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My Review
We spend hours searching for the right furniture. We spend a fortune hiring experts before selecting every single thing in our life. But why do we just walk into a pet shop and buy any puppy that we find cute. Do we buy puppies for the right reason? Do we need puppies or adults? Do we need active dogs or lazy ones?Dixie Tenny tells us to find the answers to these questions before taking a dog /puppy home. Citing the examples of two families with different experiences from the same puppies authoress tells that we should chose dogs depending on how we plan to raise them.
The book is divided to three parts. 1. Getting ready for your dream dog. 2. Choosing your dream type of dog 3. Finding your dream puppy 4. Adult dog option. Each part is a text book. With an introduction, main body and conclusion. The systematic approach of the author is commendable.
Being a person from a family which owned at least 4 dogs at a time, I could relate with the book completely. We had a bull mastif which always ends up with injured paws and we used to wonder why. But when I read the book I could comprehend the foolish decision we took. A lot of facts that we overlook while selecting a dog are explainined systematically. Apparently a lot of effort has been invested in the book.
A section with the details of specific breeds could have been an icing on the cake but I must tell you finding the right dog is not a cakewalk.
This review is in return of a free book from i Read Book Tours
The first version of Call the Darkness Down was written because I ran out of books to read about King Arthur when I was a young teenager. Originally, it was a story about descendants of Arthurian characters in present day who have to battle ancient forces of evil. The manuscript of the book helped me win the National Council of Teachers of English award when I was a high school senior. After I sent the book to a local publisher the following year, I received a wonderful rejection letter; so encouraging and positive, but pointing out that the book shouldn’t take place in the UK if I hadn’t actually spent enough time there to create a real feeling of that location in my story. So I applied to Trinity College in Carmarthen, Wales, and spent an amazing semester there learning all about Wales, working on my novel, and unfortunately, contracting mono and hepatitis. After I came home I spent six months convalescing and completely rewriting my book. I submitted it to Simon & Schuster, and it was accepted! I can’t begin to describe the shock and thrill of that experience.
About How to Find Your Dream Dog: I have been helping people and their dogs find each other and form successful partnerships since the early 1980s. I founded Purebred Dog Rescue of Saint Louis in 1984, which as far as I know was the country’s first organization that combined the efforts of people who worked in rescue for many breeds under the umbrella of one organization. After moving to Seattle, Washington, I co-founded Seattle Purebred Dog Rescue, Inc. (SPDR) in 1987. I was involved in running this organization for the better part of thirteen years. SPDR was featured in the American Kennel Club Gazette, where I was referred to as the “Matriarch” of purebred rescue. SPDR, still operating successfully as of this writing, utilizes hundreds of wonderful volunteers to work with several thousands of dogs each year, with great success due to their rigorous evaluation and placement policies and their use of specialized breed representatives. The organization received an award from the Humane Society in Bellevue, Washington, due to the fact that SPDR’s help in placing the shelter’s purebreds allowed many more mixed breeds to be placed successfully as well. I also received the Seattle Kennel Club’s “Honor Our Own” award in 2001 for my work with SPDR. Twice, I have been the recipient of the Gaines Good Sportsmanship medal.
Back in St. Louis in 2001, I turned my attention to dog behavior and training. I was the Director of Training for the Greater St. Louis Training Club, Inc., for five years, creating classes and overseeing the work of 40 head and assistant trainers. In 2003 my colleague and friend Lucy Bailey and I created Dogs Unleashed, LLC. We traveled to clients’ homes and worked with a wide range of behavior and training issues for four years. During this time I attended many continuing education conferences featuring trainers such as Dr. Ian Dunbar, Kathy Sdao, Karen Pryor, and Suzanne Clothier. As Director of Training for GSLTC, Inc., I arranged and hosted seminars in St. Louis featuring Dr. Patricia McConnell, Sue Ailsby, Dr. Roger Abrantes, Nicole Wilde, and Leslie Nelson of Tails-U-Win. During this period, I also served for several years as a Judge for the Dog Writers’ Association of America annual awards.
In 2010, I took the six-month course offered by the Karen Pryor Academy for Animal Training and Behavior, and qualified to become a Certified Training Partner for that organization. I formed my own business, Human-Animal Learning Opportunities, LLC (HALO) in 2013. HALO hosted continuing education seminars for dog trainers, featuring Dr. Jesús Rosales-Ruiz (three times), Mary Hunter (twice), Celeste Walsen of Courthouse Dogs, and Steve White. I am a Professional level member of the Association of Professional Dog Trainers, a Certified Professional Dog Trainer – Knowledge Assessed, a founding member of Saint Louis Pet Experts, and a Silver member of SPARCS (Society for the Promotion of Applied Research in Canine Science). My own continuing education has included attending the annual conference put on by the Organization for Reinforcement Contingencies with Animals (ORCA), which features some of my most respected animal trainers/researchers, including Kay Laurence, Ken Ramirez, Dr. Jesús Rosales-Ruiz, Steve White, Alexandra Kurland, and others. I took Kay Laurence’s challenging two-year online course, the Intelligent Dog Trainer Course (IDTC) in 2012-2013, and am proud to have received Certification with Recommendation on my Unit 1 work. This book and those that I hope will follow came out of my Master Trainer project for the Kay Laurence course.
I have lived with many dogs over the years, several mixed breeds as well as Australian, German, and English Shepherds, Welsh, Cairn, and Airedale terriers, a Bernese Mountain Dog, a Golden Retriever, and an Irish Wolfhound. Other pets have included cats, birds, reptiles, hedgehogs, a beloved opossum, and more. I have shown some of my dogs in conformation and obedience trials, created and taught Tricks classes, and dabbled in agility, K9 nose work, earthdog, and rally obedience. While in Seattle, I raised a labrador puppy for Canine Companions for Independence, Inc. (CCI). Currently I live with a Beauceron and an elderly Papillon, and a Somali, a Chantilly, and two Abyssinian cats. When not doing things related to animals, I read widely, enjoy the company of my three grown children, follow baseball and English Premier League football, and travel the world.