Dogs in Our World – serie

One of the oldest known breeds of domesticated dogs, the Saluki traveled throughout the Middle East with desert tribes, who valued the dogs for their ability to hunt gazelles. Famously painted on the walls of the Pharaohs' tombs, the Salukis' history intrigued English dog enthusiasts who were instrumental in popularizing the breed and importing it to Europe and the United States in the early 20th century.This book tells the story of those who brought the Saluki to the West, most notably Florence Amherst, who discovered the dogs while in Egypt and went on to breed 50 litters. Other world travelers who fell under the Salukis' spell included Lady Anne Blunt, Austen Layard and Gertrude Bell. Also covered are lesser-known Saluki aficionados, mainly military officers who hunted with their hounds in Iraq, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt and sought to replicate that experience at home.

In 1923, William Lewis Judy purchased Dog World magazine for just over $1,000. For the next four decades, his unique, poignant, and witty writing and editing style, combined with his genuine love for dogs, enlightened a growing population of dog owners across the nation.A prolific dog show judge and breeder and expert on dog law in America, Judy had a vision that dogs would serve humans in ways most had not imagined. He championed their use in military and police work, and in their value as assistance and therapy dogs. In 1928, he launched the National Dog Week Movement, to honor man's best friend in a collective and thoughtful manner. Today, that movement continues, a testament to the legacy of this inspiring and gifted dog-enthusiast.

Over the millennia, many great writers, from Pliny and Plutarch to C.S. Lewis and John Steinbeck, have addressed diverse canine themes in their work, usually in a broader, human context. Late in the 20th century it was conclusively established by modern science that all dogs, without exception, are descended from wolves. Viewed through the dynamic lens of this new model, the constantly evolving relationship between humankind and canines, both wild and domesticated, appears more complex and intertwined than ever before. This survey reviews what 20 selected authors from the Western tradition have had to say on the same subject matter leading up to our present times.

General George Armstrong Custer and his wife, Libbie Custer, were wholehearted dog lovers. At the time of his death at Little Bighorn, they owned a rollicking pack of 40 hunting dogs, including Scottish Deerhounds, Russian Wolfhounds, Greyhounds and Foxhounds. Told from a dog owner's perspective, this biography covers their first dogs during the Civil War and in Texas; hunting on the Kansas and Dakota frontiers; entertaining tourist buffalo hunters, including a Russian Archduke, English aristocrats and P. T. Barnum (all of whom presented the general with hounds); Custer's attack on the Washita village (when he was accused of strangling his own dogs); and the 7th Cavalry's march to Little Bighorn with an analysis of rumors about a Last Stand dog. The Custers' pack was re-homed after his death in the first national dog rescue effort. Well illustrated, the book includes an appendix giving depictions of the Custers' dogs in art, literature and film.

Dogs have a storied history in health care, and the human-animal relationship has been used in the field for decades. Certain dogs have improved and advanced the field of health care in myriad ways. This book presents the stories of these pioneer dogs, from the mercy dogs of World War I, to the medicine-toting sled dogs Togo and Balto, to today's therapy dogs. More than the dogs themselves, this book is about the human-animal relationship, and moments in history where that relationship propelled health care forward.

This is the story of the vagabond canines that hopped on railroads across the United States, often becoming celebrities and national heroes. Chapters introduce canines like Owney, guardian of the railway mail service; Fala, FDR's beloved dog and train-companion; Annie, the Colorado railway ambassador; the K9 patrols who watch over the tracks; and many more.As railroads were changing America, these raildogs were changing the people who lived and worked in rail communities. For the dogs of the railways, home became the hearts of the people of the railroad. More than the dogs themselves, this book is about the human-animal relationship between a dog and a community and moments in history where that relationship symbolized the quest for home and belonging, a search that humans often share with our canine travelers.

What do dogs mean in America? How do Americans make meaning through their dogs? The United States has long expressed its cultural unconscious through canine iconography. Through our dogs, we figure out what we're thinking and who we are, representing by proxy the things that we don't quite want to recognize in ourselves. Often, it's a specific breed or type of dog that serves as an informal cultural mascot, embodying an era's needs, fears, desires, longings, aspirations, repressions, and hopeless contradictions. Combining cultural studies with personal narrative, this book creates a playful, speculative reading of American culture through its canine self-representations. Looking at seven different breeds or types over the last seven decades, readers will go on an intellectual dog walk through some of the mazes of American cultural mythology.

