Michael W. Fox shares his pioneering 6-step dog massage technique, which is not only a healing tool and healthcare measure, but also affirms the bond between you and your animal companion. Drawn from more than 30 years of experience, Dr. Fox provides an orientation to basic dog anatomy, physiology, and psychology, and then addresses, through easy-to-read instructions and detailed illustrations and photos: Why dogs need massage How to understand your dog’s body language How to develop a massage routine How to diagnose illness with massage How to keep your dog fit and healthy This newly revised and updated volume is an essential guide for helping and healing our animal companions.

    Nowadays, Greyhounds are bred almost exclusively for racing. In the bad old days, prior to the 1980s, dogs that didn't make the grade at the track, and those past their primes, were destroyed. According to official estimates, 60,000 of these noble, mild-mannered dogs were destroyed each year! Fortunately, a number of organizations now exist devoted to rescuing these unwanted dogs and placing them in good homes.Thinking about adopting a retired racing Greyhound? Or maybe you're already sharing your life with one of these charming animals. Either way, this friendly guide tells you everything you need to know to:Understand the Greyhound personality Find a retired racing Greyhound to adopt Choose the right ex-racer for you and your family Educate yourself and your retired racer Give your new pal the diet and exercise it needs Keep your dog healthy and happy for years to come With plenty of good humor and straight-talk, Lee Livingood drawing on her forty-years of experience training adult rescue dogs to cover all the pros and cons of being a retired racing Greyhound owner, and she fills you in on:The amazing 8000-year history of the Greyhound Deciding whether an ex-racer is the right do for you and your family Physical and behavioral characteristics How to get a retired racer used to living in a home and be a companion Dealing with common behavioral and health problems Feeding, grooming, and exercising a Greyhound Fun things to do with your hound Bursting with expert advice on all aspects of living with an ex-racer, Retired Racing Greyhounds For Dummies is must reading for anyone considering adoption or who's already taken the leap.

    And dog rescuer Randy Grim has heard every reason under the sun. But before you load Fido into the back of your car, read this book. In it, Randy addresses the concerns of dog guardians everywhere by responding to letters that he 's actually received. With humor, and from his vast experiences with abandoned dogs, he reveals exactly what you can do to remain calm and fix every bad behavior problem. (Even if it means dumping your husband instead of the dog.)

    But think again! Most kinds of dogs that people have trouble training (typically Hounds, Terriers, some Northern Breeds) actually have many characteristics that make them quite trainable - they are smart, they are good problem solvers, and they have strong drives to get what they want. If this describes your dog, then it's time to start working with your dog's nature, not against it. The key to training success with these dogs is to figure out what they find rewarding and then use those rewards to get the behavior you want. You'll be amazed at what your bad dog will do when you know how he thinks and what turns him on!

    Barking is natural and almost all dogs bark. It's just one of the many ways dogs communicate with humans and each other. Think of barking as your dog's language. In this book you will explore the following topics: Barking as communication When barking is a problem The six kinds of barking....excitement, warning, fear, guarding, frustration, learned Breed related barking Training methods to solve barking problems By learning to identify what your dog is expressing when he barks, you can take the necessary steps to minimize the negative impact of barking behavior. Barking will help people to be realistic and logical about barking dogs rather than being frustrated and angry. In this book Turid Rugaas offers valuable information to help understand and manage barking. Copyright 2008 Dogwise Publishing, Paperback, 108 pages Dimensions: 5 1/2 inches x 8 1/2 inches

    From tail wagging to growling, from play bowing to lip licking, this fascinating book explains why your dog behaves the way he does. What Is My Dog Thinking? covers six major aspects of dog behavior: the importance of hierarchy, food and fitness, staying safe, reproduction, social behavior, and people and dogs.

    Claire Arrowsmith strongly suggests that such challenges help build a strong bond between a dog and its owner. She examines the accepted evidence of the importance of mental stimulation and why it's important to use only reward-based teaching methods. She also explains how to use hand signals and incorporate mental challenges and learning into everyday activities.Icons for each game indicate whether it is interactive, solo or group, where it can be played, the level of difficulty and whether any props or toys are used. Some of these great games are:Puppy PlayHide and SeekCarry ItEgg and Spoon RaceMini Agility CourseNature's Obstacle CourseFind the TreatRoll Over, Play Dead and other performance tricksWith straightforward text and full-color photographs, Brain Games for Dogs is a valuable guide to important elements for successful and fun dog training.

    With the freedom of understanding "how your dog learns" comes the ability of making the process easy, efficient, and enjoyable for your dog. You'll be in a position to excel-erate your dog's learning! At long last we have someone who can explain all-important learning theory and make it intriguing and interesting. Agility enthusiast, obedience competitor and psychologist Dr. Pamela Reid introduces you to cutting-edge scientific techniques in dog training including, autoshaping retrieval (i.e., teaching your dog to train herself), and "errorless discrimination learning" for teaching retrieval and directed jumping. You'll love this book?it's so useful and utterly fascinating.

