If like us, you couldn't bear the idea of a Christmas morning without a nice pile of real books to unwrap or need to get a head start on your Christmas shopping, dive into our latest selection for the Dog Lovers Book Club!
SIT, STAY, HEAL
What Dogs Can Teach Us About Living Well
by Renee Alsarraf
For more than two decades, esteemed veterinary oncologist Dr. Renee Alsarraf treated cancer in her beloved canine patients. Then, at age fifty-one, she was diagnosed with cancer herself.
Sit, Stay, Heal: What Dogs Can Teach Us About Living Well is Dr. Renee's unforgettable testament to the extraordinary healing nature of dogs. Every day in her veterinary practice, she bears witness to the undeniable bond between pets and their people. However, while we are busy teaching them to "sit" and "stay," they have their own, more profound, lessons to impart.
What Dogs Can Teach Us About Living Well
by Renee Alsarraf
For more than two decades, esteemed veterinary oncologist Dr. Renee Alsarraf treated cancer in her beloved canine patients. Then, at age fifty-one, she was diagnosed with cancer herself.
In Sit, Stay, Heal, we meet Cosmo, the Golden Retriever who arrives at Renee's office just before his fourteenth family vacation to the beach; Daisy, the Cocker Spaniel, an emotional support dog for a special needs child; and Franny, the bloodhound, a police dog who wasn't ready to retire from the force. Then there's Dr. Renee's own dog Newtie, who falls ill when she needs him most.
Our dogs are wise in ways humans are not. For Dr. Renee, it was her patients--those furry, four-legged, slobbering animals--who seemed to uniquely understand her difficult journey and who showed her the true power of positivity and unconditional love. Full of life lessons and healing metaphors, perfect dogs and their imperfect humans, Sit, Stay, Heal is a captivating, heart-warming story for dog lovers far and wide.
Hardcover, 256 pages
Publisher: Harper San Francisco, 18th October 2022
RRP: $53.95 at www.booktopia.com.au
Our dogs are wise in ways humans are not. For Dr. Renee, it was her patients--those furry, four-legged, slobbering animals--who seemed to uniquely understand her difficult journey and who showed her the true power of positivity and unconditional love. Full of life lessons and healing metaphors, perfect dogs and their imperfect humans, Sit, Stay, Heal is a captivating, heart-warming story for dog lovers far and wide.
Hardcover, 256 pages
Publisher: Harper San Francisco, 18th October 2022
RRP: $53.95 at www.booktopia.com.au
THE YEAR OF THE PUPPY
How Dogs Become Themselves
by Alexandra Horowitz
What is it like to be a puppy? Author of the classic Inside of a Dog, Alexandra Horowitz tries to find out, spending a year scrutinizing her puppy's daily existence and poring over the science of early dog development
Few of us meet our dogs at Day One. The dog who will, eventually, become an integral part of our family, our constant companion and best friend, is born without us into a family of her own. A puppy's critical early development into the dog we come to know is usually missed entirely. Dog researcher Alexandra Horowitz aimed to change that with her family's new pup, Quiddity (Quid). In this scientific memoir, she charts Quid's growth from wee grub to boisterous sprite, from her birth to her first birthday.
Horowitz follows Quid's first weeks with her mother and ten roly-poly littermates, and then each week after the puppy joins her household of three humans, two large dogs, and a wary cat. She documents the social and cognitive milestones that so many of us miss in our puppies' lives, when caught up in the housetraining and behavioural training that easily overwhelms the first months of a dog's life with a new family. In focusing on training a dog to behave, we mostly miss the radical development of a puppy into themselves - through the equivalent of infancy, childhood, young adolescence, and teenager-hood.
By slowing down to observe Quid from week to week, The Year of the Puppy makes new sense of a dog's behaviour in a way that is missed when the focus is only on training. Horowitz keeps a lens on the puppy's point of view - how they (begin to) see and smell the world, make meaning of it, and become an individual personality. She's there when the puppies first open their eyes, first start to recognize one another and learn about cats, sheep, and people; she sees them from their first play bows to puberty.
by Alexandra Horowitz
What is it like to be a puppy? Author of the classic Inside of a Dog, Alexandra Horowitz tries to find out, spending a year scrutinizing her puppy's daily existence and poring over the science of early dog development
Few of us meet our dogs at Day One. The dog who will, eventually, become an integral part of our family, our constant companion and best friend, is born without us into a family of her own. A puppy's critical early development into the dog we come to know is usually missed entirely. Dog researcher Alexandra Horowitz aimed to change that with her family's new pup, Quiddity (Quid). In this scientific memoir, she charts Quid's growth from wee grub to boisterous sprite, from her birth to her first birthday.
