The California Dog Lover's Companion [Paperback]

Maria Goodavage (Author), Phil Frank (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1996

More than 50,000 copies have been sold of this original, best-selling guide for dogs and their people. The fourth edition reveals the state's best lakes for swimming, beaches for romping, leash-free parks for playing, and cafes for snacking, as well as hundreds of dog-friendly restaurants and hotels. Award-winning author Maria Goodavage and her canine assistant Joe leave no bone unturned in their search for the doggone best the Golden State has to offer. Also included are easy-to-use maps, helpful hints on doggy do's and don'ts, and witty illustrations by celebrated San Francisco Chronicle cartoonist Phil Frank. "An invaluable guide." -- Dog Fancy Magazine

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Maria Goodavage and Jake the Yellow-Lab-Sort-of-Dog have traveled throughout the state to check out some of the most dog-friendly parks, beaches, lodgings, and restaurants in the world. As part of their research, they've ridden on ferries, horse-drawn carriages, cable cars, and steam trains. They've visited drive-in movies, kitschy tourist attractions, and dog-friendly wineries. They've eaten at restaurants where dogs are treated almost like people (except they never get the bill). They've stayed at the best hotels, the worst motels, and everything in between. Jake's favorite saying: "You're not really gonna leave the house without me, are ya?" (This is usually accompanied by all his extra folds of neck skin drooping forward into his face, his floppy ears hanging especially low, his tail sagging dejectedly, and his big brown eyes looking remarkably tearful.) Since Jake is a dog without a driver's license (his furry feet don't reach the pedals), he relies on Maria, former longtime USA Today correspondent, to be his chauffeur. Maria is well qualified. She started chauffeuring dogs in 1989, when her intrepid Airedale, Joe, joined her during some of her travels for the newspaper. Joe and Maria sniffed out enough dog-friendly places that they came out with their first book, The Dog Lover's Companion to the Bay Area, shortly thereafter. The Dog Lover's Companion to California was born next. (Each book is now in its fifth edition!) After 13 years of traveling with Maria, Joe recently left for Dog Heaven, where all the cats are slow and no one tells you not to eat horse manure. Jake says he's proud to be following in Joe's pawsteps. Jake lives near the beach in San Francisco with Maria, her husband, and their daughter. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 718 pages
• Publisher: Foghorn Pr; 96-97 edition (April 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1573540013
• ISBN-13: 978-1573540018
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,527,915 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Decent book, but not a comprehensive guide, September 8, 2007

By 

M. Donnelly (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Dog Lover's Companion to California: The Inside Scoop on Where to Take Your Dog (Dog Lover's Companion Guides) (Paperback)

When I read all the stellar reviews for this book, I thought it was the perfect book for me. We have had our dog for two months, and are now venturing out to different places with her. We bought this book last night (and paid full price for it--fancy THAT) in anticipation of a free-roaming day trip today.

First, I do have to say that creating a comprehensive guide is exceedingly difficult. The number of hotels, restaurants and attractions you'd have to visit...well, it's mind-boggling. However, there are both good and bad points to this book, depending on what you're looking for.

Good Points:

1. Very detailed information about the parks, beaches and recreations areas, complete with an easy-to-read rating system (1 to 4 paws) and a clear indicator of off-leash venues (running dog icon). She also includes parking and entrance tips, park amenities that would appeal to your dog, what trails or areas are dog-accessible, etc. Very good listings. This is the main reason you'd want to buy this book.

2. Detailed information on SOME restaurants and hotels and basic information on others. Just thumbing through the book, it's clear that Maria's favorites get lots of detail. For instance, I was thumbing through the book and Roses's Cafe (page 486) in San Francisco gets a full 2/3 of a page. Of course, there was a story attached to that listing of how Maria was introduced to the place, and her experience with it. Other places just list that there is outdoor seating, dogs are allowed, etc. Your mileage may vary.

3. Coverage of the entire state. More breadth, less depth. However, you would think that the local area editions are more comprehensive. Nope. The Bay Area edition seems to have the same information contained in the California edition.

4. Doggie Diversions. Maria lists some great things to do with your dog aside from parks. Shopping, attractions, fun stuff to do. These are sometimes surprising.