At age 60, Susan Hartzler has learned to accept, even love, the single life, provided she has good friends and a dog or two by her side. Always attracted to the quintessential bad boy with his good looks and charming ways, she was sure she could change "the one" into a devoted partner and loving father, but her compulsive giving and fixing behaviors went hand in hand with her disappointing and disastrous romantic relationships. On a purposeful trip to the pound, she hoped to find a dog to care for, one that would sniff out the bad guys, give her a sense of purpose, and help her find meaning in her crazy world. Thoughtful and funny, this memoir follows Susan's life through the many ups and downs on her way to finding unconditional love. Her journey is a personal one, full of the hard decisions it took to learn to put herself first and stop entering and staying in unhealthy relationships. By saving a dog, she rescues herself, learning to love herself as much as her dog loves her.

Animal testing is a controversy that has raged for hundreds of years. Some people view experiments on dogs as necessary for human medical progress, while others argue that the practice is barbaric. When the author adopted Marty--a beagle rescued from a research laboratory--she found herself rehabilitating a terrified dog with a traumatic past. She soon discovered the well-kept secret of painful and often fatal testing on dogs. This book details what the author has learned about the past and present of laboratory testing on dogs, life after laboratories and the hope for a future without animal testing. Interviews with rescue organizers and adoptive families reveal the struggles of removing dogs from laboratories and acclimating them to daily life. Scientists discuss the ethics of dog research and advocate for new biomedical technologies. Fundamental change is brewing, with the public, scientists and governments urging the use of new technologies that can replace testing on animals and yield better results.

For many of us, the only way we meet "dangerous" dogs is through news reports about vicious attacks, and films and TV shows that feature out-of-control versions of man's best friend. But there's more to the Bad Dog's story than sensational headlines and movie beasts. A deeper look at these representations reveals a villain much closer to home. This book takes the reader on a rich journey through depictions of violent dogs in popular media. It explores how press accounts and screen stories transform canines into bloodthirsty hunters, rabies-infested strays, ferocious fighters, rogue law enforcement partners and diabolical pets, all adding up to a frightening picture of our usually beloved companions. But, when media tells the dangerous dog's story, it is often with a deep connection to the person on the other end of the leash.

How did beloved movie dogs become man-killers like Cujo and his cinematic pack-mates? For the first time, here is the fascinating history of canines in horror movies and why our best friends were (and are still) painted as malevolent. Stretching back into Classical mythology, treacherous hounds are found only sporadically in art and literature until the appearance of cinema's first horror dog, Sherlock Holmes' Hound of the Baskervilles. The story intensifies through World War II's K-9 Corps to the 1970s animal horror films, which broke social taboos about the "good dog" on screen and deliberately vilified certain breeds--sometimes even fluffy lapdogs.With behind-the-scenes insights from writers, directors, actors, and dog trainers, here are the flickering hounds of silent films through talkies and Technicolor, to the latest computer-generated brutes--the supernatural, rabid, laboratory-made, alien, feral, and trained killers. "Cave Canem (Beware the Dog)"--or as one seminal film warned, "They're not pets anymore."

When Champ, a German Shepherd, was adopted from a local breed rescue, his family hoped and expected to spend many fun-filled years together. However, Champ suffered physically and mentally from neglect and trauma from his first years of life. Despite numerous treatments, Champ was never able to overcome that trauma to become a "normal" dog, and his family made the painful decision to give him peace through behavior euthanasia.This work serves not only as an account of Champ's life and his family's attempts to help him, but also as a resource on behavior euthanasia, which is a compassionate choice for unmanageable aggression, reactivity, bites or severe anxiety. Investigating the potential causes of these issues, chapters examine scientific research on dog behavior and emotions.

Service dogs play an important role in society, assisting their handlers in leading independent, fulfilling lives. These amazing dogs are trained to work with a wide range of disabilities, from visual impairments to PTSD, and come from a variety of breeds and backgrounds. Some service dogs are custom bred and trained by large charities, while others are rescue dogs of indeterminate breed, trained entirely by their owners.Disability knows no bounds and can strike anyone, at any time, leaving us alone, scared and confused, with many of us wondering how feasible it would be to integrate a service dog into our lives. This is a practical guide, written from the perspective of an ordinary dog owner turned service dog trainer, following her own need for a service dog. It covers everything from service dog breeding and selection, how to acquire a service dog, basic training, and public access work, to your dog's eventual retirement. Chapters also detail the day-to-day realities of living with and loving a service dog.

Dog training methodology is an increasingly hotly contested topic. A number of vocal trainers insist that dogs should be instructed through exclusively positive reinforcement, and that training should be totally force-free. Popularized through social media, the force-free training movement has grown into a lucrative, billion-dollar industry, but the consequences may outweigh the positives. This book examines the current state of dog training and discusses ethical alternatives to force-free methods. Chapters cover the history of dog training, common myths, equipment, and the merits of balanced training methods that don't dogmatically avoid occasional force.

