Dog Lovers Book Club - June 2018

Written by Australian Dog Lover 09:16:00 - 0 Comments

Publishers must be counting on us spending a lot more time indoors in winter - they'd be right about that - as this month is packed full of new releases that will make you want to curl up by the fire with your dogs! 

Here's our June 2018 book selection featuring the latest developments in dog behaviour and animal neuroscience, the bio of a brave war dog, health advice not to forget some educational options for the young dog lovers.

MAKING DOGS HAPPY
How to be your dog’s best friend!
by Melissa Starling, Paul McGreevy


Is your dog happy? How do you know? Studies have shown that many dog owners incorrectly interpret their dog's behaviour and emotions. Making Dogs Happy will ensure you're being a good human to your furry companion. Learn what motivates your particular dog and how you can train your dog accordingly, making your dog as happy as they make you.

Written by world-leading experts in dog behaviour, Making Dogs Happy introduces the idea of dogmanship - the ability to interact with and train dogs. With photographs demonstrating key behaviours of dozens of furry charmers, it's one handbook no dog lover can go past.



Paperback, 240 pages
Publisher: Murdoch Books, 23rd May 2018

RRP: $35.00 from www.booktopia.com.au

SMOKY THE BRAVE

The World's Smallest Dog, The World's Biggest Heart

by Damien Lewis

Smoky the Yorkshire Terrier is the smallest, cutest and arguably bravest dog of the Second World War, who also took to the skies in his fight against the enemy.

In February 1944, as Japanese military advances threatened to engulf Australasia, a tiny, four-pound Yorkshire terrier was discovered hiding in a Japanese shell scrape amidst the thick jungles of Papua New Guinea. A mystery, she was adopted by Corporal William 'Bill' Wynne, an air-crewman with the US 5th Air Force's 26th Photo Reconnaissance Squadron.

Living in Bill Wynne's tent, sleeping on a piece of green felt salvaged from a card table, and sharing his rations, Smoky became the de facto mascot of the regiment. She went on to fly numerous photo-recce and air-sea rescue missions, cocooned in a soldier's pack hanging next to the machine-guns used to repel marauding Japanese fighters. She was awarded eight battle stars, surviving dozens of Japanese combat raids on Papua New Guinea, and braving a typhoon that ravaged Okinawa.

After saving Wynne's life by warning of a falling shell - a shell that killed the eight men that Wynne was standing beside - he nicknamed her the 'angel from a foxhole'. In one of her most famous exploits Smoky parachuted using a special rig designed to fit one of the world's smallest but toughest dogs.

In perhaps her most heroic exploit of all, Smoky ran a cable through a seventy-foot pipe no wider in places than four inches, to enable telephone lines to be run across the recently occupied airbase of Luzon. Her efforts saved hundreds of ground-crew from being exposed to enemy bombing, preventing injury and loss of life. 

Paperback, 352 pages
Publisher: Quercus Publishing Plc, 29th May 2018

RRP: $32.99 from www.booktopia.com.au

WHAT IT’S LIKE TO BE A DOG
And Other Adventures in Animal Neuroscience
by Gregory Berns

What is it like to be a dog? A bat? Or a dolphin? 

To find out, neuroscientist Gregory Berns and his team did something unique - they persuaded dogs to lie in an MRI scanner while completely awake. This gave them an unparalleled insight into what makes dogs individuals with varying capacities for self-control, different value systems and a complex understanding of human speech. And that was just the beginning.

From sea lions to the extinct Tasmanian tiger, Berns provides fascinating glimpses into the inner lives of animals. His discoveries have profound implications for how we communicate with and treat our furry, and not-so-furry, friends. Revolutionary and deeply humane, What It's Like to Be a Dog is essential reading for animal lovers of all stripes.

Paperback, 304 pages
Publisher: Oneworld Publications - Bloomsbury, 12th April 2018

RRP: $27.99 from www.booktopia.com.au

CANINE AGGRESSION

Rehabilitating an aggressive dog with kindness and compassion
by Tracey McLennan

Caring for a dog who lunges, barks at and even bites other dogs is incredibly difficult. Canine Aggression follows the inspiring story of a Bull Mastiff called Calgacus, and his caretaker, first-time dog owner Tracey McLennan. 

