pet connection

A little book came in for review yesterday, and I flipped through it last night. The book is Carol Lea Benjamin’s See Spot Sit (Skyhorse Publishing, $10.95), and it’s subtitled “101 Illustrated Tips for Training the Dog You Love.” It should probably be instead subtitled, “101 really sneaky ways to get people to train their dogs without realizing it.”

“Wow,” I thought as I read, “I bet [name redacted to protect the guilty] wouldn’t even know I was sending her a dog training book if I gave her this, and it might finally make her get why her dogs have so many behavior problems.”

And then it struck me. Everyone should read this little book of dog cartoons, because it slips its sensible, humane, effective message in with such gentle humor that before they know it, they’ll find themselves nodding and smiling and reaching for a dog cookie to see if their dog, too, will do that.

It’s funny, it’s cheerful, it’s neither rooted in outdated training concepts nor so firmly allied with any single school of training that it will get anyone’s resistance up or lead owners astray (no choke chains, no “alpha rolls,” but also, no clickers), just a subtle enticement down the path of teaching you how to communicate with your dog so that the two of you don’t get into trouble.

And all wrapped up in a little stacked-by-the-cash-register paperback package that means anyone you give it to will just think it’s a witty little book of dog doodles. That’s so devious smart!

OK, I’m officially excited.

I never really go anywhere except for business. Now, I love the work I do, but it seems I’m always getting on a plane for a pet-related trade show, veterinary conference or a meeting with editors either at Universal Press or our book publisher, HCI. And since I’m getting on a plane, I’m not taking the pets.

Not this time. We’re going. We’re all going. Well, me and the dogs, anyway. The non-canines will stay behind with the house-sitter and my neighbors Judy and John to look after things.

Drew is going to stay with my parents (they love him like the child they never had, the good-looking one who always does what you ask him to). Pip is going to stay with his foster mom at German shepherd rescue. And all the retrievers are jumping into a Honda Element and we’re off to Oregon on Sunday.

Why? The Flat-Coated Retriever National Specialty, which is kind of Super Bowl just for Flat-Coated Retrievers. Puppy Otter will compete in puppies. McKenzie will compete with the grown-up girls. Woody will compete against other hunt-titled retriever boys.

And Heather … oh, Queen Heather. My darling heart dog, my 11.5 year-old queen of the world (just ask her) will compete in 11-and-older veteran girls. This is special, because she is the Queen here, and because she has previously placed in two national specialties — as a puppy, and as a 7- to 9-year-old veteran girl.

You know what? She has never looked better. But I may be a little biased. I love this girl, and I don’t really care what happens up there. I am just so happy she is still with me, healthy and as full of her own fine self as ever.

We’re going to hang out with lots of other people who love the smell of wet dogs and talk about … wet dogs! Retrieving! And dogs! Dogs!

Even better, Honda just confirmed that they’ll be sending me on the road trip in our 2007 Best In Show DogCar of the Year, the Honda Element. I just ordered stickers to tape on the car, and everyone I meet with an Element will get one for FREE.

Wait … there’s more!

On the way back, I’m doing two book-signings and readings. The first:

An Evening for Pet Lovers
On Saturday, April 12, at the Del Norte County Library, beginning at 7 p.m.

The evening, sponsored by the Del Norte County Library and the Del Norte Literary Coalition, will bring rare, personal appearances by two of the most authoritative and entertaining pet writers working today: Gina Spadafori and Christie Keith.

Gina and Christie will make lively and informative presentations, offer for sale and autograph Gina’s books with additional participation from the Del Norte County Animal Shelter and the Humane Society of Del Norte.

You can view complete details of this unique and free event in the attached brochure that you may also download and print.

For those not familiar with California, Del Norte’s county seat is in Crescent City, which is about as far north as you can go and not be in Oregon and as far west and not be in the Pacific Ocean.

The day after, I’ll be a little further down the coast in Arcata, at Arcata Pet for another book-signing.

The books’ll be for sale and signing — we’re just going for $10 a book, to make it easy — but the publisher has sent a couple of cases of FREE bookmarks, and everyone who asks me will get one.

I don’t really like public events. But I’m doing these because Pet Connection readers Russell and Nadine Long and Susan Fox asked me to. And because Christie promises to cut my hair while we’re both in Crescent City.

Of course, I’ll be blogging the road trip. Four dogs and up to a dozen baby chicks (my new pet chickens!). In a car. For a week. Stay tuned.

For more than a quarter-century, pet owners have turned to the “Home Veterinary Handbook” series when faced with questions about pet illnesses and injuries.

While the questions are mostly the same today as when the series debuted, the world of veterinary medicine has changed dramatically. New technologies, advanced diagnostic techniques, newly emerging diseases, and recent research on drugs, vaccines and surgeries have made having current information a necessity.

Fortunately, newly updated and revised editions of both of these classic reference books were released in the last few months, authored by a team of four veterinarians led by Dr. Debra Eldredge.

“The goal was to update the books with the wealth of new veterinary information we have had in recent years,” she said. And the authors succeeded: From cutting-edge diagnostics to alternative therapies, the handbooks cover it all.

The “Dog Owner’s Home Veterinary Handbook” and “Cat Owner’s Home Veterinary Handbook” (Howell Book House, $35 each) are organized by body system, with a comprehensive index in the back and a handy mini-index inside the front covers. Pet owners can read about the causes, symptoms, prevention and treatment of common as well as unusual animal health problems, from allergies to cancer. Sections are also included on first aid and medication, as well as instructions on how to monitor a pet’s vital signs.

There’s more than just practical advice on how to cope with health problems, too.

