This is certainly not new turf when it comes to dog books, but Reid, a certified behaviorist and dog trainer with a PhD in animal learning and behavior, puts the subject in a simplistic format that is easily understood.

She addresses the symbiotic relationship of dog and man in three sections – behavior, training and behavior problems, placing a huge emphasis on early socialization and handling and the huge dividends they produce later.

Boldface titling, short, focused entries and reflective case-in-point examples from classes add up to an empowering read that will enable the owner to interpret his/her dogs needs and behavior at a higher level.

Reid emphasizes, “The problem I witnessed most often in my classes was that owners were too overbearing when playing with their puppies. They ran, they jumped, they loomed and they wrestled. Some puppies liked this right away but most need to build up to this intensity.”

Finding the right trainer isn’t easy, she notes, because the field is “not well regulated and most of these titles can be donned by anyone.” In other words, buyer beware!

The most compelling chapter is titled “Doing It Right from the Start: Ten Stupid Ways in Which People Mess Up Their Dogs.” Every owner will be able to relate to the 10 and most likely will plead guilty on at least one or two fronts with one dog or another.

The 10 include:

1. The owner fails to provide sufficient socialization with people.
2. The owner fails to provide the sufficient socialization with dogs.
3. The owner fails to take advantage of opportunities for learning.
4. The owner fails to provide for natural behaviors.
5. The owner fails to bond with the puppy through play.
6. The owner fails to handle or touch the puppy sufficiently.
7. The owner encourages food guarding through benign neglect.
8. The owner fails to use the right balance of discipline and leniency.
9. The owner fails to provide the puppy with sufficient exercise.
10. The owner provides the puppy with too much free food.

Note the common thread through this listing is owner shortcomings and failure to spend sufficient time with dog. While considerable emphasis is placed on puppy bonding, Reid addresses rescues and adult dogs, too, noting separation anxiety and destruction issues.

“Dog Insight” is a practical primer with an earthy delivery that’s soberly reflective with razor-sharp analysis, colorful anecdotes and arresting realism throughout.

It isn’t exactly a modern-day version of the 1938 classic, “Lassie Come Home,” but “Sophie” packs every bit of real-life drama with an absorbing Australian accent and a bit of refreshing good fortune to boot.

Imagine, for a minute, you and your significant other are cruising through the San Juan Islands with your beloved dog when you venture down to the lower deck calling it and you get no response. Panic ensues, you immediately turn the craft around and begin retracing your route, yelling frantically for the dog. Several hours later, you are forced to return to port, empty handed.

That’s the scenario that confronts Dave and Jan Griffith Oct. 25, 2008 when boating off primitive St. Bees Island, part of Australia’s South Cumberland Islands, when they discover their surrogate child, Sophie, a 3-year-old Australian cattle dog, is missing and undoubtedly leaped overboard into the predator-packed waters.

The author establishes, “Sophie took to boating with characteristic grace and seemed to complete the Griffiths’ vision of those empty-nesting days, paving their way towards retirement. ‘She never minded what she was doing, as long as she was with us,’ “ Dave Griffith says.

From the time Jan Griffith hits the man-overboard button, this tender, yet riveting volume moves fast forward, much of filled with speculation on how this hardy working dog manages to survive a five-month odyssey on land and sea. The emotional roller coaster takes you from the heights of ecstasy to the depths of despair, yet ends on a high note.

The author, Pearse, an Australian journalist, captures the human-animal bond through the recollections of the Griffith family, friends and residents of two undeveloped islands, on both of which domestic pets are forbidden, where Sophie seeks out food and water.

Family dynamics play a huge role in this story. As the Griffiths’ four grown children see the impact of Sophie’s loss on their parents, they are uncertain what to do. Finally, they fill that emptiness with a red (note that color, since the Griffiths would accept no other breed after all their blue heelers) puppy named Ruby from a litter of blue and red cattle dogs Pearse describes as a “force-of-nature dog, unfazed by reprimand and full of hope for fun times, all the time.”

Time has a tendency to heal wounds, but for the Griffiths, memories of Sophie linger – and even fester – as hope for a fairy-tale ending slowly dissipates.

