5 comments about A High, Lonesome Call.

1. This book was absolutely genius. I was heartbroken when I finished it, and felt like I could let it go on forever without getting tired of it. I felt like I was riding/hunting right along with this trio and couldn't get enough of the true life stories. The tales seem real and not contrived like many other writers that I've read. This book was much more than just about bird hunting but included life's crappy moments and some of the most humorous. Wonderful writer.



2. This is one of those books I couldn't put down. If you're a bird hunter, dog lover, or just someone interested in reading about those little places in everyday America, you'll love this book. I really enjoyed it.



3. This is a great simple book on bird hunting. I like the laid back writing style that the author has. If you like bird hunting this is a great read!



4. I don't know what this book is. Is it a novel ??? It has a travel theme, so it's not a collection of lose essays. I must admit I read it simply because he lives in my area, and the lofty title caught my attention. Regardless of the title, it's about a hard drinking, wife deserting, philosophical, obsessed bird hunter and his two Brittanys.
   
   The author describes himself as a carpenter who bird hunts and writes a few stories. Well ... I've read what carpenters write on Porta-John walls, and this guy is no carpenter. He's not into product review because it take 3 or 4 chapters to figure out what kind of shotgun he is using. Unless I'm mistaken, it's a 16 ga. Winchester Model 21. If I had a Model 21 I would have mentioned it in the first sentence.
   
   Whatever this book is it is a superbly written tale. Give us more.



5. Set amid the natural beauty of Montana and Idaho, A High, Lonesome Call: One Man, Two Bird Dogs, And The Open Road That Is Their Answer by sportswriter Robert Holthouse is a superbly written novel of searching, self-reflection, and respect for wild grandeur. Drawing upon autobiographical experience, Holthouser wonderfully captures the essence of the hunt and the bond between a man and his faithful canine companions. A thoughtful, serious, soul-deepening read.

No comments about Poodles For Dummies (For Dummies (Pets)).

5 comments about What Dogs Teach Us: Life's Lessons Learned from Our Best Friends.

1. This is one of the best books I have ever picked up...I have given it as gifts to many of my friends.



2. I found this book at a very low point in my life. I picked this book up at my vet's office and read it while a procedure was being done on my very ill puppy. It lifted my spirits, and gave me some much needed hope. Both my puppy and I are doing much better!



3. This book is an excellent introduction to the world of dogs and how they impact on our lives. As a pet therapy partner with my dog, Coco, I recommend this book to everyone who is involved with their pets and what to have some real insight into their animals' behavior and needs.



4. A delightful pictorial of how dogs of all ages and breeds can teach us the basic and simple lessons in life. Each picture is accompanied by a telling phrase that gets the message across. The table of contents includes such subjects as Health, Self Esteem, and Day-to-Day living. In the end the author sums it up with a smiling golden lab with a lolling yet perfect pink tongue, below him is the inscription, "Life is, on the whole, pretty doggone good". That just about says it all.

   I found myself enjoying the pictures as well as the wisdom imparted. It is a book I am able to pick up again and again. My favorites being the chocolate lab puppies. This is a cute book for the dog lover in your family. Kelsana 12/05/01




5. Excellent photography combines with pithy phrases to create a collection of wisdoms shared by anyone who has lost his or her heart to a dog. Just over 100 pages are devoted to sections "On Health," "On Self-Esteem," "On Interacting With Others," "On Self-Improvement," and "On Day-to-Day Living." And what words of wisdom these are! Those who DON'T own dogs would do well to pull this book out now and then to gain some perspective on the things that really are important in life, scaled down to essential simplicity. A ridiculous little dog with fangs bared is captioned, "If you are mean, people will try to avoid you." Break out this book when the mean, fang-baring people of the world get you down.

5 comments about The Everything Golden Retriever Book: A Complete Guide to Raising, Training, and Caring for Your Golden (Everything Series).

1. This is an easy read, and lots of good tips. I would also recommend Golden Retrievers for Dummies, this has the most thorough information of any Golden Retriever book I have read.



2. We just recently got a Golden Retriever puppy and thought this book would be extremely useful. It does have some valuable info in it, but some of the methods seems a little over the top. If you "click and treat" as many times as it's mentioned you won't have time to do anything else with your day.



3. This book contains a lot of facts and the information is conveyed concisely. This fact-based format makes it ideal for short multi-minute reads rather than reading from cover to cover.
   I especially liked the information that educates you on what the Golden is thinking. This "get inside the dogs' head" approach helps emensely with understanding why they do/don't do what you expect and what to do about it...



4. The author clearly has a great deal of knowledge and experience with golden's, but the book is extremely poorly written. The topics explored are very relevant and useful, but discussion was cosmetic at best. Nothing was ever described with enough detail to be useful. It felt like the author wrote the book over a weekend without putting any serious thought into what they wanted to discuss or convey.



5. This book was much more thorough than the other books we looked at, especially the "Dummies" book. Maybe not as fun to read, but much more useful.

5 comments about 101 Uses for a Lab.

1. I saw this small book at someone elses house. Being a new Lab owner, seeing the personality of the breed in this small book, I had to buy. Expensive..YES..... but I guess put the value on a smile! It sits on my coffee table for visitiors to enjoy.



2. I returned this book as soon as I received it. I thought it was overpriced for its small size. I'd also expected the pictures to be irresistable; they turned out to be very mundane and cliche. I've seen better amateur pictures taken by lab owners themselves. Bottom line--I would have given this book 0 stars if it were an option.



3. I have several other Lab books for about the same price as this one. This is a little book for the price but the pictures are very cute. I would have rather bought it used, it would be a much better bargin. Enjoy!



4. Having read the previous reviews, I'd expected to find little text, but had thought the photographs would prove sufficient ... unfortunately the photos are a little disappointing ... more like snap shots taken to fill up pages ...



