A Dog's Best Friend PDF Download

Author: Simon Garfield
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0063052261
Category : Pets
Languages : en
Pages : 359

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Book Description
“A fascinating, informative and highly entertaining expedition through the highways and byways of dogdom.” —John Bradshaw, New York Times bestselling author of Dog Sense A charming meditation on the relationship between humans and dogs, drawing upon history, science, art, and personal experience to illuminate a magical bond that has endured millennia—from the New York Times bestselling author of Just My Type. “Ludo is now an elderly gentleman, and we would do almost anything to ensure his continued happiness. We schedule our days around his needs—his mealtimes, his walks, the delivery of his life-saving medication (he has epilepsy, poor love). We spend a bizarrely large amount of our disposable income on him, and he never sends a card of thanks. When he’s not with us for a few days, the house feels extraordinarily empty. I feel so fortunate to know him.” Ludo is a dog—Simon Garfield’s beloved black Labrador retriever, one of millions of canines who have become integral parts of our lives. But how did the dog become top dog? How did these faithful animals come to assist us not only in hunting, but in bomb disposal and cancer detection—and ultimately become our closest companions? Dog’s Best Friend examines how this bond developed over the centuries, and how it has transformed countless lives, both human and canine. Garfield begins with the earliest visual representations—dogs depicted in ancient rock art—and ends at the laboratory that first sequenced the canine genome. Along the way, we meet the legendary Corgis of Buckingham Palace, the dogs of the Soviet space program, the world’s first labradoodle, and a border collie that can identify more than a thousand different plush toys. Garfield reveals the secrets of the world’s best dog trainers, takes us inside the wild world of dog breeding and dog shows, and unearths the deep psychological roots of the human-dog link. And Ludo pops his snout in from time to time as well. A celebration of this deep interspecies connection, delivered with Simon Garfield’s inimitable wit, Dog’s Best Friend offers delights and insights for anyone who has ever loved a dog.

Author: Mark Derr
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226142807
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
A comprehensive, humane, and bemused tour of the dog-human relationship, Dog's Best Friend combines anecdote, research, and reportage to illuminate our complex rapport with our cherished canine companions. Tracking our national obsession with an animal that now outnumbers children in American households, Mark Derr chronicles the evolution of "the culture of the dog" from the prehistoric domestication of tamed wolves to the modern horrors of overbreeding and inbreeding. Passionate about his subject and intent on sharing his zeal, Derr defends dogs with wit and flare, producing here a quirky, informative, and fitting tribute to our love affair with canines big and small.

Author: Monks of New Skete
Publisher: Little, Brown
ISBN: 0759524386
Category : Pets
Languages : en
Pages : 420

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Book Description
For more than a quarter century, How to Be Your Dog's Best Friend has been the standard against which all other dog-training books have been measured. This expanded edition preserves the best features of the original classic while bringing the book fully up-to-date. The result: the ultimate training manual for a new generation of dog owners--and, of course, for their canine best friends. The Monks of New Skete have achieved international renown as breeders of German shepherds and as outstanding trainers of dogs of all breeds. Their unique approach to canine training, developed and refined over four decades, is based on the philosophy that "understanding is the key to communication, compassion, and communion" with your dog. How to Be Your Dog's Best Friend covers virtually every aspect of living with and caring for your dog, including: Selecting a dog (what breed? male? female? puppy or older dog?) to fit your lifestyle Where to get--and where not to get--a dog Reading a pedigree Training your dog or puppy--when, where, and how The proper use of praise and discipline Feeding, grooming, and ensuring your dog's physical fitness Recognizing and correcting canine behavioral problems The particular challenges of raising a dog where you live - in the city, country, or suburb The proper techniques for complete care of your pet at every stage of his or her life In its scope, its clarity, and its authority, How to Be Your Dog's Best Friend remains unrivaled as a basic training guide for dog owners. Like no other book, this guide can help you understand and appreciate your dog's nature as well as his or her distinct personality--and in so doing, it can significantly enrich the life you share with your dog.

Author: Larry Kay
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
ISBN: 9781402293498
Category : Conduct of life
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
"Chase adventure. Play fair. Love unconditionally--and don't forget the slobbery kisses. Just like your furry friends, discover how to find joy in the simple things and avoid the dog days for good ... This ... book of woof wisdom is a celebration of the human-animal bond and a guidebook for how to learn from our canine companions"--From publisher's website.

Author: Kersten Hamilton
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
ISBN: 0374389276
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 40

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Book Description
With lyrical text by Kersten Hamilton and luminous illustrations by Jaime Kim, First Friend is an exploration of how the wild wolves became dogs, and how we learned to communicate and grow alongside the creatures we love. Long, long ago, when the world was new...a girl met a pup. In those days, everyone knew that wolves and children could not be friends. Still, they learned from each other—how to hunt, how to trade, how to survive, how to play. And years and years went by, and the world spun and changed. And then—a boy fished with a wolf, and a girl traded with a wild dog, and animal and human grew up side by side. . .into the best friends we are today.