Unknown to the couple, there are sightings in December of a skinny blue dog on wild, tropical Keswick Island, approximately five nautical miles from where Sophie went overboard two months earlier. Then, speculation has it, that Sophie swims to craggy, volcanic St. Bees Island via a 480-meter highly challenging passage that no human would consider swimming because of its imposing tidal action and predators.

Unlike Keswick, St. Bees offers Sophie the opportunity for fresh water and food. A phone call from a friend on Keswick, alerts Peter Berck, a 30-year St. Bees resident, to be on the lookout for the four-legged escape artist. It isn’t long before he spots the hungry animal. Days of hide-and-seek follow before Berck contacts park rangers, who attempt to trap the animal in a large metal cage.

Friends talk to friends in these remote areas, and through the channels acquaintances of the Griffiths hear about the planned trapping, contact the Griffiths, raising both a ray of hope and the prospect of mass disappointment the elusive dog could be Sophie.

Moving fast forward, the trapping is successful and the Griffiths are alerted the dog will be boated to their hometown, Mackay, on the eastern coast of Queensland, Australia, for what they are hoping will be a Hollywood-type homecoming. And yes, all ends well, with exclamations of “Sophie, Sophie Tucker” from the Griffiths upon setting eyes on their long, lost soul mate which is bouncing off the walls of the crate.

A remarkable and crisp narrative, “Sophie” nourishes as well as celebrates with a richly detailed mix of passion, inspiration and hope you won’t soon forget.

K-9 unit assignments are one of the most coveted in police departments and military units worldwide. The handlers provide solid backup and expertise for fellow officers and a positive public persona, but the intense challenges of these tightly-knit teams is generally unknown.

The author, an attorney and noted consultant on canine legal issues, takes the reader behind the scenes in this thorough examination, crafted chiefly for professionals in the field. Nevertheless, if you’ve ever wondered about police protocols, forensic science and rigorous legal scrutiny associated with police and military K-9 work, you’ll find the answer inside this 333-page volume.

This is not training manual or procedural guide, rather a detailed overview of challenges involved in sniffs involving vehicles, luggage, transportation facilities, hotels, mail and packages, storage areas, cargo and commercial spaces, residences, currency and schools, etc. And then there are the demands of explosives, landmine, bioweapons, accelerant and cadaver detection.

In addressing canine biology and behavior, the author says some trainers introduce target scents to future narcotic detecting canine candidates at just 10 days of age, although nine to 10 weeks is more common, adding that trained dogs can remember different odors for months.

Even when performed to exact specifications, a team’s work faces judicial challenges around every corner, Ensminger emphasizes, and a lack of judicial uniformity from state to state. In the process, he cites dozens of cases. “The
admissibility of canine evidence is not solely determined by the quality of the forensics work involved. Some states regard the possible prejudice of tracking and scent identification as so great that they decline to admit this evidence
at all.”

Ensminger says police and military canine functions are divided into four general categories:

• tracking, trailing and identification;
• suspect apprehension and crowd control;
• detection;
• rescue and protection.

He adds, “Police dogs are a two-edged sword, capable of helping law enforcement but also capable of doing great damage to the lives of those they encounter. That damage may sometimes be necessary, but police men and women doing canine work know that they have been given a tool as dangerous as the guns in their holsters.”

The author’s broad-based thoroughness is reflected in the 42-page appendix dedicated to a listing of U.S. police canine associations, a bibliography and federal and state cases cited.

Ambitious and complex, “Police and Military Dogs” leaves the reader with a greater appreciation of the demands and expertise expected of these handler-dog teams not only in the field but also inside the judicial environment, too.

With a bit of a bite, Robert Vetere, president of the American Pet Products Association, takes the resilience of the family dog into the workplace in an eye-opening mindset, all the time arguing how we can learn from its virtues.

Vetere, who for 35 years has captured the best of canine behavior to teach management seminars, and Andrews present a compelling array of references to companies and their top dogs throughout the country, detailing how their work ethics rival those of Fido.

“Biologists,” he argues, “believe that man’s best friend was a kind of genetic pilot for the human race,” in the process showing us how to collaborate. In the Introduction, Vetere points out, “According to the USA Today poll, 77 percent of CEOs who own a dog judge the character of their friends and business associates based on how they treat their animals.”