By slowing down to observe Quid from week to week, The Year of the Puppy makes new sense of a dog's behaviour in a way that is missed when the focus is only on training. Horowitz keeps a lens on the puppy's point of view - how they (begin to) see and smell the world, make meaning of it, and become an individual personality. She's there when the puppies first open their eyes, first start to recognize one another and learn about cats, sheep, and people; she sees them from their first play bows to puberty.
Horowitz also draws from the ample research in the fields of dog and human development to draw analogies between a dog's first year and the growing child--and to note where they diverge. The Year of the Puppy is indispensable for anyone navigating their way through the frustrating, amusing, and ultimately delightful first year of a puppy's life.
Hardcover, 320 pages
Publisher: Viking, 20 September 2022
RRP: $52.48 from www.amazon.com.au
Hardcover, 320 pages
Publisher: Viking, 20 September 2022
RRP: $52.48 from www.amazon.com.au
THE DEFINITIVE GERMAN SHEPHERD DOG
by Louis C. Donald
The Definitive German Shepherd Dog provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date information published on the breed since the tome of Captain von Stephanitz in 1928.
Lavishly illustrated in full colour, containing over 1,300 photographs, images, illustrations and diagrams, the book provides in-depth information to a wide spectrum of canine enthusiasts: family dog, show, dog sport, service, security, police, search and rescue, obedience, herding, agility, seeing-eye, tracking, military and rehabilitation dogs.
Additionally, there are collaborative chapters covering nutrition, veterinary and genetics.
The extensive chapter covering the 123 years of the breed’s development includes over 500 named photographs of dogs and provides a frank, candid, and factual account of the how, when and why changes occurred to the dogs' anatomy and character and the division between show dogs and working dogs.
The substantial chapters on anatomy and locomotion provide the most up-to-date research and knowledge, with highly detailed descriptions and over 600 diagrams and images of canine morphology, offering a valuable and unique reference and resource for dog judges, dog breeders and students, not only of German Shepherd Dogs but all dogs in general.
RRP: $265.00 from www.louisdonald.com/book
The extensive chapter covering the 123 years of the breed’s development includes over 500 named photographs of dogs and provides a frank, candid, and factual account of the how, when and why changes occurred to the dogs' anatomy and character and the division between show dogs and working dogs.
The substantial chapters on anatomy and locomotion provide the most up-to-date research and knowledge, with highly detailed descriptions and over 600 diagrams and images of canine morphology, offering a valuable and unique reference and resource for dog judges, dog breeders and students, not only of German Shepherd Dogs but all dogs in general.
RRP: $265.00 from www.louisdonald.com/book
(Dog Clubs, please note that discounted shipping is available for orders of 4 or more books).
A DOG’S DEVOTION
True Adventures of a K9 Search and Rescue Team
by Suzanne Elshult, James Guy Mansfield
In late March of 2014, death descended upon the community of Oso, Washington in the form of a massive landslide. Ten million cubic yards of dirt and mud crashed through homes, sweeping a 20-foot-high wall of debris before it and scouring the valley floor.
A DOG’S DEVOTION
True Adventures of a K9 Search and Rescue Team
by Suzanne Elshult, James Guy Mansfield
In late March of 2014, death descended upon the community of Oso, Washington in the form of a massive landslide. Ten million cubic yards of dirt and mud crashed through homes, sweeping a 20-foot-high wall of debris before it and scouring the valley floor.
In the cold rain of that morning, an entire community disappeared in a sea of mud. In the desperate hours that followed, rescue crews were able to pull only eight survivors out of the wrecked landscape. And then all became quiet, with the stunned realization that many more people were missing, but none were still living. This is the moment when the story of A Dog's Devotion begins.
The emergency call from Oso went out, and was answered by K9 Search and Rescue (SAR) teams from across the Pacific Northwest. Suzanne, along with her 4-year-old Labrador Retriever, Keb, and her teammate Guy, was one of the SAR teams to respond to this disaster. In this book, readers immediately find themselves on the ground in the cold mud of the Oso Landslide Disaster on the desperate search for the remains of over forty lost souls.
In subsequent chapters, readers will accompany Suzanne, Guy, and Keb as they are inserted by helicopter to search high snowfields on Mount Rainier, or as they traverse steep, forested slopes searching for the clandestine grave of murder victims. They'll join K9 Keb, as her keen nose leads to human remains in the forests of Washington State and as far away as the woods of Scandinavia. Keb's story is of a dedicated K9 who can distinguish the scent of the dead from the scent of the living, and who can detect buried bones and even corpses underwater.
