Bringing a new dog into the household should be one of life’s happiest events. The process always starts with excitement and high expectations. Too often, though, it ends in disappointment. The new puppy wakes everyone three times a night, gnaws on furniture, piddles everywhere, knocks the children down. The new adolescent dog is too wild. The new adult dog growls at your neighbors. And where did all this dog hair come from?
Most people spend hours researching a new mattress, days researching a new car, and weeks researching a new home or job. Yet for a new dog, a companion for the next 10-15 years, the most they do is visit the nearest shelter or pet shop and buy whatever looks cute and appealing. It’s no wonder they end up disappointed.
Whether you are looking for a purebred puppy or a charming mixed-breed, the type of dog you bring into your home matters. A quiet owner will struggle to keep up with a high-energy labrador mix, for instance, while an active outdoor family will be impatient with a snoozy bulldog. And finding the right kind of dog means becoming the right kind of owner—a task that takes some forethought and planning.
How To Find Your Dream Dog is here to fix the disconnect of dog ownership. It walks you step-by-step through the process of choosing the right type of dog for you—not only exploring the canine qualities that can determine your perfect puppy, adolescent, or adult dog, but also assessing your lifestyle to make sure you’re a good match for the dog, too. The book also looks at good (and bad) sources for finding healthy and sound pet dogs, gives guidelines for evaluating individual puppies, and warns of some red flags to watch out for during your dog search. With this guidebook in hand, you can be confident that the next puppy or dog you bring home will be the right companion and friend for you for the rest of its days.
Dixie Tenny is a Certified Training Partner with the Karen Pryor Academy of Animal Training and Behavior. During her 30+ years spent working with people and their pets, she has seen again and again how mismatches between dog and owner can create “behavior problems” that never would have happened if the right dog had been matched to the right owner in the first place. She wrote this book to help puppy buyers and dog adopters start out on the best possible foot with their new pet dogs, and stay on that path for years to come.
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Review:
This is the book that everyone who is thinking of bringing a dog into their life needs to read. Even if you already have a dog and know that one day you will want another, or if you have had dogs in your past, you should give this book a read through to really evaluate your decision to bring a new living being into your life and the best way to do it. This is an easy and quick read at just over 100 pages, a perfect resource
How to Find Your Dream Dog guides you through the decision of whether or not you truly want to make the commitment of bringing a dog into your home, especially a puppy, then deciding what type of dog will fit into your lifestyle and how to go about finding this dog. There is also a section for finding the perfect adult dog, which I received the most information from since I have always known that puppies are a bit too much for me and have found perfect family companions with adult dogs. The most valuable information in this book is probably in the first section, which helps you to understand what type of commitment bringing a puppy into your home will entail. The introductory story is a perfect example of how puppies end up back in the shelter due to poor choices on the human's end. I loved all the comparisons of a puppy to having a toddler around the house. Many people do not understand that you will have to get up in the middle of the night and feed a puppy more often. After making sure that you would actually like to have a dog in your life, Dixie walks you through a straightforward approach to finding a puppy or adult dog that focuses on animal behavior and your lifestyle. I liked that breeders, rescues and shelters were all given equal attention for sources of great dogs and avoiding pet shops and puppy mills were highlighted. Overall, a wonderful and highly informative read for anyone looking to bring a new dog into their home.
This book was received for free in return for an honest review.
Dixie Tenny has been helping people and their dogs find each other and form successful partnerships since the early 1980s. She founded two rescue organizations: Purebred Dog Rescue of Saint Louis in 1984, and Seattle Purebred Dog Rescue, Inc. in 1987. Dixie 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 she and another experienced trainer created Dogs Unleashed, LLC. They traveled to clients’ homes and worked with behavior and training issues.
Dixie’s professional credentials include trainer certifications from the prestigious Karen Pryor Academy for Animal Training and Behavior, and the Association for Pet Dog Trainers. Dixie formed her own business, Human-Animal Learning Opportunities, LLC (HALO) in 2013. HALO hosts continuing education seminars for dog trainers.
Dixie has lived with a wide range of dogs over the years including mixed breeds, Australian Shepherds, Welsh and Cairn terriers, and more. While in Seattle, Dixie raised a labrador puppy for Canine Companions for Independence, Inc. (CCI). Currently Dixie lives with a Beauceron and an elderly Papillon, as well as four cats. When not doing things related to animals, she reads widely, enjoys the company of her three grown children, follows baseball and English Premier League football, and travels the world
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