Vetere seeks to show the reader that he/she can become a more effective leader by “tapping into the instinctive part of the brain we share with dogs,” i.e. learning from their superior emotional intelligence. Within that context, the authors have fashioned a “What Breed Are You” test aimed at helping you determine your leadership style, i.e. what type of inner dog are you. He emphasizes, “Most successful CEOs are hybrids, combining the best traits of two breeds.”

A key lesson humans can take from the canine world: Dogs don’t tolerate bad leaders. When they are confronted with one, they don’t respond and seek out another. Strong company administrators will recognize this and replace incompetent middle managers, the authors suggest.

Body language, motivational skills, consistent direction, forgiveness and enthusiasm are just a few of the other key canine trademark characteristics Vetere sees affecting the business environment as well. “I often tell CEOs, ‘Look for people with a dog-like enthusiasm for work and your company will never falter.’ “

The empowering “From Wags to Riches” moves seamlessly while combining the authors’ spot-on assessments and analogies with complementing quotes from a wide mix of industry leaders and noted authors.

For example, “ ‘Dogs like to know the rules,’ animal behavior expert Susan Tripp advises her clients. ‘They respond best when you give them a sense of purpose and clear, consistent message.’ “

While the bulk of the invigorating volume is devoted to the business world, a final section focuses on what dogs teach us about life and love, noting how they offer “emotional ballast and a sense of security” in addition to companionship.

But it is best captured in a quote the authors feature from the Mayo Clinic’s Dr. Edward Creagan, “A pet is a medication without side effects,” he told USA Weekend. “I can’t always explain it . . . but for years now I’ve seen how instances of having a pet is like an effective drug. It really does help people.”

Vetere’s thought-provoking gem is water-cooler conversation fodder packed with razor-sharp analysis, poignant quotes and colorful anecdotes.

If you’re a dog lover who savors history, this ambitious volume will leave you with a feeling of nirvana.

Author of “A Dog’s History of America,” Derr takes the reader on a historical travelogue, tracking researchers’ documentation of the wolf-to-dog (dog-wolves or doglike wolves) sequencing worldwide, yet leaving plenty of uncertainty.

For instance, he emphasizes in the Introduction, that dog remains in Europe ranging from 16,000-30,000 years ago have been identified, firmly establishing Europe as the continent with the oldest dogs on record, “even though no expert believes that dogs originated there.”

Derr carefully cites a wide array of “mixing zones” with wolves and humans, noting each’s role in the early process of domestication. Today, however, genetic surveys undertaken at UCLA by evolutionary biologist Robert K. Wayne promise to answer some questions while posing others in regard to the dog’s origins.

Derr says, “That the Dog is a Wolf modified by nature, wolves and humans is as nearly beyond dispute as an evolutionary line of descent can be. Geneticists, paleontologists, archaeologists, evolutionary biologists and animal behaviorists, who normally agree on little else, have confirmed that finding repeatedly.”

If you’re looking to pinpoint the dog’s origins from the wolf, you won’t find it here, but you will find absorbing and very detailed time capsules with blurred scientific options from 135,000 to 12,000 years ago. Intermixed is a proposed date of 27,000 years ago, based on nuclear DNA from sequencing of the dog genome in recent years.

We may never be able to determine the definitive origin of the dog, however, says Derr, since increasing numbers of geneticists believe that it is necessary to compare DNA from ancient dogs and wolves — as much as possible. “Such DNA,” explains Derr, “is difficult to obtain because it breaks down under natural conditions and is prone to corruption.”

Some of most solid empirical data on the dog’s origins has come from research performed by Wayne’s UCLA laboratory where findings from 921 dogs representing 85 breeds and 225 gray wolves left the scientist concluding that Middle Eastern wolves are the “wild source of most of the diversity in the dog.”

Because both early-day wolves and humans were opportunistic pack hunters, it was inevitable that their efforts would eventually merge, once a trust was established, resulting in each recognizing the other as a kindred spirit, explains Derr.

