Latest News

Dog Lovers Book Club - May 2018

The nights are getting colder! This is the perfect time to snuggle up with your best buddy to enjoy one of the latest releases from our May 2018 Dog Lovers Book Club selection.

PAWTRAITS OF PETS 
Vol.3 - “The journey of life is sweeter when travelled with a pet" 
by PAWtraits Pets and People Photography  


PAWtraits of Pets and their People is a limited edition hard cover coffee table book to be enjoyed by all animal lovers.
128 pages filled with beautiful images of much loved Melbourne pets of all shapes and sizes with love notes from their owners in the closing pages.

Session fees from this book have already raised $4,000 for New Beginnings Animal Rescue, taking the total to $20,000 donated to animal-related charities with this series.


Published by PAWtraits, Pets and People Photography, April 2018
Printed by Momento Pro, Sydney


RRP: $150
(free shipping within Australia) at www.pawtraitsofpets.com.au.
Limited stock available.


Melbourne dog lovers can take advantage of this special Mother’s Day offer: when you buy a book, you’ll be entered in a draw to win your own pet session and photo gift voucher worth $550. 
(Drawn on May 30, 2018)

CANINE CONFIDENTIAL 
Why Dogs do what they do
by Marc Bekoff

For all the love and attention we give dogs, much of what they do remains mysterious. Just think about different behaviours you see at a dog park. We have a good understanding of what it means when dogs wag their tails but what about when they sniff and roll on a stinky spot? Why do they play tug-of-war with one dog, while showing their bellies to another? Why are some dogs shy, while others are bold? What goes on in dogs’ heads and hearts—and how much can we know and understand?

Canine Confidential has the answers. Written by award-winning scientist—and lifelong dog lover—Marc Bekoff, it not only brilliantly opens up the world of dog behaviour, but also helps us understand how we can make our dogs’ lives the best they can possibly be. 

Rooted in the most up-to-date science on cognition and emotion, this is a wonderfully source of new information and myth-busting. Peeing, we learn, isn’t always marking; grass-eating isn’t always an attempt to trigger vomiting; it’s okay to hug a dog—on their terms; and so much more. There’s still much we don’t know, but at the core of the book is the certainty that dogs do have deep emotional lives, and that as their companions we must try to make those lives as rich and fulfilling as possible. 

It’s also clear that we must look at dogs as unique individuals and refrain from talking about “the dog”. Bekoff also considers the practical importance of knowing details about dog behaviour. He advocates strongly for positive training—there’s no need to dominate or shame dogs or to make them live in fear—and this detailed information has a good deal of significance for dog trainers and teachers. He also suggests that trainers should watch and study dogs in various contexts outside of those in which they are dealing with clients, canine and human, with specific needs. 

There’s nothing in the world as heartwarming as being greeted by your dog at the end of the workday. Read Canine Confidential, and you’ll be on the road to making your shared lives as happy, healthy, and rewarding as they can possibly be.

Hardcover, 256 pages
Publisher: The University of Chicago Press, 13th April 2018 


RRP: $54.99 at www.booktopia.com.au 


THE DOGGIE IN THE WINDOW
How One Dog Led Me from the Pet Store to the Factory Farm to Uncover the Truth of Where Puppies Really Come From
by Rory Kress


When journalist Rory Kress met Izzie, she didn't think twice about bringing her home. She found the twelve-week-old wheaten terrier in a pet shop and was handed paperwork showing Izzie had been born in a USDA-licensed breeding facility-so she couldn't be a puppy mill dog, right?

But a few years later, as Rory embarked on her own difficult journey to become a mother, her curiosity began to tug at her. Sure, Izzie was her fur baby, but who was her dog's real mother, and where was she now? And where did Izzie pick up her strange personality quirks? Like so many people, Rory had assumed the young puppy was a clean slate when she bought her. Those questions led Rory - with Izzie by her side - on a nationwide investigation, the first of its kind. From a dog livestock auction to the laboratory of one of the world's leading animal behavioral scientists all the way up to the highest echelons of the USDA, they sought answers about who we're trusting to be the watchdogs for our pet dogs.

The Doggie in the Window is a story of hope and redemption. It upends the notion that purchased dogs are a safer bet than rescues, examines how internet puppy sales allow customers to get even farther from the truth of dog breeding, and offers fresh insights into one of the oldest bonds known to humanity. With Izzie's help, we learn the real story behind the dog in the window - and how she got there in the first place.

Paperback, 384 pages
Publisher: Sourcebooks Inc, 3rd April 2018


RRP: $31.99 from www.booktopia.com.au  

SYDNEY FOR DOGS
by Cathy Proctor


Although Sydney is very well provided with parks, bushland, beaches and open spaces, a great deal of this – including all National Parks and virtually all beaches – is off-limits to our four-legged friends, even when leashed.

Gathering information on where and when dogs can be taken and walked has been notoriously time-consuming, and so most Sydneysiders and visitors restrict their dog walking and playing to a very few favourite local spots. Local author and dog lover Catherine Proctor gathers all that information into a single, compact and very popular book – now in its 4th edition


Now dog owners can choose from a wide variety of dog-friendly areas right across Sydney and ensure that their dog can be a part of even more family outings! A must have if you love exploring new places with your pooches!

