How To Find Your Dream Dog

In How To Find Your Dream Dog, bringing a new dog into the household should be one of life’s happiest events.

About How To Find Your Dream Dog

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. If you’re a true dog lover then you may have considered owning a doggy daycare. If you haven’t already considered it, you should definitely check it out!

My Thoughts

When we purchased our dog we knew we wanted a small breed due to the size of our home but other than that our decision was mostly impulsive. My husband came home with a dog for Valentine’s Day to surprise me and our son! While it was a great decision in the long run, the first months were very hard. I spent nights laying on the floor with her not sure how to comfort her as she cried at night.

I loved how this book started out, explaining about there is a perfect match between dog and humans but you need to know and learn what it is. Those cute little puppies can have different temperaments and grow up to be quite differently. Understanding your needs, expectations and the breed personality is so important. It will save you and the dog heartbreak as well as unnecessary dog drop offs at shelters.

This book gets down to the nitty gritty on everything you need to know about buying a puppy or older dog. She doesn’t sugar coat the hard parts but instead makes you understand the commitment that this will be. She helps you figure out what breed matches your lifestyle and expectations as well as your home life. She teaches you about what to watch out for in breeds and where the best places to purchase a puppy is from.

How To Find Your Dream Dog should be a must read book for all individuals and families who are looking to expand their family with a dog. This should never be an impulsive decision, instead a lot of research, thought and meeting the animal should go into place. She takes all the guess work out of this for you – and you can tell she knows what she is talking about!

You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon.

Rating: 4/5

About the Author

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.

The Giveaway!

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Disclosure: I received a digital copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.