The author doesn’t overlook the dog’s history in North America from those used by Native Americans to house pets of today. While many of these animals were revered for utilitarian purposes such as herding, hunting and hauling, others were sacrificed for clothes, blankets, medicine and food. Plus, some were offered to the gods in thanks or contrition.

With the increase in purebred dogs and population dynamics in the United States since the end of World War II, the most significant change in the dog has been behavior, contends Kenth Svartberg, a comparative psychologist studying dog behavior at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.

So let the historic dog origin debate rage on. Derr’s richly detailed, well-sourced research, however, offers a full plate of choices and razor-sharp analysis to help you connect the dots while not undermining the authenticity of the big picture.

This lavish coffee-table volume will stir poignant memories for some and become a revered keepsake for war buffs and collectors with its kaleidoscope of training and war photos, images of war dog equipment, books and manuals, related items, paper items and first-day issue envelopes and post cards.

Lavish color, striking typographical layouts and a vast array of equipment produce a vivid cultural mosaic designed to entertain and inform the reader.

The book is a sobering reminder of the unparalleled accomplishments of handlers and dogs in the Big War and a reflection of their importance in warfare. In that context, it showcases the role of Dogs For Defense, which was established in January 1942 by a group of dog-savvy civilians and quickly recognized as the official agency for choosing and training sentry dogs. More than 10,400 dogs were ultimately trained, many donated by families. Following the war, many of these animals were retrained to adjust back to civilian life while others remained with their military partners.

A fresh presentation, it deftly captures the emotional realism and camaraderie of war abroad with a deep commitment at home.  And traversing that treacherous psychological landscape, the dog is the seamless link.

How often in life does a scenario offer a huge win for all parties involved? This impassioned narrative by the noted dog authority and former Seattle resident, delivers on all counts for the dog, owner, hospital patient, and, oh, yes, the reader.

Frei, known to most as the voice of the Westminster Kennel Club and National Dog Shows, is also president of Angel on a Leash, a New York-based nonprofit charity that champions working with therapy dogs in health-care facilities, schools, rehabilitation, hospice, extended-care, correctional facilities and crisis intervention.

Angel on a Leash began as a charitable activity for the Westminster Kennel Club at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital and has grown to a nationwide organization that now lists 10 partners.

A longtime breeder-owner-handler and judge, Frei talks the talk and walks the walk with his Brittanys and Cavalier King Charles Spaniel certified therapy dogs, at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the Ronald McDonald House of New York City. 

Here, he details the lessons our dogs teach us, the inspiration and psychological rewards they offer us and the doors they open for us.

“Good therapy dogs are born, not made,” he says. “It is mostly a personality and temperament thing. They don’t have to be a particular breed; a therapy dog can be any breed or mixed breed. While some breeds are inherently better at it than others, it is still an individual thing that is also dependent on the handler.”

Some, he adds, savor the environment around rambunctious kids while others prefer the company of sedate seniors.

Frei details the enthusiasm, smiles and inner action elicited by former Westminster Kennel Club best-in-show winners in hospitals and medical centers to the inspiring responses from young cancer patients to bed-ridden seniors who previously refused to interact with staff for days and weeks. But the bulk of visitations are made by certified therapy dogs owned by common citizens just like you and me.

The success – or lack of it – of the owner-dog team depends on smooth interaction and trust.  “Therapy is about the dog and the patient, not about the handler,” he emphasizes, comparing that to the conformation show ring, where “the best handlers are almost invisible.”

Both dogs and handlers undergo plenty of training and testing before becoming certified.  Because each visit is fraught with new challenges, a handler must be attentive and anticipatory, Frei emphasizes.

The author credits his wife Cheri, who he met in Seattle, as his inspiration for segueing into the therapy-dog world.  At the time they met, she was pursuing a master’s degree in theology at Seattle University, owned a pair of Brittanys, Teigh and Belle, and was working on a thesis on animal-assisted therapy.

Job offers took them to New York City, where Cheri eventually became the Ronald McDonald House chaplain and director of family support in 2006. One of her projects was bringing a therapy-dog program through the doors of the House, naming it Angel on a Leash. The four-legged visitors became an immediate hit, creating a desired family atmosphere for not only the young patients but their families as well.

