Browsing Area Book of the Week, September 17, 2012.

Dog: the definitive guide for dog owners by Bruce Fogle.
Library Call Number: SF427.F615 2010.

          Adapted from the publisher’s description: This handsome book celebrates the close and complex relationship between humans and dogs, examining the animal’s behavior, anthropology, history, literature and genetics. Dog reveals the essential nature of the human-dog relationship, both its past and possible future. Fogle’s book examines the ancestry of the modern dog, their breed classifications, development, feeding care and training, health and welfare, as well a living weith them and coping with their loss.

Dr. Bruce Fogle provides expert advice and thoughtful essays based on his years of experience as a veterinarian, highlighted with personal anecdotes and more than 600 beautiful color photographs. Illustrated how-to spreads focus on practical topics related to dog care and training.

Beautifully presented, compassionate and full of useful information, Dog can be the book that dog owners will turn to throughout their pets' lives.

Browsing Area Book of the Week, April 2, 2012.

The Wolf in the Parlor by Jon Franklin. Library Call Number: SF433.S73 2009.

          Author Franklin watches his puppy grow into a family member and theorizes that humanity and canines have somehow grown together.  According to a Publisher’s Weekly review, Franklin theorizes that, …”beginning about 12,000 years ago, as wild wolves evolved into “follower wolves” and were subsequently domesticated by early man, a kind of mind meld occurred. As this neurological attachment took shape, the dog shed 20% of its brain mass because, biologically, humans had “agreed to do its thinking” for it, while mankind lost 10% of its brain mass because dogs became ‘our beast of emotional burden.’

“Franklin buttresses his inventive assertion with a combination of absorbingly loquacious ruminations on the behavior of his own dog, Charlie, and a rigorous compilation of scientific facts rooted in a decade of study about the nature of wolves and dogs. As concepts of the canine go, Franklin's is notably audacious. And among a plethora of books on breeding, disciplining, loving and lamenting the loss of man's best friend, this thoughtful discourse is a best of breed.”

Browsing Area Book of the Week, December 12, 2011.

Bad Dog (a love story) by Martin Kihn.  Library Call Number: SF426.2.K49 2011.

          Martin Kihn, a former television writer, was working as a management consultant, when alcoholism got the best of him.  On the verge of losing his job, family and home, he was also burdened by his pet, a huge 5-year old, untrained Bernese Mountain Dog, who knocked down visitors, chased buses, drug dealers and fried chicken boxes and frightened his entire family.

          Can an older dog be trained to behave?  Both Martin—and Hola—would find out the answer to that question, as Kihn took his dog back to obedience school (where it had flunked out twice before), hoping that he could remain sober, and Hola could discover some manners.  Both would need some discipline in their lives, but maybe, just maybe, he could get his life back together and Hola could win an American Kennel Club’s Canine Good Citizen award.

          Kihn’s story follows both protagonists in their journeys, the two of them linked in a bond that eventually becomes clear.