“The books are meant to make pet owners better health advocates for their pets, more informed and better able to communicate with their veterinarians,” said Dr. Eldredge.

That’s because the authors managed the tricky task of offering pet health information that’s genuinely useful but doesn’t confuse pet owners into skipping veterinary care when it’s needed. Easily followed guidelines tell owners when it’s appropriate or even necessary to give immediate aid to a dog or cat, when symptoms require an immediate trip to the emergency clinic, and when the pet can wait until regular office hours to be seen.

Also on the cutting edge are two new books on pet first aid from the American Red Cross. While there’s nothing new about pet health emergencies, some recent hurricanes, floods and fires have underscored the need for resources to cope with them. And these two spiral-bound books — one for dogs and one for cats — are great resources. Each book comes with a companion DVD that gives step-by-step instructions on how to give first aid to pets. The sections on animal poisoning are particularly impressive, as is the information on what to do in an emergency until veterinary care can be obtained. They cost $17 each and are available online at RedCross.org (click on “Store” and then “Reference Guides”), or by calling 1-866-782-3347.

One more book to round out the pet owner’s health library is Eldredge’s “Pills For Pets: The A to Z Guide to Drugs and Medications for Your Animal Companion” (Citadel, $15). It lists drugs by brand and generic names, covers issues including online pharmacies and compounded medications, and gives tips on how to get medicine into the pets — yes, even those uncooperative cats.

And don’t forget the Merck/Merial manual!

Most pet health books are lucky to have one veterinarian listed as an author. “The Merck/Merial Manual for Pet Health: The complete pet health resource for your dog, cat, horse or other pets - in everyday language” (Merck, $23) offers more than 100 veterinarians, most with advanced degrees and certification, as contributors.

Within each section of this hefty paperback is an encyclopedic listing of disorders and body systems, as well as an overview on routine care and preventive medicine. If it’s about animal health, it’s almost certainly in this book, often in surprising detail.

Your turn: In this Internet age, what pet-care books do you still value enough to keep on the shelf?

Life’s never been easy for anyone trying to make a living as a writer, but in the old days you were either dealing with the starvation that comes with being unknown (unless you married well and or lived off an inheritance) or weeping privately into your pillow after reading the work of professional critics in journals that were often pretty darn obscure.

Oh, for the simple days of yesteryear!

Now, of course, every word you write or say is examined, your facts checked, your subconscious or potentially hidden agendas speculated upon. And everyone with an Internet connection is a critic, like the person who trashed my “Dogs For Dummies” on a book-sellers Web site because it wasn’t much about Boxers. Well, it wasn’t much about Dachshunds or Irish Wolfhounds or Finnish Spitz, either. It’s a general reference, duh. Or the person who trashed the same book because it recommends the use of a crate for house-training — she thought that cruel in the extreme, even though it’s been common, accepted practice by trainers and behaviorists for a couple decades now.

This is all by way of saying if you’re going to put it out there, you’d better have a pretty tough hide because you’re going to need it.

Which brings me to Jon Katz.

Katz is a very talented writer who knocked around for a long time writing on all kinds of topics. And then, I’m guessing by accident as much as anything else, he latched onto the subject of dogs. Success breeds success, and soon, too soon perhaps, Katz was writing about pretty much nothing else except dogs, border collies to be precise. And soon, without the years of work, apprenticeship and study that characterize the true “dog man/woman,” he went from an expert writer on the subject of dogs to an expert on dogs who writes about them.

If there’s one breed in which that’s truly not advisable, it’s the border collie.

The loathing each faction of serious border collie people has for the people within another faction is truly quite remarkable in the dog world. (The heated show-field split in some sporting breeds is a mere preschool food fight by comparison.) The agility border collie people hate the show border collie people who hate the obedience border collie people who hate the stockdog border collie people and they all hate hate hate people who get a border collie for an under-stimulated suburban family pet. It’s not by chance that regular Pet Connection reader Christopher has called his blog Border Wars. It’s ugly out there.

But whether because ignorance is truly bliss or because he knows controversy sells books or because after knocking about for years as a writer he actually doesn’t give a damn what people think — or all of these combined — Katz bravely/foolishly finally writes a book about a border collie with a behavior problem: The dog bites people. After page after page of angst and some previous work from other places, most notably his Slate.com column, Katz decides that the dog needs to be killed, so that happens.

At that point things go nuclear. (more…)

Gina’s on her way home from Global Pet Expo, and I’m on my way to Las Vegas for the Western States Veterinary conference. And Dr. Marty’s on his way from the first to the second, because he’s an Iron Man!

I didn’t blog today because I’m overwhelmed with work — Chat Month is clustered on the weekends and this one was a killer!

But tonight, Sunday, February 17, while I’m in Las Vegas hanging out with veterinarians, Gina’s and my friend, Claudia Kawzczynksa, editor of The Bark Magazine, will be the guest at DogHobbyist.com’s Sunday night chat. It will be at 9 PM Eastern/6 PM Pacific, in the Dog Den. Claudia will be discussing Bark’s newest book, “Howl”:

Dogs are celebrated members of our families thanks to their capacity for unconditional love, unfaltering loyalty, and now, in “Howl: A Collection of the Best Contemporary Dog Wit,” for their comedic genius. In their follow-up to the New York Times bestseller “Dog is my Co-Pilot,” the editors of The Bark have returned with over seventy pieces highlighting the hilarity of dogs. Come hear more about the witty voice of today’s canine culture, and the endless reasons why we love our dogs — plus get an inside look at America’s hippest dog magazine.

I hope you can stop by — I’m sorry I won’t be able to make it, although maybe I’ll find a little wi fi sweet spot somewhere and sign in!