    Then it was the Doberman, symbol of the Nazi menace. Today, it is the Pit bull that is vilified for the depravity of his masters. Today, police chase down fleeing Pit bulls in the street, firing dozens of wild shots in response to media-fed rumors of supernatural Pit bull abilities. Politicians coach and nurture this fear with their own brand of rhetoric used to assist in the passing of quick and ineffective legislation created to pacify communities ignorant of the real cause for dog attacks. Hundreds of animal shelters throughout the country kill all unclaimed Pit bull-looking dogs, as they are deemed "unadoptable" solely on their physical appearance. This has occurred because the human/dog bond, the most complex and profound inter-species relationship in the history of mankind, has been reduced to a simple axiom: Breed of dog = degree of dangerousness. We have come to accept that hanging entire breeds of dogs in effigy for the sins of their owners is an acceptable solution to canine aggression because we have been placated by a Pit Bull Placebo. Like the pharmacologically inactive sugar pill dispensed to pacify a patient who supposes it to be medicine, eradication of the Pit bull is the placebo administered to ease the public's anxiety about dog attacks. The book, The Pit Bull Placebo: The Media, Myths and Politics of Canine Aggression, explores how our views and beliefs about canine aggression have changed over the last 150 years and how our perceptions about the nature and behavior of dogs has been influenced by persons and organizations who often times disseminate information about dog attacks which is tailored to further an agenda unrelated to the improvement of the human/dog bond. We are in the midst of a social hysteria about Pit bulls because we have abandoned centuries-old common-sense and have been duped by inaccurate reporting from the "Pit Bull Paparazzi" and by politicians who traffic in rumors, myths and pseudoscience in their efforts to pass legislation that demonizes dogs while exonerating criminal and abusive owners. If we truly believe that the extremely rare cases of fatal dog attacks merit extreme measures in the management of dogs, if our concern and shock is genuine, then we must be equally genuine and sincere in seeking out and addressing the real causes for these incidents. Only by stepping back from the swirl of present-day hysteria surrounding isolated cases of severe canine aggression and examining the problem from a broader and more objective perspective can we hope to understand and address the human and canine behaviors which contribute to these incidents.

    The dog that bites. The dog that attacks other dogs. The dog who may not survive his own aggressive behavior. What can be done to help these dogs? When Emma Parsons, canine behavior consultant, discovered that her own dog was aggressive, she developed innovative and effective strategies to calm, alter, and re-shape his reactive displays, and those of her clients' dogs.

    The more we notice and listen to what our dogs are trying to tell us, the more we can improve our relationship with our best friends, helping them to feel safe and happy.

    It's a step by step training book with no extraneous material. It covers everything from the day you get your puppy to the finished dog.The first book written about the retriever with new commands and using the Dummy-Launch, a new training device co-developed by the author, making training easier for you and your dog.The first book to show the complete training procedures step by step in picture sequence. It covers every facet of the training. It will show you not only what to expect of your dog but what your dog can expect of you. You will be able tosee how to do it. It's written with humor - fun for you and your dog.WATER DOG is A REVOLUTIONARY RAPID TRAINING METHOD.

      Approaching dogs as a biological species rather than just as pets, Coppinger and Feinstein accessibly synthesize decades of research and field experiments to explain the evolutionary foundations underlying dog behaviors. They examine the central importance of the shape of dogs:  how their physical body (including the genes and the brain) affects behavior, how shape interacts with the environment as animals grow, and how all of this has developed over time. Shape, they tell us, is what makes a champion sled dog or a Border collie that can successfully herd sheep. Other chapters in How Dogs Work explore such mysteries as why dogs play; whether dogs have minds, and if so what kinds of things they might know; why dogs bark; how dogs feed and forage; and the influence of the early relationship between mother and pup. Going far beyond the cozy lap dog, Coppinger and Feinstein are equally fascinated by what we can learn from the adaptations of dogs, wolves, coyotes, jackals, dingoes, and even pumas in the wild, as well as the behavior of working animals like guarding and herding dogs.   We cherish dogs as family members and deeply value our lengthy companionship with them. But, isn’t it time we knew more about who Fido and Trixie really are? How Dogs Work will provide some keys to unlocking the origins of many of our dogs' most common, most puzzling, and most endearing behaviors.

    From the basics -- housebreaking, feeding, training -- to the latest on doggie day care, traveling with a puppy, and the new designer breeds, you get everything you need to help your puppy grow up to be a healthy, playful, well-mannered dog.Discover how to* Choose the perfect puppy for you* Socialize your puppy* Stimulate your puppy's growing mind* Use the latest training tools* Keep peace between kids and puppies

    But not everyone knows Trixie Koontz. Trixie was the Koontz family's beloved golden retriever and in her lifetime gained quite a following of her own. This book tells her story.