For Tracey, the arrival of Calgacus in her life was a lifelong dream come true ... but a dream that became a nightmare when Calgacus attacked and badly injured another dog, and showed every sign of doing the same to any other dog he came into contact with. Help came from many amazing people, and enabled Tracey to understand Calgacus, and how to encourage him to direct the pace and direction of his rehabilitation. 

TTouch, clicker training, walks with other dogs, and trick training, all played their part in allowing Calgacus to discover joy in knowing his own kind, until he became a dog who loved to be with other dogs. He would play with those who liked to play; be gentle with nervous dogs, and would calm tense situations, encouraging other dogs to be kind to each other.

Paperback, 160 pages
Publisher: Veloce Publishing Ltd – Hubble and Hattie, 10 May 2018

RRP: $29.99 from www.booktopia.com.au

DOG HEALTH CARE
7 Simple Ways to Keep Your Dog Healthy
by Rachele Baker DVM

We all love our dogs and want to give them the best care possible. As a veterinarian, Rachele Baker DVM knows how important it is to provide pet parents with the information they need to keep their dogs healthy and happy.

There are seven chapters in the book covering important ways to keep your dog healthy and two bonus chapters. 

Topics covered include the best nutrition for dogs and puppies, keeping your dog at a healthy weight, fun exercise options for your dog, taking care of your dog’s teeth, protecting your dog from fleas and ticks, and heartworm disease, keeping your dog’s ears clean, and the right vaccinations for your dog.



Paperback, 96 pages
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform, 12th December 2017 

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

BOOK CLUB - KIDS' CORNER

THE DOG WHO WOULDN’T BE
by Farley Mowat

First published in 1957, this is one of those classic dog books that everyone who ever read it remembers. 

Much as they remember the great Canadian novelist Farley Mowat - for his wry humor, his marvelous use of language (his father was a librarian), his passion for animals in all forms and the outdoors in all its glory, and his seemingly endless series of misadventures.

Format: Paperback, 224 pages
Publisher: David R. Godine, 1st November 2017
Audience: Teenager / Young Adult, 12+ years old

RRP: $31.95 from www.booktopia.com.au


THE POET’S DOG
by Patricia MacLachlan

Teddy is a gifted dog. Raised in a cabin by a poet named Sylvan, he grew up listening to sonnets read aloud and the comforting clicking of a keyboard. Although Teddy understands words, Sylvan always told him there are only two kinds of people in the world who can hear Teddy speak: poets and children.

Then one day Teddy learns that Sylvan was right. When Teddy finds Nickel and Flora trapped in a snowstorm, he tells them that he will bring them home - and they understand him. The children are afraid of the howling wind, but not of Teddy's words. They follow him to a cabin in the woods, where the dog used to live with Sylvan... only now his owner is gone.

As they hole up in the cabin for shelter, Teddy is flooded with memories of Sylvan. What will Teddy do when his new friends go home? Can they help one another find what they have lost?

Hardcover, 96 pages
Publisher: Pushkin Children’s Books, 22nd November 2017
Ages: 7-9 years old

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

TWO DOGS IN A TRENCH COAT GO TO SCHOOL
by Julie Falatko, illustrated by Colin Jack 

Sassy and Waldo are good dogs. They spend the day keeping their house safe. Has a squirrel ever gotten inside? No! But every day their boy, Stewart, comes home from this terrible place called school smelling like anxiety and looseleaf paper. 

Sassy and Waldo decide to save Stewart. But they don't let dogs into school. So Sassy and Waldo decide to get creative. They put on an old trench coat, and now everyone at Bea Arthur Elementary thinks they are a new student named Salty from Liver, Ohio. Well, everyone except Stewart.

Sassy and Waldo love school! Everything smells like meat and dirty socks. And they discover a whole other way to help out Stewart!


Hardcover, 192 pages
Publisher: Scholastic Australia, 29th May 2018
For Ages: 8 - 9 years old

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

 

Disclaimer: 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

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