Book Review: The Bedtime Book for Dogs (dogs)

The Bedtime Book for Dogs by Bruce Littlefield (Grand Central Publishing, 2011, $15.95, 28 pages, ages 4 and up) 

You do read to your dog at bedtime, don’t you?

I do and I’m proud of it. Sam loves being read to. This book is in my Top Two of all dog books - for dogs.

At bedtime, I bring The Bedtime Book out, Sam The Dog comes over to me, and I pet him with one hand while the other turns the pages. Sam is a good dog, just like the dog in the book, and he knows it because I tell him so, all the time. Sam loves being told he’s a good dog.

The Big Lesson

Dedicated to “Westminster and all good dogs,” this is the only book I have counted the number of words in – 191 short words, many of which your dog can recognize. So, it’s a short book that covers a lot of material – things good dogs do - but the best, being the Big Lesson which is unintrusive. When the dog comes home after getting out, instead of punishing him, his friend says, “You came home! You’re a good dog!” 

We have much to learn from this – basically to never punish a dog for coming home, no matter how long he has been gone.

The Story

The Bedtime Book is a story within a story - about a good dog, and a treat, of course. The dog has heard the story before, knows how it ends and still loves it (just like your child).

The story is about a dog, a good dog who wants to go to the park, but his friend is busy so the good dog goes by himself. He has various short adventures and then decides that everything is more fun with his friend. So he returns home. . . . because he left his heart at home with his friend.

Why I Love The Bedtime Book for Dogs

The inside covers show many dogs of all makes and models with even a place to put your own good dog’s photo. The good dog illustrated in the book could be any dog, if you use your imagination.

I simply love The Bedtime Book for Dogs! It’s the best feeling to end your day with, along with your best friend.

Watch Bruce Littlefield read part of The Bedtime Book to his own good dog, Westminster, here: http://bedtimebookfordogs.com/?page_id=83

Book Review: Dog InSight (dog training and behavior problems)

Dog InSight, Pamela Reid, PhD, CAAB (Dogwise Publishing, 216 pages, 2012, $12.95) 

At First Glance

Glancing at the organization, Dog InSight is excellent, covering Behavior (normal everyday dog behavior, ethology), Training (skills), and Behavior Problems - each with an introductory page and suggested books.

InSight is a Dogwise book and that means quality! Wonderfully easy to read and entertaining as well as informative. Unfortunately, the fact that these 43 short essays are previously-penned columns is apparent neither in the description nor on the cover. A few were updated in 2011, though the original year of publication is not noted.

Handy Chapter

The selection ‘Dog Behaviour Professionals’ (yes, Canadian spelling was kept intact) discusses certifications and trainers, veterinarians, veterinary behaviorists, and applied animal behaviorists. Astute readers will notice the bias towards professionals with postgraduate degrees (Pamela Reid has a PhD herself).

Reid and McConnell

If you liked Dr. Patricia McConnell’s Tales of Two Species, you will like Pam Reid’s book! Both are collections of canine columns from lay periodicals: McConnell’s behavior columns appeared in The BARk, while Reid’s columns are from Dogs in Canada (no longer available). Both books are uplifting and will bring a smile to your reading and warm memories to your heart. McConnell’s love for dogs shines through her essays while Reid successfully educates and supports dog lovers of all ilks. Read in any order, InSight chapters appeal to the average dog person, breeder, canine competition sports enthusiast, and especially beginning dog training and behavior professionals.

More Topics

Reid masterfully tackles canine issues from dominance, learning theory, play, packs, calming signals, temperament, separation anxiety, and shyness, to thunderphobia - all with aplomb, sensitivity and often humor. ‘Hush, Puppy! Controlling Canine Noise Pollution’ is very thorough but also states the methods will not solve every noise problem. My favorite chapter is ‘Saying “No”: How To Tell Your Dog He’s Done Something Wrong.’

Reid's Experience

Reid has owned unusual breeds with fascinating issues: knowing this tells us she understands, is experienced, and that this book is the next best thing to a private consult!

Intrique, Drawbacks

The title, Dogs InSight, intrigues me still (similar to Excel-erated Learning with the hyphen). What is meant by ‘InSight’? Information about dogs or is the book about dogs that are ‘in sight,’ the dogs we live with, who live onsite, in sight of us? The intriguing cover photo requires more than a quick look as well!

