Breeds Books

Robert L. Mason brings his love for his father, the heartland and beagling to life in this delightful book. He intwines these themes adeptly. This book is a real treasure for people who hunt with beagles or for the pet owner. As the owner of a beagle, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It will certainly brighten up one's day. Beagles are truly delightful pets.

I have never met Robert Mason, but I can say that for his ability to bring to better awareness some of the feeling of his father's generation - he should be considered a national treasure. This book is not only about that most companionable of man's best friends - the Beagle - it is about life in rural America, friendships, and taking time for one another. This book celebrates a dog's place in our lives, and would help anyone appreciate the role of small game hunting in the life of rural America. Mason goes beyond this, however, and brings us full circle to an understanding of love for the land and its creatures - and how in partnership with one's Beagle - all of us can continue in his father's tradition.

If you have a friend or family member who loves horses, this is the kind of book they can use as an interesting reference/coffee table style book. It is oversized, with lot of quality photos. I think the thing I enjoyed most about this book was the nuggets of historical information on how some breeds developed. Demonstrating how the Vladimer breeds were linked to the Clydesdales with dates and names of breeders gives people who are doing research enough to get started.

In my view most of the photos were beautiful.

This is a great book.

A wonderful generic guide book (softcover). Lavishly photographed with many excellent photos of breeds from all over the world. Covers many breeds, disciplines, tack, care and grooming. Rather poor coverage (as in hardly at all) of American western events (cutting, roping, reining, western pleasure/trail classes), equipment and tack - but there are other books that cover these subjects better and in depth.

I am glad to see British horse books now correctly referring to the American Paint breed as "Paint Horse" and not "pinto".

Unlike the "Ultimate Horse Book" (Elwyn Hartley Edwards) in which text is mostly complimentary to the photo and limited in facts; this books' breed profile pages are choc full of facts, breed description info, and history. The editors have done their homework and research here.

Editors of generic all-encompassing breed books (not just horses, but dogs, cats, etc) are notorious for gleaning information from OTHER breed books, rather than checking facts, or checking with the orginal breed registry first. This book however, looks like they've got the facts (and sources) straight.

This book is an excellent all-encompassing guide for the horselover.

May be out of print.

~appaloosa
submitted Feb 23, 2005

My fiancee and I recently made the decision to follow through with our dream of having a border collie. We've read other breed-specific books (after getting our other dog, a Shetland sheepdog) and came away unimpressed. Most of them provide basic, general dog-ownership advice and common sense. So, yes, we understand that we will need to give the border collie much more time and mental/physical exercise than a typical breed. We have also read plenty of horror stories of restless border collies destroying its owner's home to varying degrees. I bought this book, with limited information in the description, in the hope that it would have breed-specific information that I couldn't find just surfing the internet.

...And it really paid off! Clearly the author has great expertise with respect to border collies and is not afraid to share opinions and impressions that, while not necessarily universal, could be helpful to prospective owners. (e.g. The author believes that coat length and ear shape may give a hint on a puppy's energy level.) What I like, in particular, is that the author provides as much advice for owners seeking mere companionship (like us) as for those seeking working dogs.

I just finished the section regarding specific dietary issues of border collies, and found it very helpful. (I was surprised to learn that the premium dog food we give to our finicky sheltie would probably send a non-working border collie through the roof!)

If I was to find any complaint about the book, it would be that the photographs in the book are not in color. I also wouldn't mind if it were a touch cheaper, given that it's only 157 pages.

These pages, however, are clear, well-written and chalk-full of valuable breed-specific information (and with almost nothing that is just general dog-ownership common sense). I'm sure that this book saved us any number of "incidents" and will only make our future border collie (and its owners) a great deal happier in the future.

Excellent contents, very explicit and specific.
This book is the real deal in the BC world, I found it really complete and its really helpful, you need to read this in order to have a healthy relationship with your pet or working Border Collie.

I got a PBGV back in Dec '99 and the breeder recommended this book to me. So-o-o, I told my son to order it for me for Christmas, and, lo and behold, here it is Feb 24th and I STILL HAVEN'T RECEIVED IT! Pretty soon, I'll know the breed well enough to write my own book! Don't believe that stuff about 4-6weeks for delivery - if a book's gone out of print, wouldn't it be more customer friendly to recommend ordering a different title, rather than frustrating a potential buyer who then chooses to avoid your products in the future? BAH!

With so little in print about the Petit Basset Griffon Vendeen, Ms. Steidel has done a wonderful job of researching the breed's origins and history. She presents her findings to us in this unique book, along with valuable information on the personalities, grooming requirements, health concerns, training challenges and more. In researching this breed before aquiring my first PBGV, I have found this book to be an excellent resource.

Glyn Jones,a top Border Collie handler gives his insights about working as a team with your Border collie on the trial field. He also explains how to train your dog and how to become a team. This book goes into detail from choosing your dog, training you dog in all the stages to trialing. A top book with lots of pictures, diagrams and great explanations.

If you own and work (or plan to work) stock dogs then you'll want to own this book. I borrowed this book many years ago and now that I am getting back into working stockdogs I just ordered it for myself! The book takes you through choosing and raising a puppy, step-by-step training from start to finish, and trialing. The book is mostly geared towards Border Collies working sheep but most of the same techniques can be used with other breeds. If you have another breed working cattle may want to look into purchasing Scott Lithgow's "Training and Working Dogs for Quiet Confident Control of Stock".

This book is an exceedingly good book for information on the Welsh Springer Spaniel. There are large chapters on the past of the breed (the way the WSS originated). There is also a chapter on deciding whether or not a Welsh is a good dog for your family. If you are considering judging a WSS, this book has color photos of the author (an ex-judge) judging the breed. It also talks about how to groom a Welsh Springer, including before, during and after color photos of the breed being trimmed. I thoroughly recommend this book to Welshie fanciers, young and old.

Really enjoyable book with great photographs and super histories of the welsh springer's introduction into several coutries, including the United States. Very readable and highly recommended.

Great to have even if it's from last year just for the pictures of the dogs. It's adorable to have.

It was really nice to see clear and colorful pictures of Welsh terriers hanging on my office wall along with a useful size calendar. I'd been faking in the past with Airedale calendars, and it's just not the same.

It is a very complete book. My Westie girl had babies last year and this book was one of my bibles!!!!

I think that anyone who writes about westies is wonderful because I used to have one and the picture on the cover of this book looks just like him. I also have a collection the McDuff books by Rosemary Wells which began with one as a gift.

Purchased this book before we got our 8 week old Yorkie for Xmas. Book has great information, easy reading, holds your attention and answers any questions you may have from A-Z.

Thanks Animal Planet for putting together such a great reference book.

Wonderful book! Everything I needed to know was easily accesible and information was greatly detailed. It's a great book for people that are new to owner a Yorkie. I higly recommend it.

This was the definative work of its day. The 1931 edition is the first edition. It was reprinted in 1951. 8 color plates by Binks (harlequin Great Dane, Airedale, bloodhound, greyhound, wirehaired fox terrier, cocker spaniel, Pekingese, and English setter), 64 full-page ill and photos, diagrams by Hutchinson, introduction by The Rt. Hon. Lorna, Countess Howe; 448 pp; index; photos of many of today's well-known breed foundation dogs; breeding, showing, grooming, training dogs with interesting chapters on training sheep and cattle dogs, legal aspects (if you hit a dog with your car, you are liable, but you can shoot a dog if it worries your sheep)