more of a book for beginners though. I wanted to get a bunch of ideas for lessons to do, and I did, but a lot of times I felt like the book just kept going on and on explaining the same thing in ten different ways. I would have liked the explaining of how and why you do each type of lesson to be more short and to the point. But all in all, I would have still bought the book because it did have a lot of good information.

This was a great book for a first time foal owner. I could see how it would be useful to the "old pro" as well. Very informative, with tips and hints from birth to backing. I will be sure to keep it on hand over the next few years!

I bought this book for my daughter. She lost her older hunter horse and decided she didnt want another made horse. She could never replace him so she wanted a foal and to raise it herself. Well Bella is only 7 months old and a handful but by using this and one other book she has already taught her to lead. Just a few minutes for a couple of days and using these techniques she has had small successes. this is one of the better books that I could find for it was easy to understand the directions and pictures. It is one of the better books to purchase if you plan on raising a baby too. John Lyons is other book that is a great one for guidance.

Great book! If you are serious about ultrasound than this is the book to buy!

It is easy to read and great to start studying ultrasound in cats, dogs and horses!

Nyland's Veterinary Diagnostic Ultrasound is an invaluable addition to my hospital library. I was initially introduced to this volume as a fourth-year Veterinary Student in Radiology/Ultrasound. After graduation, I made sure to purchase a personal copy for reference in private practice. It is filled with easy-to-understand illustrations of different imaging views of the heart and abdominal organs. I recommend keeping a copy of Nyland within easy reach of the clinic ultrasound for quick-reference during scans.

This book has helped me so much! I began reading and studying it at age 10 when I was still a C2, and throughout my ratings and progression it has answered my endless questions and supplemented the material from the D and C manuals. While the B, HA, and A manual is very informative, it should only be read by those who can thoroughly comprehend and extract inportant information from the text. I was always a very mature reader, but at times I even had to reread pages to be sure I understood correctly. This book has helped me through my B, HA, and just recently helped me pass my A, so this book is the best way to go to becoming a good rider!

Thank you so much for making this Manual!
Love,
Anna

This book is very informitave and helped me alot. I am only a D-2 but it still answered alot of the questions I had. It covers everything from teaching horsemanship to jumping and yes even vet care. The jumping part helped me to understand alot of things that helped me train my horse. I recomend that you buy it.

This is the third of a series of three volumes of the United States Pony Clubs' Manual of Horsemanship. While similar in scope to the British Horse Society's one-volume book of the same title, the USPC has taken the approach that the horseperson can read one volume when starting out, a second when they have assimilated a bit more, and finally this third volume when they feel like they know just about everything there is to know. I can promise you that no matter how much practical, useful information you had before you pick up this volume, you will put it down having acquired much more. While it is very readable, it is not a "page-turner". I found that I would read two to five pages, go off and think about it for a day or two, and come back again for more. If you liked the first two volumes in the series, you will like this one. If you approach this book without reading the first two volumes, you will probably find the book incomplete and coverage spotty. The book is written to match the Pony Club standards, and provides the necessary information to advance to the highest ratings -- remembering that the higher ratings in Pony Club build on the lower ones. It is hard to believe that anyone in America today could consider themselves a serious horseman without digesting this volume. Bravo to the USPC for the whole series!!

This book is great for learning about the body systems of a horse.It also briefly explains how to manage a stable with things such as how to make a stall have good drinage. It is the best book to get if you want to meet the requirements of Pony Club levels A, HA, or B. But I recommend getting this book only if you are at the advanced levels in riding and horsemanship because otherwise you will find that the book overwhelms you with information.I may suggest that people buying this book should consider buying Pony Club Manuals on levels C and D before or perhaps in addition to this manual.Overall, a good book for learning about the horse.

This is a great follow-on to the first two volumes of the USPC manuals. Together, they are the best "curriculum" on horsemanship available, bar none. (I say that, owning 900 horse books! The three USPC Manuals are the most useful of all.) As another reviewer said, it's not "complete"--one should read the first two volumes, first, as, like the USPC Standards of Proficiency, the Manuals build upon each other. I am a long-time riding instructor (over 22 years), especially with the US Pony Clubs. The three-volumes of the USPC Manuals would be a solid foundation of a good equestrian library.