Finding the perfect niche in life isn’t easy. But this uplifting read affirms that Frei’s respected position and notoriety in the dog-show world along with his reverence for life have enabled him to open doors and make an exhilarating difference in the lives of others.

From patients’ and families megawatt smiles to David and Cheri’s torrents of tears upon the passing of Belle and Teigh, this riveting memoir delivers a spirited realism and rich insight on an always challenging psychological landscape. In the process, it delivers an inspiring lesson of hope and commitment.

When it comes to the human-animal companion bond, there is nothing stronger  or more compelling than the handler-military working dog team.

And Lisa Rogak’s uplifting but sobering read packed with heartbreak and heroism seamlessly takes you through all of the major wars of U.S. involvement, capturing the ever-changing key role of the dog and presenting countless facts and riveting vignettes in the process.

The timeliness of this book shouldn’t escape anyone, since the initial focus is on Cairo, a Belgian Malinois that accompanied the highly-trained, 79-member  commando team into raid on the Pakistan hiding place of Osama bin Laden May 2, resulting in his death.

Did you know Cairo was equipped with a $20,000 canine bulletproof vest that included a night-vision live-action video camera mounted on a stalk between his shoulder blades. The camera captured ground-level  action. Before the quick strike, his handler inserted a tiny earbud connected to a wireless transmitter into the dog’s ear.  That allowed his partner to whisper commands from several hundred yards away while watching live-action images captured by the camera.

Cairo was a key member of the team that trained secretly and intensely for several months. Unlike other military dogs that are trained to sniff out explosives or drugs, he is combat tracker trained to detect a piece of clothing and then find the individual to which it belonged.

Cairo’s role and widespread publicity following the successful invasion on bin Laden’s hiding spot, proves the perfect and timely entrée for Rogak of the role of American-trained dogs in warfare. Dozens of interviews produce a wide fusion of facts, figures and feelings in a crisp, smooth style.

You won’t find a sharply-etched portrait of the military working dog prototype, however. Breeds, assignments and handlers are literally all over the map, which simply reflects the versatility of these incredible animals and the challenges facing their handlers physically and emotionally.

Rogak dutifully takes the reader into the fields of war, as well as the training headquarters at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas; veterinary hospitals; explains how to adopt a retired military working dog while noting the many caveats surrounding such an endeavor.

Her well-indexed resource listing includes books, movies and documentaries, national parks and war-dog cemeteries; related organizations and associations reflecting the author’s thorough quest for answers.

To give you a taste of what you’ll find, here are a few factoid gems:

Most trainers and handlers work with their dogs at least an hour or two each day to maintain their skills.

Roughly 3,000 military working dogs are employed by the Pentagon and serve around the globe in all branches of the service.

The only breed in the Lackland Air Force Base breeding program today is the Belgian Malinois, an alert, high-energy animal.

Because military working dogs are always assigned to security units, potential handlers must prove their mettle as a military cop for two or three years.

The first recorded American use of military dogs was in the Seminole Wars of the 1830s and 1840s, where the Army used bloodhounds.

Rogak’s in-the-trenches approach captures just about every emotion imaginable. Stirring quotes from one handler after another – some gleened from books, newspapers and magazines – re-enforce that special bond some admit is stronger than marriage.

Here’s one of the best:

“This is hand down the coolest job in the military. We have a bond with these dogs that are as attached to us as we are to them. I have gone to war with this dog and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I will go to the end of the world and back again for this dog, and I know he would do the same. He know how I feel about him, and he shows me as well. It’s more than just a working relationship. And we do have those times when he knows it’s okay for him to be a dog.” – Air Force Staff Sgt. Joel Townsend, describing his relationship with A-Taq, a 2-year-old Belgian Malinois.

Before you run out and purchase this thinking it is totally a warm, fuzzy holiday read, sit and stay!

A keeper golden retriever puppy named Traffy arrives in the household of the author and her husband Ian, but not until late in the book after the English couple fosters two service dogs, Emma and Freddy, for Helper Dogs, and experiences a bumpy emotional ride through the process.

But the thread throughout this nicely-paced narrative is 43-year-old Megan and Ian’s attempt to conceive a baby. Month after month without success they turn in several directions from considering fostering to fertility options.