Paperback, 234 pages
Publisher: Woodslane Walking Guides, Woodslane P/L, 15th June 2017 


RRP: $29.99 from www.booktopia.com.au

BOOK CLUB - TEENAGERS & KIDS' CORNER


YOUR ROBOT DOG WILL DIE
by Arin Greenwood

In the mid-21st century, dogs are all but extinct. 
An experiment gone awry caused every canine on Earth to become hyperintelligent. When as a species they stopped wagging their tails, hysteria ensued—followed by a program of mass euthanasia. Now the only surviving dogs are relegated to a sanctuary off the coast of Florida: Dog Island. There, they are studied in a wild, feral, and protected state. And there, too, their robot replacements are tested before being sold for mass consumption.

Seventeen-year-old Nano Miller was born and bred on Dog Island, as were her two best friends, Jack and Wolf. Life has been mostly wonderful except for annual heartbreak, when another robot dog is torn from her arms and replaced with the latest model. And more recently, there is the heartbreak of her brother, Billy, who vanished without a trace a year earlier. Wolf, there to console Nano, has suddenly become more than a friend. (Bad news for Jack.) With the excitement of a surprise first romance, Nano is happier than ever, in spite of her loss. But then she makes a discovery that upends everything she took for granted: a living puppy who wags its tail. And there is no way she is letting this dog go.



Hardcover, 208 pages
Publisher: Soho Press Inc, 17th April 2018
For Ages: 15 - 18 years old

RRP: $29.99 from www.booktopia.com.au

ARGOS
The Story of Odysseus as Told by His Loyal Dog
by Ralph Hardy

This is the reimagining of Homer’s The Odyssey told from the point of view of Odysseus’s loyal dog, Argos.


Now available in paperback, Argos is a rousing story of devotion and determination is an original take on one of the most beloved myths of all time.

For twenty years, the great hero Odysseus struggles to return to home on Ithaka. He defeats monsters. He outsmarts the Cyclops. He battles the gods. He does whatever it takes to reunite with his family. And what of that family: his devoted wife, Penelope; his young son, Telemachos; his dog, Argos? For those twenty years, they wait, unsure whether they will ever see Odysseus again. But Argos has found a way to track his master.

Any animal who sets foot or wing on Ithaka brings him news of Odysseus’s epic voyage. These tales bring hope that one day his master will return. Meanwhile, Argos the loyal dog watches over his master’s family and protects them from the dangers that surround a throne without its king.


Paperback, 400 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins, 27th March 2018
For Ages: 9 - 11 years old


RRP: $13.99 from www.booktopia.com.au


FLASH THE SHEEP DOG
by Kathleen Fidler


Orphan Tom has been sent to live in the Scottish Borders with an uncle and aunt he's never met. But a remote sheep farm in Scotland is a different world from his home in London. Tom is lonely and struggles to fit in with strange new people and their odd ways, until his uncle gives him a sheep dog puppy called Flash. Flash is loving, clever and brave and Tom is determined to make him the best sheepdog he can be - perhaps even a champion! But when the day of the competition arrives Tom faces a difficult decision - will he leave his new life, and Flash, behind? 

In this true classic by much-loved children's author Kathleen Fidler, a young boy discovers friendship, acceptance and a new home in the Scottish Borders through his love for his best friend, Flash. Adapted for the big screen in 1966, Flash the Sheepdog remains an unrivalled portrait of rural Scotland and is a story that has been loved by generations of children.

Paperback, 176 pages 
Publisher: Series Kelpies - Floris Books, 19th April 2018
For Ages: 8 - 9 years old


RRP: $19.99 from www.booktopia.com.au


DOGS IN SPACE
The Amazing True Story of Belka and Strelka
by Victoria Southgate, illustrated by Iris Deppe

Meet Belka and Strelka, the two dogs who changed the face of space history and became international celebrities in the process!


In 1960, two stray dogs were plucked from the streets of Moscow to be the guinea pigs of manned space flight.
Dogs in Space tells the incredible true story of these heroic strays - named Belka and Strelka. Selected from a number of potential canine cosmonauts, Belka and Strelka are put through their paces on the ground, as they practice rocket simulations and wearing spacesuits, before being launched into outer space as the first ever living creatures to successfully orbit the Earth. 


Miraculously, the dogs survive the mission and upon their return embark on a tour of the USSR, clad in their carefully tailored jumpsuits - one red, one green - becoming international celebrities in the process. In 1961, Khrushchev sends one of Strelka's puppies, Pushinka, to the White House as a gift to President Kennedy and his family. Belka and Strelka's most enduring legacy, however, is the role they played in advancing manned space flight - less than a year after their safe return to Earth, the Russian space programme felt confident enough to send a human into space.

Hardcover, 32 pages
Publisher: Hachette Children's Group, 10th April 2018
For Ages: 5+ years old

RRP: $24.99 from www.booktopia.com.au  


Australian Dog Lover is a participant in the Booktopia affiliate advertising program, designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to www.booktopia.com.au
« PREV
NEXT »

No comments

Post a Comment