5. We have had labrador retrievers in our family for over 40 years. Splash, our current yellow lab, and our many other labs, is well described in this wonderful book. Splash thinks his (and I am sure other labrador owners will agree) sole role in life is to be our best friend and he gives us so much love every single day. It is clear, after reading this book, that labs are the best breed of dog available. The author truly captures the fine spirit, dedication and devotion of the labrador retriever -- I found the book to be true for all of our wonderful dogs. For those who are fortunate enough to own a lab, this book is a MUST!

No comments about Maran Illustrated Puppies (Maran Illustrated).

1 comments about Livestock Guardians: Using Dogs, Donkeys, and Llamas to Protect Your Herd (Storey's Working Animals).

1. The book starts out talking about the problem of predation, describing the range and hunting habits of predators. There are sections on lethal and non lethal methods of control, including a section on effective fencing. The book then goes on to talk about guardian animals, predominantly dogs. There is a section that describes 31 different breeds of livestock guardian dogs, giving some history, appearance, and character/temperament info on each breed. Each section talks about selection, training and management of guard animals, the pros and cons of the animals and solving problems with the animals (such as aggression towards the family pets). Interspersed throughout the book are reports by shepherds on what has worked for them. I found this book to be very useful, and recommend it to anyone considering a livestock protection animal.

4 comments about Shih Tzu Complete Owner's Manual.

1. I am in the process of purchasing a Shih Tzu puppy, and for that reason, this book WAS helpful. It was helpful in a generic sense about the pros and cons of puppies vs. adult dogs, purchasing from a responsible breeder, the expense associated with a puppy, etc., all of which I've seen in other general dog guides. The book outlines roughly the history and orgin of the Shih Tzu, but I found it a bit sparse and was dissapointed. However, there was a very good section on very basic dog training that is sensitive to the Shih Tzu breed. The photos and drawings in the book were a very good bonus. The one thing that I recoiled from was the almost harsh, scolding nature of the author as to who is qualified to add a Shih Tzu to their home, almost using scare tactics and extreme scenarios to frighten people away from the breed. While it is a valuable point that has it's place in any dog breed book, I found it was a bit much. I appreciated the clearly designed chapters and the sections on housetraining and health maintainence.



2. No matter what the rest of the information in this book is like, the mere statement that "Well-run pet shops generally obtain their puppies from good breeders (page 9)" earns the book one star only because there's no way to give it a minus-10 rating. NO good breeder will sell a puppy to a pet store. Pet stores obtain their puppies from puppy mills; now that a lot of people know how appalling the puppy mills are, pet stores will tell people pups come from "local breeders" which just means a LOCAL puppy mill. I could not understand why the author would write such a thing until I read his bio. He works for a manufacturer of pet products. Never, never, never buy a dog or a cat from a pet store unless you enjoy supporting a traffic in animal cruelty.



3. I truly hate to give a book a bad review, because I know the work that goes into one, but this book truly .... It could pretty much be about any breed of dog, it has such a paucity of information about the shih tzu. I bought it because I had just adopted a shih tzu and wanted any help or tips I could get about the breed, and I learned nothing. Please don't waste your money on this book.



4. I am a first-time owner of a Shih Tzu puppie. I found this book extremely informative - from choosing your puppy, to crate training, to feeding, to what to expect from your puppy when you first take it home. It also details the breeding process and whether or not breeding is for you. The book is well worth the price.

1 comments about Building a Basic Foundation for Search and Rescue Dog Training.

1. This book is very well written. It brings everthing together without going over board. I have read everyone of the books out currently from other authors, and this one is on my top list for recommendation to other prospective SAR persons.

5 comments about Shadow Mountain: A Memoir of Wolves, a Woman, and the Wild.

1. I truly enjoyed this book. The only reason it is not getting 5 stars is b/c I felt a litle misled by the synopsis on the back. I thought the entire book would be about wolves and Yellowstone. The book was about these topics but also much more about the author's relationships with her animals. As an animal lover, I really enjoyed these parts of the book. And as a married person without children, I can relate when she writes about people not treating pets as family or the lack of sensitivity towards animals (as opposed to humans).
   
   I bought this book after visiting Yellowstone recently and it was a good follow-up to my trip. How could anyone not have been excited about the reintroduction of wolves into the park. What an amazing story.



2. Someone should ban this woman from ever using a simile or a metaphor again. At least she could refrain from using 3 or 4 of them in every sentence. I like wolves and from reading the back of the book it sounded interesting. I wish that I would have read the first chapter before buying this book. It might have some decent imformation in it, but I just about threw up from trying to get past the first chapter.



3. This is an excellent book and has much to offer for nature /animal lovers, how difficult such a project is, to combat many opposing forces. It has a measure of spirituality, romance and animal nature.



4. I bought the book thinking it was about wolves and yellow stone-what the book described on the back. But in short it seemed that the majority was an auto-biography about woman who loved wolves. Other than that the book was good but I wish it had more stuff about the actual subject.



5. I cannot express in words how much I loved this book. It is more in my heart than words on a page. I felt uplifted at times and horribly saddened at other times. I cried out loud and smiled big smiles when a part of the book touched me. Rene had many, many wonderful experiences and shared her life with so many wonderful people and animals. I could not put the book down. I had bought this book for my Daughter as a Christmas gift. She is studying to be a wildlife bilogist and her passion is the wolf. Ashley (my daughter) reminds me so much of Rene that it scares me. Her passion to fight for the wolf is exactly what I wish for my daughter. I recomend this book to anyone who loves wildlife and who wants to fight for their rights. Rene is an asset to the world of wildlife and should be commended on such honorable work. Great book! Buy it! together we can all make a difference!