Readers will follow this intrepid K9 and her teammates as they face the challenges of changeable weather, deep northwest forests, high mountain slopes, and menacing coyotes to find dead bodies, missing hikers, and even the bones of murder victims from long ago.
Readers will follow this intrepid K9 and her teammates as they face the challenges of changeable weather, deep northwest forests, high mountain slopes, and menacing coyotes to find dead bodies, missing hikers, and even the bones of murder victims from long ago.
While internal conflicts threaten their larger K9 team, Keb's training, loyalty, and perseverance inspire them, and help them find the resolve to carry on their service to the community.
Hardcover, 272 pages
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 15th October 2022
RRP: $55.75 at www.booktopia.com.au
Hardcover, 272 pages
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 15th October 2022
RRP: $55.75 at www.booktopia.com.au
CANINE LEGENDS
Volume II
by Marco Magiolo
The Legends are back in an even more thrilling sequel. Marquito, Sany, Amy, Lisa, alongside their dogs Arrow, Maximus, X, Fire will compete again for the national title. This time, the fight won't just be between them because new handlers are also arriving.
Emotions won't just stay inside the track, outside of it, Marquito still has to deal with his family dramas, his unresolved relationship with Amy and the opening of his new training center with students wearing the famous lime green uniforms.
And feelings will be taken beyond borders as handlers travel to the Netherlands to compete in the Dog Agility World Championship.
Volume II
by Marco Magiolo
Emotions won't just stay inside the track, outside of it, Marquito still has to deal with his family dramas, his unresolved relationship with Amy and the opening of his new training center with students wearing the famous lime green uniforms.
And feelings will be taken beyond borders as handlers travel to the Netherlands to compete in the Dog Agility World Championship.
Paperback, 326 pages
Publisher: Independently published, 26th July 2022
Price: $32.90 from www.booktopia.com.au
Publisher: Independently published, 26th July 2022
Price: $32.90 from www.booktopia.com.au
BOOK CLUB KIDS’ CORNER
Detector Dogs, Dynamite Dolphins, and More Animals
with Super Sensory Powers
by Cara Giaimo, Christina Couch, Daniel Duncan (Illustrator)
Meet incredible animals with all kinds of highly developed senses and learn about the jobs they do in this book full of amazing facts, cool science, and activities.
Fly alongside a photo-delivery pigeon, discover a honeybee's electric secrets, and sail the high seas with a poop-sniffing dog detective on a mission to save endangered killer whales. All of these animals use their super senses, from echolocation to electroreception, to help human co-workers tackle real-world problems like pollution and global warming.
by Cara Giaimo, Christina Couch, Daniel Duncan (Illustrator)
Meet incredible animals with all kinds of highly developed senses and learn about the jobs they do in this book full of amazing facts, cool science, and activities.
Each chapter introduces a different animal, such as Cynthia, the pipe-fixing ferret, and Rosita, a goat who helps prevent wildfires. With bright and entertaining text alongside colourful photos and illustrations, this book examines how each animal's behaviour and biology makes it perfectly suited for the job it does. At the end of each chapter, curious young scientists are invited to explore their own human senses through fun guided experiments.
Paperback, 176 pages
Publisher: MIT Kids Press, 13th September 2022
For Ages: 9 - 12 years old
RRP: $29.50 from www.booktopia.com.au
AJAX THE NAUGHTY PUPPY
by Lorraine Dixon, illustrated by Tess Marryatt
The stories of Ajax the Kea Dog and his work helping preserve birdlife have become part of New Zealand legend.
Ajax and his mate Corey Mosen have featured in two well-received books and gained fame well beyond conservation circles.
"Ajax the Kea Dog" and "Ajax's Sidekick" tell stories of Corey and his work in New Zealand and beyond, often with Ajax, a border collie Catahoula cross, a dog he trained to sniff out kea nests.
While the young conservationist took himself off on conservation volunteer work overseas, Ajax was left in the care of Corey's mum and stepdad, Lorraine Dixon and Ray Foster.
Before the world-famous “Ajax the Kea Dog” grew up, he was a rather naughty puppy who got into all sorts of mischief! Sadly, Ajax died, aged 10, on March 18 of this year, just as the book was nearing its completion.
