City Puppy: Buying, Training, and Loving Your Urban Dog [Paperback]

Tracey McTague (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 27, 2010

City-dwellers cope with long working hours, grueling commutes, and tiny living spaces. But living in an urban setting doesn't mean giving up hope for having a puppy-as owning a dog in the city can be both manageable and affordable.

City Puppy is a comprehensive guide that covers preparing yourself and your home for your dog, choosing a compatible companion, training and cohabiting, and getting the most out of your city and its animal resources. Among the many city-specific puppy topics covered:

*Where to find a dog in the city

*How to pick the dog that fits best into your apartment and busy commuting lifestyle

*Navigating dog parks (and the many other city dogs you'll meet there!)

*City training issues, and clever tips for easy ways around them

*How to throw a puppy party

*Making your walk awesome

*How puppies help you get dates

Complete with fun, informative illustrations and humorous anecdotes, City Puppy is an invaluable and entertaining guide that any dog lover will want to Stay, Sit, and Read.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

As McTague points out, we didn�t choose the dog as our companion; the dog chose us. Or actually the dog chose our garbage�a steady source of food over the uncertainty of hunting. Dogs evolved to cohabit with humans, even when those humans cluster into the tight living spaces we call cities, and this chatty new book helps dog owners to prepare themselves for the reality of urban canine companionship. In fact, reality is where McTague begins, asking readers if they are ready for a new pup, ready to walk the dog, clean up after the dog, train the dog, etc., all within the confines of city life. And what breed to choose? Or should one rescue a dog from a shelter? Matching the breed characteristics to the owner�s lifestyle is always important, but especially crucial in an urban setting with its smaller living spaces and more scheduled play and exercise times. The author wisely promotes choosing not only the right breed but also the right individual, appending the Puppy Aptitude Test with accompanying explanations. A long section on training covers the basics, again with an emphasis on the strictures of city living (e.g., housebreaking when you live on the fifth floor); and another excellent section discusses city dangers (e.g., cars and broken glass). Training a city dog involves not only the basic commands but also desensitization to all the distractions of a city walk and the rules of living in a small space (no dogs on the furniture). This cheerful book will be a godsend for urban dog lovers. --Nancy Bent

About the Author

Tracey McTague is an award-winning writer and poet, a photographer for the Wall Street Journal, and the editor of Lungfull!magazine. A life-long dog lover, she lives in Brooklyn with her husband and Great Dane, Sirius.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Overlook TP; Original edition (April 27, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590202600
• ISBN-13: 978-1590202609
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,065,661 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not what I was looking for, February 5, 2011

By 

ms570 - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: City Puppy: Buying, Training, and Loving Your Urban Dog (Paperback)

This book was ok, but I wouldn't buy it again. I was looking for a book that focused on the specific challenges of raising a puppy in the city. This was not it.

For example, what to do about housetraining when the puppy hasn't finished it's fully round of vaccinations? Most dog books talk about bringing the dog to a yard. In a city, that's not usually possible and pretty uniformly, vets recommend to not let a puppy on the sidewalk due to the dangers of picking up disease. So, how to deal with the paper training indoors, and the the transition to the street once the shots are done? The author says to waive off that fear, and just recommends bringing the dog to street anyway. I'm sorry, that doesn't really fly with me. I would have appreciated if the author would have had some options of dealing with that particular urban puppy issue.

Basically, I felt like the book was a more general new dog book, and did not sufficiently address the issues of a new urban puppy.

And if you are looking for a general new puppy book, there are better ones on the market. A much better option is Before and After Getting Your Puppy: The Positive Approach to Raising a Happy, Healthy, and Well-Behaved Dog by Ian Dunbar.