Childproofing Your Dog: A Complete Guide to Preparing Your Dog for the Children in Your Life
by Brian Kilcommons
from Grand Central Publishing
Bandit: The Heart-Warming True Story of One Dog's Rescue from Death Row
by Vicki Hearne
from Skyhorse Publishing
The Wolf: The Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species
by L. David Mech
from University of Minnesota Press
Since the dawn of history, no other living thing (save, possibly, the snake) has been as reviled by humankind as the wolf. Still, wolves and people have been drawn to each other since the beginning. Canis lupus bounds through our folklore, howls in our dreams, and--occasionally--competes with us on the hunt. As one zoologist imagines it: "Through the cold of winter the wolf made music in the mysterious darkness and sometimes, in curiosity, sat just beyond the dwindling circle of firelight and watched." The curiosity was mutual; this is the feared animal, ironically, that gave rise to man's best friend. Yet only recently has science begun to understand these complex social mammals. Enter biologist L. David Mech. Years of research during the 1960s in Michigan's Isle Royale National Park provided Mech with a level of firsthand knowledge shared by few in the field. In 1970 he compiled his findings (updated in 1980) into the preeminent document of its kind. Thomas McNamee, author of The Return of the Wolf to Yellowstone, calls the book the "best single source of information on wolf biology," and refers to its author as "the undisputed king of wolf research." When government officials in the early 1990s decided to embark on an ambitious project to reintroduce wolves into their former range of Yellowstone National Park, they called on Mech's expertise. All this is to say that, if you want to learn about wolves, you cannot ignore this seminal work or its author. Chapters cover wolf evolution, range, and physiology; society and pack behavior; reproduction; hunting and predator-prey relationships; and the species' uncertain future. Like any self-respecting scientist, Mech includes all the hard data, but he presents his work in an engaging manner that is accessible to a broader audience, drawing heavily on anecdotes and personal experience.
"Many people strongly dislike the wolf," Mech writes, "others rush to its defense. But no one denies that the animal is strong, powerful, intelligent, keen, and dynamic." While persecution by man has severely restricted its current status, the tide is turning, thanks to education and conservation efforts. After all, a night without a howl echoing somewhere across the landscape would surely be a colder, less alive night. --Langdon Cook
Planet Dog: A Doglopedia
by Sandra Choron
from Houghton Mifflin
For some people, the world spins on a slightly different axis, and life
is often dictated by a cold nose nudging for a predawn outing, a
stray dog hair in your coffee, and that daily race to get home after a long
day's work and be greeted by slobbery kisses.
Planet Dog is a jam-packed book of more than three-hundred lists
about raising, loving, and living in the world with man's best friend.
Combining the practical, the informative, and the entertaining, this
unique encyclopedic treatment addresses not only the care of dogs
but also their culture, their competitions, their breeding and behavioral
characteristics—even dog people themselves—all in a feisty and easily
accessible guide.
The Labrador Shooting Dog
by Mike Gould
from Clinetop Press
This is destined to be the classic work on training the Labrador retriever as an all-around hunting dog. Noted breeder and trainer Mike Gould takes us from the very beginning-selecting a puppy for athleticism, "birdyness," conformation, intelligence, and personality-to the end result, a top-flight, do-anything, go-anywhere Labrador shooting dog. Mike teaches his special techniques of using love, solid obedience and faithful attention to detail to build-brick by brick-a powerful, poised and confident gun dog that can handle any challenge, from quail, grouse and dove to geese, ducks, and even wild turkeys-yes, wild turkeys. Mike talks about the factors that other trainers overlook: habitat, terrain, scenting conditions, conformation, and most of all, birds. The book includes a stunning 16-page color section featuring the famous Grand River gun dogs, with photos by K.D. McGraw and Gary Hubbell.
The Wolf Almanac, New and Revised: A Celebration of Wolves and Their World
by Robert H. Busch
from The Lyons Press
The Whole Dog Journal Handbook of Dog and Puppy Care and Training
by Nancy Kerns
from The Lyons Press
Wolves: Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation
from University Of Chicago Press
As wolf populations have rebounded, scientific studies of them have also flourished. But there hasn't been a systematic, comprehensive overview of wolf biology since 1970. In Wolves, many of the world's leading wolf experts provide state-of-the-art coverage of just about everything you could want to know about these fascinating creatures. Individual chapters cover wolf social ecology, behavior, communication, feeding habits and hunting techniques, population dynamics, physiology and pathology, molecular genetics, evolution and taxonomy, interactions with nonhuman animals such as bears and coyotes, reintroduction, interactions with humans, and conservation and recovery efforts. The book discusses both gray and red wolves in detail and includes information about wolves around the world, from the United States and Canada to Italy, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Israel, India, and Mongolia. Wolves is also extensively illustrated with black and white photos, line drawings, maps, and fifty color plates.
Unrivalled in scope and comprehensiveness, Wolves will become the definitive resource on these extraordinary animals for scientists and amateurs alike.
The Social Lives of Dogs
by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas
from Pocket
Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, who has written evocatively on the ways of dogs (The Hidden Life of Dogs) and cats (The Tribe of the Tiger) at large, here turns her attention to the particular canines--and other animals--with which she shares her home.
Marshall's narrative begins with the arrival of an unfortunate, highly intelligent creature named Sundog, who, excluded from the somewhat constricted worlds of her older dogs, is forced to take his place in the next available pack--that of Marshall and the other human inhabitants of her New Hampshire home. "Perhaps we were not his first choice, but he took us," Marshall writes of Sundog learning his proper place in their order and they in his. Much as domestic dogs enjoy each other's company, Marshall hazards, when in the presence of humans each becomes a competitor for attention and food. Humans, in that world of small rivalries, become not so much alphas or pack leaders--as so many books have it--as they do "sources of life," providers of food and security. Such power can corrupt, of course, and at points Marshall observes that popular methods of dog training--or dog control--can do more harm than good, at least as far as a dog's emotional well-being is concerned.
Through her tales of Sundog, Misty, and her other dogs (and cats, and parrots), Marshall explores how fulfilling a life among animals can be. A little softer on the scientific explanations that drive her other books, Marshall's narrative shares the anecdotal richness of her earlier work. Any human who is curious about how dogs think and how the worlds of dogs and people intersect will find much of value in her pages. --Gregory McNamee
In this sequel to her illuminating bestseller The Hidden Life of Dogs, Elizabeth Marshall Thomas profiles the canines in her own household to show how dogs have comfortably adapted to life with their human owners -- and with each other. A classically trained anthropologist, she answers questions we all have about our pets' behavior. Do dogs have different barks that mean different things? What makes a dog difficult to house-train? Why do certain dogs and cats get along so well? How does Snoopy recognize people he sees only once a year, while Misty barks at strangers she sees every day?
The Social Lives of Dogs presents marvelous evidence of the power of the group -- and shows us that those who are fortunate enough to be given the trust of an honorable dog will also have their lives enriched.
The Dog Who Came to Stay: A Memoir
by Hal Borland
from The Lyons Press
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