5. Other information. I never knew that you could take a dog onto a San Francisco Muni bus or a Cable Car. Maria includes the requirements (muzzle, non-commute hours for Muni) and costs. I also never knew that Nordstrom's welcomes dogs. Dogs and shopping...oh boy!

Bad Points:

1. Only the parks are on the area map. Okay, so let's say you're in San Jose and need a place to stay, a place to eat, and a place to run your dog. You can look at the map and see where to run your dog, but how so you know where the restaurants are in conjunction to your dog park? Hm. GPS, I guess.

2. Could use more listings for hotels and restaurants. For instance, dogfriendly.com has 22 listings for restaurants in San Jose; the book has TWO. San Jose is a pretty big city, and the inclusion of only two restaurants is pitiful.

3. Place you can't take your dog. In some instances, Maria includes this info. For instance, you can't take your dog to California State beaches. Rats. However, I was thinking of going to Muir Woods yesterday, and the book didn't say whether dogs were allowed or not. This is a major attraction in Marin County. Perhaps Maria should consider a list of major attractions in tourist areas where dogs ARE and ARE NOT allowed. For instance, are dogs allowed on Pier 39 and Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco? Hm. I had to sleuth a bit and read the info on Aquatic Park and the RESTAURANT section...the info was there (the answer is yes).

4. Small nit pick: Listings should include name, address, phone number and THEN the info on why it's good. Sometimes the address info is buried within the text. Most times, it's at the end. A good editor would've made this a bit friendlier. It's a bit of a nit-pick, but it's annoying.

All in all, it's a decent book, but it has its flaws. I think it is better than many of the other books out there (better detailed info than dogfriendly.com's book, and rates each of the parks), but has fewer listings than others. I think it's worth your going to a store to check it out. Even with the good reviews here, I was a bit skeptical, and I needed to compare and contrast the book with others in person to make a final buying decision.

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book if you like to travel with your dog, July 1, 2001

By 

Yoshitsune (Planet Earth) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dog Lover's Companion to California (Paperback)

I would recommend "The California Dog Lover's Companion" to anyone who has a dog and lives in California or plans on visiting the Golden State. This book is very well researched and put together. Locations to take your dog are easy to find because the book is split into sections for each county in California. The book lists places you can stay and restaurants that are dog friendly; I even discovered a few places I didn't even know about that were close to my home. One very valuable thing this books does is to tell you the parks and open areas that allow dogs to run without a leash or if you'll need to keep your pet on the leash. This is a great book for all dog lovers in California!

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun, accurate, a must have book for us dogs!, March 27, 2004

By 

Lucky Dog (the Flagler's lab mix) (Santa Barbara CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Dog Lover's Companion to California: The Inside Scoop on Where to Take Your Dog (Dog Lover's Companion Series) (Paperback)

I am a dog that is very much in love with Joe Dog and his human helper Maria Goodavage for the work they did putting this huge sensational book together. If I could talk I'd reccommend this book to all my friends. Its a good thing I can type because at least I can reccommend it to their humans.

This book has had my "masters" take me on great journeys all over California. They laugh when they read it and then they make some phone calls and suddenly I'm in the car and we're going off to some very cool vacation. I always get treated well by the innkeepers and I always get to go to restaurants, well at least the outside eating areas and I always get to do nice things like go to a winery or take a cable car or ride a gondola up a mountain to go hiking down.

My neighbor friend Maggie always got left behind and put in a kennel when her "owners" went on vacation, so I had my people get this book for her people and now Maggie gets to go on vacation to!

My "owners" say the book is hilariously written and super accurate and they sometimes read me about the places their going to take me and this is nice. They love the paw ratings (one to four paws) and the helpful information in the front and back. The Golden Bone Awards are a big hit with them. They look at them and say ooh, let's see why this one got an award and then they read it and then we're staying at a great new place or something.

My favorite time so far has been when we went on vacation in gold country. I even got to dig for gold thanks to this book. I found a little to! It was kind of a set up, but it was fun.

The only other books I've shown interest in have been books I could chew, so you gotta know this is a real good one.

Five paws up. This book has made my life really great.