The Book Shelf

                               

How to Buy and Raise a Good Healthy Dog is mostly about breeding and

raising a dog.  It contains one chapter on the buying of a dog, one chapter on general

health care (covering about 65 pages) and three appendixes on genetics, food and

nutrition and microchips.

 

This is another Doral publication which was written by breeder (Yorkshire Terriers) and judge Terri Shumsky.  The illustrations are effective particularly in regard to the birthing process.  As a matter of fact, the information given in the "Having Puppies" chapter is exceptional and useful for both the novice and experienced breeder.  The chapters on "birth to one year" are okay but if a breeder or new owner is looking for more complete information relative to the raising of a pup, I suggest the 4-part article by Josie O'Reilly which just recently was re-printed in the Boxer Review. 

 

I think that the information on general health care is quite sufficient for most dog owners.  Other books which have been reviewed in this column (The Merck Veterinary Manual,Hands-On Dog Care, The Purina Encyclopedia of Dog Care and the Five Minute Veterinary Ready Reference) are perhaps too extensive for most health questions.  Shumsky's book fills a niche of  providing just about enough information.

 

     The bibliographic information on this book is:

     Shumsky, Terri How to Buy and Raise a Good Healthy Dog.

          Doral Publishing,  Sun City, Arizona 2001

You can contact Doral at: http://www.doralpub.com or 800-633-5385.  At the library, check in section 636.7.

 

Before I wish you a good read, I would like to call your attention to two other books which were reviewed earlier.  Although not exactly in competition to Shumsky's books, they address a healthy dog, too.  They do so, however, in a holistic manner and are a worthy book to be bought or checked out from your library or borrowed from a friend. Take a look once again at:

     Martin Goldstein DV.M. The Nature of Animal Healing Ballantine Books, 1999,

and

     Pat Lazarus Keep your Dog Healthy the Natural Way Fawcett//Ballantine, 1999

 

All these books should be on the library shelf housed together in 636.7

     From the Boxer Review