Dogsmart

Rating:
Summary: A Must Read for Future Dog Owners
Review: As a professional dog trainer, DogSmart, by Myrna Milani, is a book I recommend to all my students. Hopefully people will read it before buying a dog, but better late than never. This book is full of great recommendations on what to ask yourself before you commit to a lifetime relationship with your canine partner.

Rating:
Summary: A Must Read for Future Dog Owners
Review: As a professional dog trainer, DogSmart, by Myrna Milani, is a book I recommend to all my students. Hopefully people will read it before buying a dog, but better late than never. This book is full of great recommendations on what to ask yourself before you commit to a lifetime relationship with your canine partner.

Rating:
Summary: A good place to start, but no real answers here
Review: First, let me tell you about my point of view. During the past 30 years as an adult, I have lived with 5 dogs: 4 were family pets, 3 serious hunting dogs, 2 very good hunting dogs and 2 very good family pets (oddly enuff, the same 2!) The dogs have varied in size from 25 to 90 pounds and all had very individual personalities.

I have a bias toward books. I believe I can take care of any problem, do anything, if I just lay my hands on the right book. So I have read and owned many dog training books. For sound advice on family dogs, I have come to rely on Job Michael Evans. He was the anonomous writer for the Monks of New Skete and eventually became a professional dog trainer, specializing in problem pets. His stuff works.

Then I found the book at hand: DogSmart by Myrna Milani. This one volume sums up the theory behind the detailed advice from Evans. By basic in the headline above, I do not mean dumbed down or insultingly elementary. In understandable language you are given the information you need to understand how to prevent confusion and problems developing between you, the neighbors and your dog. If you have the theory and principles, you can invent your own solutions for your unique situation.

This should be every prospective dog owner's first and most fundamental dog book.

And interestingly, Milani dedicates this book to William E. Campbell, and the late Job Michael Evans.

Rating:
Summary: Great concept, bad execution.
Review: I am currently looking for my next dog and came across this book at the library. The idea sounded promising but I was very disappointed. There are too many checklists and questions without real guidance (a questionnaire at the end of each chapter would have been better) and they are alternating with more examples than I care to know of how the sample humans deal with their dog situation. I started skipping from chapter to chapter, hoping to find some real revelations somewhere especially since each chapter sounded promising but in the end I was utterly confused and certainly did not gain any new insights. I give the book two stars for the idea that is behind its contents, but the execution is poor.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating!
Review: I read it all night! This book explains with real-life cases. I recommend it to anyone with a love for dogs.

Rating:
Summary: Big let down
Review: I thought this book would help me select a breed of dog that would fit in with my family and lifestyle, but it only offered general ideas for looking for a dog. It told me to create a "dream dog want list" without offering suggestions or questions that would help the process. This book didn't help me out at all!

Rating:
Summary: Wow!
Review: This is one of the best books I've ever read! Easy to understand, but she doesn't treat the reader like an idiot, either. Definitely not one of those 'you do it this way, and any other way is wrong' books. Also very interesting reading, and not so dry you put it down after three paragraphs.

Rating:
Summary: Wow!
Review: This is one of the best books I've ever read! Easy to understand, but she doesn't treat the reader like an idiot, either. Definitely not one of those 'you do it this way, and any other way is wrong' books. Also very interesting reading, and not so dry you put it down after three paragraphs.