Paperback, 28 pages
Publisher: Lorraine Dixon, July 2022
RRP: $19.58 at www.copypress.co.nz
Paperback, 176 pages
Publisher: MIT Kids Press, 13th September 2022
For Ages: 9 - 12 years old
RRP: $29.50 from www.booktopia.com.au
AJAX THE NAUGHTY PUPPY
by Lorraine Dixon, illustrated by Tess Marryatt
The stories of Ajax the Kea Dog and his work helping preserve birdlife have become part of New Zealand legend.
Ajax and his mate Corey Mosen have featured in two well-received books and gained fame well beyond conservation circles.
While the young conservationist took himself off on conservation volunteer work overseas, Ajax was left in the care of Corey's mum and stepdad, Lorraine Dixon and Ray Foster.
Before the world-famous “Ajax the Kea Dog” grew up, he was a rather naughty puppy who got into all sorts of mischief! Sadly, Ajax died, aged 10, on March 18 of this year, just as the book was nearing its completion.
Paperback, 28 pages
Publisher: Lorraine Dixon, July 2022
RRP: $19.58 at www.copypress.co.nz
NO DOGS ALLOWED... A DAY AT THE BEACH
by Tales By Teeley, Swapnil & Nirzhar
What do you do when you want to take your dog to the beach but there are "NO DOGS ALLOWED" signs everywhere? Why, dress them up as an old lady, of course!
Cole and Misty are determined to make the most of their day at the beach, and that means bringing their dog Pepper along. But when Mom says Pepper can't come, they must get creative with grandma's wardrobe.
by Tales By Teeley, Swapnil & Nirzhar
Cole and Misty are determined to make the most of their day at the beach, and that means bringing their dog Pepper along. But when Mom says Pepper can't come, they must get creative with grandma's wardrobe.
Mom doesn't suspect a thing, but the beach lifeguard doesn't trust this strange old lady sticking her face in the sand. Can Cole and Misty convince him Pepper is nothing more than a harmless old lady before they get kicked off the beach?
Paperback, 40 pages
Publisher: Tales by Teeley, 15th September 2022
RRP: $42.25 from www.booktopia.com.au
STREET DOGS
by Lisa Worth, Mandy Lalley (Illustrator)
Rafiq is a sweet, scruffy street dog, living in a sleepy Middle Eastern town.
He doesn't like to complain or seem ungrateful, but with only one eye that works, what use is he to his pack?
Halimah is smart and can get them out of any sticky situation, and as for Buster, wow he's brave! Imshee is quicker than a lizard and Spike leaps like an antelope, but Rafiq? What can he do?
Sometimes he just wants to lay on his back on the beach and soak up the sunshine, to forget how useless his friends make him feel. Even this is spoiled by an angry, screeching sea bird who terrifies him, and he wonders if he should just run away altogether.
But he can't leave his pack - he'd be far too lonely - and what he doesn't know is that soon, they're going to need him more than ever.
Maybe it wasn't his street dog pals that made him feel useless after all. Maybe he just wasn't being kind to himself.
Paperback, 56 pages
Published: 31st August 2022
For Ages: 5 - 12 years old
RRP: $18.12 from www.booktopia.com.au
Paperback, 40 pages
Publisher: Tales by Teeley, 15th September 2022
RRP: $42.25 from www.booktopia.com.au
STREET DOGS
by Lisa Worth, Mandy Lalley (Illustrator)
He doesn't like to complain or seem ungrateful, but with only one eye that works, what use is he to his pack?
Halimah is smart and can get them out of any sticky situation, and as for Buster, wow he's brave! Imshee is quicker than a lizard and Spike leaps like an antelope, but Rafiq? What can he do?
Sometimes he just wants to lay on his back on the beach and soak up the sunshine, to forget how useless his friends make him feel. Even this is spoiled by an angry, screeching sea bird who terrifies him, and he wonders if he should just run away altogether.
But he can't leave his pack - he'd be far too lonely - and what he doesn't know is that soon, they're going to need him more than ever.
Maybe it wasn't his street dog pals that made him feel useless after all. Maybe he just wasn't being kind to himself.
Paperback, 56 pages
Published: 31st August 2022
For Ages: 5 - 12 years old
RRP: $18.12 from www.booktopia.com.au
by Tedd Arnold (Fly Guy Presents)
Fly Guy is buzzing to learn all about dogs!
Award-winning author-illustrator Tedd Arnold brings nonfiction to life for beginning readers in the next book in the kid-favourite Fly Guy Presents series. There are humorous illustrations and engaging photographs throughout. And the front cover features eye-catching holographic foil!
Paperback, 32 pages (also available as Hardcover & ebook)
Publisher: Scholastic Press, 18th October 2022
For Ages: 5 - 7 years old