I prefer books that cite references, particularly studies mentioned: here InSight falls short. Yes, there is one page of Recommended Reading but the books listed include some from back in the ‘60s and no peer-reviewed papers (many readers are self-learner ‘education hounds’) are cited, even those referred to in the text.

Recommendation

Reid’s writing has vastly improved since Excel-erated Learning(1996) perhaps because the readership for InSight is wider. Each essay begins with an attention-grabber and ends full-circle. I dog-eared many pages and highlighted liberally.

Now, if I can only remember to grab this little book when I have a specific question that it answers!

Book Review: What Puppies Do Best (puppies, children, families)

What Puppies Do Best, Laura Numeroff *(Chronicle Books, 32 pages, 2011, $14.99, ages: preschool and up) 

Almost a book without words, What Puppies Do Best is a first big kids’ book to enthrall your young one.

Boys and girls with long hair, short hair, red hair, brown hair, blond hair, black hair, curly hair, pigtails.

Dirty puppies, kissing puppies, hugging puppies, big puppies and little puppies and long puppies, tired puppies, puppies at play, on walks, at sleep, and cuddling.

If your child can’t find a picture of himself or herself and the family puppy, I’ll be doggone!

Lessons

With the unfortunate inclusion of the girl taking two puppies for a walk on flexi-leads (never recommended for children or even for adults who are not dog trainers) - the illustration shows the two puppies tangled up in their flexi’s around the little girl – a very dangerous situation indeed.

Other than that, a fun book to share with your youngster! But because of the tangled flexi’s, I can only give it four stars, not five.

*What Brothers Do Best and What Sisters Do Best are also by the same author as well as the new and popular If You Give A Dog A Donut

Book Review: Skunkdog (dog, children)

Skunkdog, by Emily Jenkins (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008, 30 pages, $16.95) 

Just what is a skunkdog, anyway?

Dog Gets ‘Skunked’ by New ‘Friend’

Little girls will love the sweet story, little boys will love the ribald ‘skunkiness,’ and parents will commiserate with the foibles of having a dog in the family – the exuberance, the throwing up in the car, . . . .

The Star of our Story – A functionally noseless, definitely friendless, but nicely obedient and brave Dumpling!

Every human and animal character in the book has an unusual nose – usually a big one – even the skunk.

Dumpling the dog, however, even with his oversized canine nose, smells nothing. . . .nothing - which gets him into trouble and helps him  find a friend. How can that be?

Lessons

The only drawback to this book, which can serve as a conversation starter for the family as a whole, is the dog’s living arrangement - in the backyard in a doghouse rather than inside with his boy. Also talkable aboutable is why not to drag a dog by the collar.

The Lonely Dumpling Finds a Friend at Last, But. . . .

The family moves to the country and Dumpling makes a new friend, a skunky friend. But is the skunk really a friend?

The family learns by trial and error, the best way to deskunk a dog. You will too (added bonus).

Recommendation

Cute illustrations – the inside cover shows a bush with a wagging tail and two shoes (obviously on an upside-down kid) poking above it.

Whimsical phrases to savor on your tongue.

Lovely book about friendship.

Book Review: Muddypaws (2 titles) - (dog, children)

Muddypaws and the Birthday Party, A Story about Birthdays, Balloons and Best Friends, by Deborah Chancellor, Parragon, 2009, 7.99$, 32 pages. (The sequel to Muddy Paws, by Moira Butterfield, Parragon, 2008, 5$, ages 4-8)

Muddypaws? What kind of a name is that for a dog?

What child doesn’t understand a birthday party to which the family pup is not invited? (It’s boring outside alone.)

How the day turns out, turns out to be a test of hope, faith, and love for both Muddypaws and her boy, Ben, who have always done everything together – until today, Ben’s birthday.

Adorable watercolors of this little Golden Retriever in a large sized book which beg the little reader to reach out and pet her may be glossed over by your child but the antics of those muddy paws will elicit giggles on nearly every page. Your child will easily identify with this little puppy’s always-muddy paws and also with the pup’s now 6 year-old boy, Ben.

Even the language is fun – “splashy-splashy,” and “a  smallish, normalish boy.”

