MetroDog
   Brian Kilcommons & Sarah Wilson
  2001 Warner Books
    ISBN: 0446526037


A Guide to Raising Your Dog in the City. Bringing up a dog in the city is no walk in the park. Whether you're housebreaking a puppy 30 floors up or navigating crowded sidewalks. With pedestrians, parking meters, strange smells & discarded food, city dogs & city owners need to be more savvy than their suburban or country cousins.

They wag their tails, slobber & romp just as enthusiastically yet city dogs are a breed apart. City dogs live in high-rises, trot along bustling sidewalks, & play in crowded dog runs, so good manners with humans & canines alike are imperative. [We country cousins do have manners -- must have, the country is actually much more lethal than a city if you forget your manners & take off after a person's sheep or chicken. You get no second chances out here.]

In this thorough guide, Brian Kilcommons & Sarah Wilson tell & show us in a profusion of photographs, how to do everything from housetraining a puppy -- when the sidewalk is 40 floors below & she has to go now -- to preventing Rover from barking in a thin-walled studio apartment -- to saying goodbye to a beloved & noble longtime companion. Packed with treats of proven training tips, Metrodog is the book every dog owner in every metropolis must have.

To The Apartment Puppy -- getting your apartment prepared to getting yourself ready to learning the First Steps to Housebreaking to Sample Schedules, Food & Water on through The Family Dog to Introducing Your New Pup to Your Other Pets clear down to Quarantine, Good Habits, Different Temperaments & Commands Every Metropuppy Should Know.

Then to Hitting the Streets -- Impossible Behavior or Normal Puppy? First Weeks of Walks; Being a Leader Worth Following; Handling Common Fears; Plans A, B or C of Getting Your Pup to Go Outside; City Services; Indoor Activities; Exercise & Obedience.

Inner-City Youth -- What to Expect from Your Adolescent Canine -- Metrodogs and Kids; Training Equipment: The Good and the Bad; Training for the Inner-City Youth[Jeez, I wonder if they would work for our kids?]

Then to Smooth Sailing -- Health Care -- Beyond Exercise -- Home Alone Success -- Taking Your Dog to Work -- Dogs and Taxicabs -- Tethering Near a Store -- Dealing with the Mentally Troubled -- Metrodog Problems with Solutions -- Continuing Education.

Finally to The Older Metrodog -- Life Expectancy -- Physical Changes -- Making Life Easier -- Health Care -- More Training? -- New Puppy? -- When the Time Comes & What Will Happen?

I enjoyed making my way through the exercises, most of which our Buddy-dog has already been trained for years. Do consider this book the perfect gift when someone you know in the city gets a dog in their life. It will definitely give them some idea of what a city dog's life is like!

About the Authors:
Brian Kilcommons is a renowned animal expert. He has more than 25 years' experience as a master animal trainer, author, educational consultant, television reporter, pet industry spokesperson, animal rights advocate & lecturer. He is currently on the faculty of the Veterinary School of Medicine at Tufts University & is the official spokesperson for Ralston Purina in the U.S. & Canada.

Sarah Wilson oversees the active message boards at GreatPets.com; speaks internationally on dog & human behavior & has appeared in numerous publications including the Boston Globe, Philadelphia Inquirer & Cosmopolitan.

More from these authors: Good Owners, Great Dogs; Good Owners, Great Cats; Childproofing Your Dog: A Complete Guide to Preparing Your Dog for the Children in Your Life; Paws to Consider: Choosing the Right Dog for You and Your Family; Tails from the Bark Side & Mutts: America's Dogs.
(09/02/01)

Rebecca