After falling in love with a rental walker dog during Ian’s two-week work assignment in Japan, the couple returns home to England and a few weeks later spots a newspaper advertisement about Helper Dogs, an organization that provides service dogs for individuals with disabilities that is opening a satellite training center nearby and seeking volunteer puppy parents.

Rix describes the day of tiny Emma’s arrival, “My heart was thumping like a 15-year-old going on a first date. Would the puppy like me? Please let it like me. I was going to be a first-time puppy parent. A puppy mum.”

The couple finds instant happiness while diving into the commitment of puppy-rearing, not recognizing the angst they would be facing four months later. The author details every challenge the owners face within the home, training center and on nearby outings, crediting friends and Helper Dog staffers with quick assistance in every time of need.  Coming from a previously “dog-free zone,” the pair’s life changes enormously with a new circle of friends, as Emma, their four-legged love child, becomes their social centerpiece.

In the process, Emma becomes a community celebrity and the focus of a weekly newspaper column written by Rix in the dog’s first-person voice.

While her failure to conceive nags her throughout, Rix’s biggest heartbreak occurs when she is forced to let her beloved Emma go after six months for advanced training and hopefully eventual placement with a disabled party.

Upon getting the word in a phone call, she tearfully looks at Ian and sobs,” I don’t know how I’m going to bear letting her go. I feel like my heart is being ripped out.”

Could money buy happiness? Rix gives it a try, making a generous offer of 10,000 pounds (money her parents had given her for an IVF procedure) but it is rejected and several weeks later the dreaded day arrives when Emma is returned to Helper Dogs along with her boatload of toys, bedding and other supplies, as Rix confesses uncertainty of how she could love another puppy Helper Dogs has targeted for her.

The poignant narrative follows a somewhat similar path with their next puppy project named Freddy, but this time the couple is better prepared after having been down that road before, which reaches its end about the same number of months later.

Rix admits, “Puppy parenting has been the best thing for us, the most amazing way to spend the first year of our married lives, but the wrench to give Freddy up was going to be hard.  –  too hard for us, maybe.

“. . . Maybe if our lives were different. Maybe if we were strong people we could keep on doing it, helping  . . . all the people who benefitted from Helper Dogs. But for now all we wanted was a puppy of our own.”

An opportunity arises quickly with a promise from a respected nearby golden retriever breeder that they can select a puppy of their choice from a new litter, hence “The Puppy That Came for Christmas,” their “forever dog,” arrives several weeks later during the holidays after Freddy moves on to advanced training and eventual placement. 

The jaunty narrative pulls several story strands together into an affecting mix of sentiment and commitment while deftly balancing frustration and focus. In the process, Rix’s narrative is served up in a tone of plain-spoken naturalism bursting with panache around every corner.
      
     
    
   

Take a look in the mirror. What do you see?

If you’re viewing stress and recognize, like most of us, you are always in a hurry-up mode, this engaging little volume is pause for reflection.

A stimulating, yet whimsical, look at how our dogs and cats can be our psychological guardians as well as our best friends, “Guardians” produces smiles and laughs with “Mutt” comic-strip character McDonnell’s complementary illustrations to Tolle’s insightful passages focusing on nature, dogs and cats.

We can learn from our dogs and cats, Tolle emphasizes, to savor the moment, enjoy our surroundings and don’t take ourselves too seriously.

Here are a few of his gems:

“It’s so wonderful to watch an animal, because an animal has no opinion about itself.”

“Just watching an animal closely can take you out of your mind and bring you into the present moment, which is where the animal lives all the time – surrendered to life.”

“The dog is still in the natural state. And you can easily see that, because you have problems and your dog doesn’t. And while your happy moments may be rare, your dog celebrates life continuously.”

“Dog emanate a goodness that people respond to. One of the joys of walking your dog is that often people come up to you and immediately their hearts open. They are not interested in you, of course. They want to pat your dog.”

“Guardians” is an earthy celebration of life – as our dogs and cats live it. It isn’t saccharine but it is rather simplistic. And a sobering reminder for us to relax, revisit our priorities and enjoy the journey called life.