What are those strange shiny things? Your child will know. And when the young guests are shown in costume but only from the waist down (a puppy’s eye view), your child will be able to tell you who they are – from princess to pirate and more. What does Mom carry that twinkles brightly? Young readers will know.

And the Muddypaws books are child-sized – big enough for a child to easily turn the pages for you.

The illustration of Ben walking Muddypaws on leash can spark conversations of loose leash walking, how to hold the leash safely and, since the book is by a British author, you may have to explain why Muddypaws likes sausages rather than dog biscuits! Or that British children dress up in costume to attend a birthday party (like we do on Halloween) – maybe your young reader would like to adopt that custom of costumes.

_________________________________

Muddypaws Goes to School, by Peter Bently, Parragon, 2011, 7.99$, 32 pages.

Muddy Paws and his boy Ben do everything together, except for baths and school., but, . . . one day Muddypaws gets out of the backyard and follows Ben to school (remember, they do everything together) - but the little pup can’t find his best friend.

How he searches for Ben everywhere and the fun-trouble he gets in to at school make for a laugh a minute for young readers and old, alike. Your child will love holding her breath with suspense, wondering how Ben and Muddy Paws will ever find each other!

Muddypaws finds that digging is hard work when he buries the flowers in the sandbox. He also finds paints and sandwiches and . . . .

Illustrated again by Simon Mendez but with a different author, Muddy Paws Goes to School has delightful primary color illustrations of school antics that will have your youngster laughing with glee! The words are a bit more fun (lollopped, scritch-scratch) but the plot is a bit less “plotty” than the birthday book.

I first read these books at the library, then went out and purchased them. I have now made a very difficult decision – to give them to my favorite three-year old. Oh, they will be hard to part with but will give much reading pleasure over and over again to Naomi who already knows "all about Golden Retrievers."

Note: Also available are Muddypaws' First Christmas (2012) and Muddypaws' New Friends (2013)

Book Review: Walking in Circles Before Lying Down (dog)

Walking in Circles Before Lying Down, Merrill Markoe (Random House, 270 pages, 2006, $22.95) 

Walking in Circles Before Lying Down starts out like a book you simply can’t put down. A riotous family of four, now all grown up, with one family member crazier than the next except for our almost normal narrator who may be writing a side-splitting book about her family and her several loves, as well as those of her mother, her father and her sister.

You would almost think Walking should be set in the Hippie Era of the 60s and 70s, for all the moving around from one abode to another and one hair-brained money-raising scheme to another.

However, after just a few chapters, the fast-paced conversations and plot twists become exhausting. Each short chapter begins with a few paragraphs about the book being written (or not), then advances the plot and ends with a few wise interpretations from the major canine character who saves the storyline.

Chuck is a pit bull type who talks (as do all the other dogs) but only to our major character (who may be the only sane human in the bunch). Unfortunately, the adorable canine on the cover doesn’t resemble a pit bull in the least but is adorable and adorably posed.

Now, if only the entire book could be written from the wise point of view of Chuck the dog. . . . 

Book Review: City Dog, Country Frog (dog, animals, seasons of life)

City Dog, Country Frog by Mo Willems (Simon and Schuster, 2010, 64 pages, $17.00, ages 3-6) 

A city dog first visits the countryside in the spring, off leash, and spies a country frog waiting for a playmate: the city dog ‘will do,’ so they play country-frog games. When the city dog returns in the summer, they play city-dog games. During the fall, the country frog tires and slows down so by the water’s edge they soak up the autumn sun’s rays while playing ‘remembering games.’ City dog cannot find his friend during the winter or when he returns the following spring but he meets a country chipmunk and says that he ‘will do’ for a friend.

And so the cycle of life begins once again.

Adults will simply love the delightful watercolor illustrations (check out the cover illustration).

Kids will love the lack of adults and will learn about friendship with those different from us. 

For a deeper meaning, children and their adults can talk about the passing of life, the continuation of life, and the short lifespans in the animal world, including those of our pets. 

On a lighter level, City Dog is all about sharing games and life - with those who are different from us.

City Dog, Country Frog reminds one of a Charlotte’s Web for the younger set: good friends can be found everywhere!

And so can good books.

(Both author and illustrator are New York Times’ best sellers and Caldecott honorees.)