When a pet dog injures a human or another dog, the owner is left in a state of fear and confusion. If a dog wreaks havoc and destruction on a home, the owner is left feeling helpless. If an owner finds a dog uncontrollable, or if a dog becomes aggressive and a threat to the community, the dog becomes the one that is at risk for injury or death. Families living with these behaviorally challenged dogs may become isolated and wonder if there is help for their dog. The reality is there are thousands of families facing these issues.This book explains the process for helping dogs with behavior problems in plain language. Calling on her years of experience as a certified canine behavior consultant, the author highlights the journeys of past clients through a series of vignettes broken up by chapters that contain informative and researched guidance. While it is not meant to be a how-to training guide, the book lets people with reactive or anxious dogs know they are not alone. And for those that lose the battle, it walks with them through that final journey.

They are four-legged police officers sniffing their way through mountains, tropical forests, and urban jungles, and they operate in the southernmost Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago, just seven miles from Venezuela. Police dogs and their canine officers face dangers including drug dealers, thieves, kidnappers, and murderers by relying on their most important weapon: trustThis is an unprecedented look at crime from the police canine section's perspective, with the bond between police officers and their dog partners at the heart of the story. Written by a journalist with a background in anthropology, this book is based on exclusive access to the police dogs' secret files. It includes interviews with retired and working canine officers and spans 70 years, from the canine section's inception in 1952 to 2022. Follow the dogs' work during colonialism, independence, the Black Power movement, the rise of the illegal drug trade, and the age of terrorism. Fierce, feared, loyal and lovable, police dogs have compiled an impressive crimefighting record and a trail of remarkable stories.

Rescue dogs provide above-and-beyond value to humans at our most vulnerable: when we experience deep depression and severe mental illness; searing trauma and gripping grief; debilitating drug addiction; and of course, strained relationships with our fellow humans.Alternating between memoir and rescue dog owner profiles, this book intimately binds together shelter dogs, mental health and human relationships, exploring the tangible benefits these damaged dogs bring to us damaged humans. The author offers firsthand experience with each of the mental health themes and relationship issues covered herein and discusses how his beloved rescue dog--a battered mutt with an odd name and a heartbreaking backstory--substantially helped him cope with these challenges. Throughout, we find rescue dogs compelling their humans to be better people--to push forward through headwinds, persist despite setbacks, and build self-esteem through the estimable acts of feeding, sheltering and loving an innocent, mistreated being.

With the establishment of national kennel clubs, conformation dog shows, and pedigrees that only register "purebred" dogs, the majority of these breeds have only been developed in the last 165 years. Today's dog comes in a seemingly infinite range of sizes, shapes, coats, and colors. This diversity is the product of selective breeding that, in turn, is primarily in the hands of breeders and judges.Perhaps nowhere is the diversity of the dog more evident than in the skull, which, in contrast to wild canids, is too often misshapen and deformed. With selective breeding to arbitrary standards of canine beauty comes myriad health concerns, including shortened life expectancy in many cases. We have literally shaped--and continue to alter--the domestic dog, but we must ultimately ask two questions: for what purpose and at what cost to our "best friend"?

In a role 67 million Americans face as caretakers to their elderly parents, Susan Hartzler cared for her dad for three years, gaining profound insight into Parkinson's disease and the multifaceted challenges of caregiving. Throughout this challenging period, Hartzler's rescue dog, Baldwin, a precious gift from her late mom, provided unwavering support. This memoir offers a personal roadmap for those facing similar caregiving decisions. Thoughtful, tragic, and funny, it shows that while demanding, caregiving can be a fulfilling endeavor, especially with a dog by one's side. Hartzler's story will better prepare others in similar situations and encourage them to consider the value of having a dog as a companion on their caregiving journey.

Sandy faced a dilemma: whose needs should come first, those of her paralyzed dog or her healthy husband? After a tragic accident killed her first dog, ten days later, her new puppy died from distemper. Sandy's third dog, a springer spaniel named Kaylee, survived falling off a 75-foot cliff at the age of nine months. These three tragedies compelled Sandy to prove that she was not a failure as a pet owner. Kaylee relied on Sandy for everything, and Sandy needed her dog. Kaylee and her eventual successor, Cassie, became Sandy's 'heart dogs'--those once-in-a-lifetime pets that affected her soul, giving her the courage to stand up to her parents, get the job of her dreams, and help her grow in her relationship with her husband.This memoir examines the realities of helping a dog heal from a traumatic injury and the stress it puts on a marriage. Filled with the joys of small accomplishments and advice on how to make it through the rough patches, it offers a lifeline for a reader struggling not to give up on their dog or their relationships.