How to Find your Dream Dog + Giveaway

Book Details:

Book Title:   How to Find Your Dream Dog by Dixie Tenny
Category:  Adult Non Fiction,   139 pages
Genre:  Pets & Animal Care
Publisher:   Authors Unite
Release date:  October 2016
Format available for review:  print and ebook (PDF)
Will send print books for review to:  USA & Canada
Tour dates: Feb 27 to March 31, 2017
Content Rating: G

Book Description:

Bringing a new dog into the household should be one of life’s happiest events. The process always starts with excitement and high expectations. Too often, though, it ends in disappointment. The new puppy wakes everyone three times a night, gnaws on furniture, piddles everywhere, knocks the children down. The new adolescent dog is too wild. The new adult dog growls at your neighbors. And where did all this dog hair come from?

Most people spend hours researching a new mattress, days researching a new car, and weeks researching a new home or job. Yet for a new dog, a companion for the next 10-15 years, the most they do is visit the nearest shelter or pet shop and buy whatever looks cute and appealing. It’s no wonder they end up disappointed.

Whether you are looking for a purebred puppy or a charming mixed-breed, the type of dog you bring into your home matters. A quiet owner will struggle to keep up with a high-energy labrador mix, for instance, while an active outdoor family will be impatient with a snoozy bulldog. And finding the right kind of dog means becoming the right kind of owner—a task that takes some forethought and planning.

How To Find Your Dream Dog is here to fix the disconnect of dog ownership. It walks you step-by-step through the process of choosing the right type of dog for you—not only exploring the canine qualities that can determine your perfect puppy, adolescent, or adult dog, but also assessing your lifestyle to make sure you’re a good match for the dog, too. The book also looks at good (and bad) sources for finding healthy and sound pet dogs, gives guidelines for evaluating individual puppies, and warns of some red flags to watch out for during your dog search. With this guidebook in hand, you can be confident that the next puppy or dog you bring home will be the right companion and friend for you for the rest of its days.

​Dixie Tenny is a Certified Training Partner with the Karen Pryor Academy of Animal Training and Behavior. During her 30+ years spent working with people and their pets, she has seen again and again how mismatches between dog and owner can create “behavior problems” that never would have happened if the right dog had been matched to the right owner in the first place. She wrote this book to help puppy buyers and dog adopters start out on the best possible foot with their new pet dogs, and stay on that path for years to come.

My Review

You can tell that Dixie brings a lot of knowledge in this book. Yet, she is able to relay her knowledge in a very understandable way that readers will be thankful. I do believe that there is a certain dog for everyone. As, Dixie points out the same dog may not be the perfect fit for family A but is for family B. It is not the dog's fault.

In this book, Dixie helps educate people on topics from what type of dog to get: breed, puppy, adult, etc. To how to train now only the dog but you as the responsible owner of a new family member. Yes, the dog you pick will not be just a pet but part of the family. Another example is focused on a puppy. Yes, puppies are cute but they are a lot of work. Dixie states, it is like taking care of a toddler and I would agree. Anyone, who has never owned a dog would benefit from reading this book.

 

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Meet the Author:

Dixie Tenny has been helping people and their dogs find each other and form successful partnerships since the early 1980s. She founded two rescue organizations: Purebred Dog Rescue of Saint Louis in 1984, and Seattle Purebred Dog Rescue, Inc. in 1987. Dixie was the Director of Training for the Greater St. Louis Training Club, Inc., for five years, creating classes and overseeing the work of 40 head and assistant trainers. In 2003 she and another experienced trainer created Dogs Unleashed, LLC. They traveled to clients’ homes and worked with behavior and training issues.

Dixie’s professional credentials include trainer certifications from the prestigious Karen Pryor Academy for Animal Training and Behavior, and the Association for Pet Dog Trainers. Dixie formed her own business, Human-Animal Learning Opportunities, LLC (HALO) in 2013. HALO hosts continuing education seminars for dog trainers.

Dixie has lived with a wide range of dogs over the years including mixed breeds, Australian Shepherds, Welsh and Cairn terriers, and more. While in Seattle, Dixie raised a labrador puppy for Canine Companions for Independence, Inc. (CCI). Currently Dixie lives with a Beauceron and an elderly Papillon, as well as four cats. When not doing things related to animals, she reads widely, enjoys the company of her three grown children, follows baseball and English Premier League football, and travels the world.

Connect with the author:  Website  ~  Facebook

A Lifetime of Dream Dogs

​By Dixie Tenny​

Does a person’s dream dog change with time? In my experience, the answer is yes - or at least, it certainly can.

 

The photo on the cover of my book, “How to Find Your Dream Dog”, shows me with my arm around my own dream dog, Falcon. I’m holding my daughter’s dream dog, Leo. I think that photo shows how much I love those boys and how happy I am to have them in my house and my life.

 

But the dogs in that photo would have been very different if it had been taken at different times in my life.

 

In my early 20s, footloose and fancy free, I had, and loved, terriers. Complicated and challenging was fun! I had all the time and youthful energy necessary to keep up with these bouncy, active, cheerful little dogs. We kept busy with obedience competition, earthdog events, and a brand new sport called “agility.” My terriers liked constant action and so did I. We were very well suited.

 

In my late 20s and early 30s, I was married with young children, who were rather terrier-like themselves! My energy now went toward keeping up with them, so my dream dog became the Australian Shepherd. I needed a dog that would help me keep my household and family in order at this stage of my life, and research suggested that Aussies would excel at that. Over the next twenty years, half a dozen Aussies came through our household. These intelligent, companionable dogs supported me in so many ways that I came to think of them as my “right hand.” Aussies are high-energy and need activity; I was still young enough to enjoy training and working with them, though less than I had done with my terriers a decade earlier.

 

After my children were grown, I thought back to a type of dog I had long admired, the Beauceron. I had looked into getting one twenty years earlier, but after talking to Beauceron owners and breeders I realized that Yes, this is my dream dog, but too challenging for this time in my life. Now I was 50 and had twenty-five years of dog training work under my belt. This was finally the right time! And Falcon came into my life. 

 

Why a Beauceron? For me, at that time, that breed had the mix of qualities I was looking for: big (90 pounds), strong, protective, highly intelligent, steady — the perfect dog for me. And so he has been.

 

As age 60 approaches and I feel the twinges of arthritis in my knees, my thoughts turn to easier, smaller dogs. My daughter’s Papillon is lots of fun — even at age 15, Leo likes to play fetch and is a bouncy, lively companion. But physically managing a ten-pound dog is worlds easier than managing a 90-pound one. Little Leo can get all the exercise he needs through playtime in the house. Not so for Falcon. Many of my contemporaries are having similar thoughts. 

 

Another option would be to consider adopting a senior dog. Seniors have a hard time finding homes, and as Leo demonstrates, they can be perfect companions, who demand much less than an active younger dog from their human partners. I once adopted a 13-year-old Cairn terrier, who ruled our household with regal charm for two years, and, between long naps, played a merry game of fetch up until her very last days.

 

The world of dogs is wonderful for so many reasons, but one big one is that it is so varied. With very few exceptions, the right dog for you is out there, no matter what stage of life you are enjoying.

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