Author: John Sorenson
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 0228000491
Category : Pets
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
In almost 40 per cent of households in North America, dogs are kept as companion animals. Dogs may be man's best friends, but what are humans to dogs? If these animals' loyalty and unconditional love have won our hearts, why do we so often view closely related wild canids, such as foxes, wolves, and coyotes, as pests, predatory killers, and demons? Re-examining the complexity and contradictions of human attitudes towards these animals, Dog's Best Friend? looks at how our relationships with canids have shaped and also been transformed by different political and economic contexts. Journeying from ancient Greek and Roman societies to Japan's Edo period to eighteenth-century England, essays explore how dogs are welcomed as family, consumed in Asian food markets, and used in Western laboratories. Contributors provide glimpses of the lives of street dogs and humans in Bali, India, Taiwan, and Turkey and illuminate historical and current interactions in Western societies. The book delves into the fantasies and fears that play out in stereotypes of coyotes and wolves, while also acknowledging that events such as the Wolf Howl in Canada's Algonquin Park indicate the emergence of new popular perspectives on canids. Questioning where canids belong, how they should be treated, and what rights they should have, Dog's Best Friend? reconsiders the concept of justice and whether it can be extended beyond the limit of the human species.

Author: Mark Derr
Publisher: Abrams
ISBN: 1590209915
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 207

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Book Description
This “informative account” of canine evolution will “appeal to dog lovers with a curiosity about the origins of their favorite companion.” (Publishers Weekly) Many have made the case that dogs have evolved from wolves but the evolutionary link between wolves and dogs remains a mystery. In How the Dog Became the Dog, Mark Derr posits that the dog’s evolution from wolf was inevitable due to the mutually beneficial nature of the relationship between wolves and hunter-gatherer humans. How the Dog Became the Dog presents the domestication of the dog as a biological and cultural process that began with a reciprocal cooperation between dogwolves and humans that evolved over time, from the first dogs that took refuge with humans against the cold at the end of the last Ice Age, to the 18th century, when humans began to exercise full control of dog reproduction, life, and death, through centuries of natural and artificial selection that led us to the many breeds of dogs we know and love today. “A transporting slice of dog/wolf thinking that will pique the interest of anyone with a dog in their orbit.” —Kirkus Reviews

Author: Matt Lieberman
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781725479005
Category : JUVENILE FICTION
Languages : en
Pages : 23

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Book Description
Shaggy is looking for friends. How many will he find?

Author: Mark Alizart
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1509537309
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 70

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Book Description
Man’s best friend, domesticated since prehistoric times, a travelling companion for explorers and artists, thinkers and walkers, equally happy curled up by the fire and bounding through the great outdoors—dogs matter to us because we love them. But is that all there is to the canine’s good-natured voracity and affectionate dependency? Mark Alizart dispenses with the well-worn clichés concerning dogs and their masters, seeing them not as submissive pets but rather as unexpected life coaches, ready to teach us the elusive recipes for contentment and joy. Dogs have faced their fate in life with a certain detachment that is not easy to understand. Unlike other animals in a similar situation, they have not become hardened, nor have they let themselves die a little inside. On the contrary, they seem to have softened. This book is devoted to understanding this miracle, the miracle of the joy of dogs – to understanding it and, if at all possible, to learning how it’s done. Weaving elegantly and eruditely between historical myth and pop-culture anecdote, between the peculiar views of philosophers and the even more bizarre findings of science, Alizart offers us a surprising new portrait of the dog as thinker—a thinker who may perhaps know the true secret of our humanity.

Author: Lita Judge
Publisher: Abrams
ISBN: 1647003555
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 60

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Book Description
This illustrated history of dogs, from award-winning author-illustrator Lita Judge, explores how humans’ partnership with dogs changed our lives and theirs Of all the animals on the planet, dogs have the widest range of roles in our daily lives. They’re protectors, helpers, lifesavers—but most of all, they’re family. And they’ve taken a fascinating journey to get to this point. Long ago, early wolves evolved from fierce predators into trusted partners. They became dogs! While we know dogs to be lovable and full of personality, they have also historically improved our lives in many practical ways, like guarding livestock to help humans form the first settlements, cleaning out infectious wounds, and finding food. Covering over 50,000 years of history, from cave-dwelling to the present day, Dogs chronicles fascinating scientific details and the history of how dogs learned to live cooperatively alongside humans. In this beautifully illustrated and thoroughly researched book, award-winning author and illustrator Lita Judge explores how our lives are intertwined with dogs’—and that’s what makes them our best friends.