Customer Reviews

Canaan Dog (Comprehensive Owner's Guide)

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This book is, by far, the worst representation of a Canaan Dog I have read. As a breed fancier I would NOT recommend this book to anyone interested in the breed as it paints a very poor picture of our breed as well as diseminating blatantly incorrect information on the breed history. It is obvious the author does not know the breed well and randomly inserted out of context comments into a standard text on dogs. Also, being published in the United States and referring heavily to the AKC breed standard, one would think that dogs bred in America would be pictured. As it is, approximately 60% of the photos in this book are of the same two dogs - both of which were bred outside the U.S. The dog that dominates most of the photos in the book, while appearing acceptable in conformation & type, is tri-colored and would be disqualified from competition according to most breed standards. Photos of various dogs from the United States as well from abroad would have been a more accurate presentation of the breed. I have several Canaan Dogs and this book would have made me not want one. I strongly urge readers to choose one of the other two books on Canaan Dogs available through amazon.com.

I found the information to be inaccurate and incorrect, both in text and photographs. If the author researched this breed you can hardly tell. I would not and will not recommend this book to anyone. The other two books are far better. Bottom line, don't waste your money here.

This book was written by a fairly knowledgeable dog person who has never pwned a Canaan Dog. You get about what you'd expect from that combo: basically okay but repeating inaccuracies and missing nuances she had no frame of reference to assess. Some errors are important only to breed afficianados, but others are more general: microchips are the size of a grain of rice, not a kernal of corn (ouch!). Not all tapeworms are carried by fleas. There are no microfilaria (heartworm larvae) visible in the illustration on page 119... The book does contain much good information but unfortunately the novice is going to have a difficult time sorting the wheat from the chaff. The photos are lovely but I agree with other reviewers' comments that it would be nice to have included more dogs, especially showing all color patterns and correct color patterns.

I do not know how the author researched this book and where she got her information, but there is really only one statement in the book I disagree with, and that is where she says that a Canaan Dog is prone to bite. THIS IS NOT TRUE. In the very early days there were some few people-aggressive Canaan Dogs, but they were the source of bad stories about the breed which took a long time to overcome. Other than this one misrepresentation, the book does a good job of introducing a first-time owner to the breed. It should be a companion to the information received from a breeder and not the sole source of information. The photos are lovely, but present the type favoured in all the rest of the world except the US - the only reason I can see for the prior reviews complaint about them.

Excellent book if you want to know more about this relatively unknown breed. Both the breed and the book deserve more attention.

I don't know about this book, but I have owned two Canaan dogs. One was a male and one was a female. Owning one of these dogs is about like owning a wolf-hybrid. These are not house pets. In the middle east, where they are used as herders, they are not pets, more like half-wild dogs that protect the flocks. Our dogs would attack any dog they saw, on or off their property. They were harder to control than any other dog I have come across. The female was a nicer, calmer, and overall easier dog, but she was extremely territorial, and even attacked our other female dog repeatedly. She was more vicious than the pitt bull/ german shepherd I own. I am not against the breed. They are very intelegent, cunning, animals, but I would just like to warn potential owners that these dogs are not completely domesticated. Please be careful with them; my dogs had to be put down because they attacked a friend's four year old daughter right in front of me, with no provocation. I would just warn you to watch them around your children.