Customer Reviews

The Complete English Shepherd Guide: Raising Your Puppy and Caring for Shep--American's Generic Dog

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

"The Complete English Shepherd Guide..." is a very good book for the intended audience. The author goes through the stages of understanding the breed of English Shepherd (and he's obviously a devotee to that particular breed), considering getting one, then getting a pup (and how to go about that in a responsible way), nutrition (which is addressed for all stages of the dog's life), training, again understanding the breed, and so on, and toward the end he address's the considerations of the later stages of the breed's life. He does this in a short writing that has enough information to be a great introduction for both consideration of this breed and caring for one if you decide to obtain one. There's a lot of this information on the web (tons of history of this very old breed is out there, as are personal stories, kennels, forums, etc.), but this is an inexpensive enough book to obtain, and its worth it to get the info all from one source, and to get that info structured well as a book. Its not a well edited writing, and several bring that up. There are some errors in grammar and spelling (my only reason for begrudgingly deducting a star). But, they are minor and do not detract from the value of the book in any way (unless the occasional error is an intolerable thing to you personally -- its not for me). Also, this is an obscure area of writing, as this breed (in the U.S. especially) has become rare. If you go searching for other books on this subject (and I have) you'll find that its difficult at best to source written material at all. The English Shepherd is so valuable an animal as a home pet or farm dog, this book may help you consider the dog that you need more than the breed you're currently considering. It would be good to also have on hand a more in depth writing on dog care in general, and there's a wealth of those out there. But what this covers on an English, those won't. The personality, the wealth of good traits, and the need to understand the breed is what this book covers.

One of a kind. Author appears to have long standing experience with the English Shepherd breed. Found the content helpful and entertaining. Could have used an editor to help with spelling but all in all was worth the price.

I have an English Shepherd puppy and I found this book useful and full of relevant breed-specific information. Other than the English Shepherd Club puppy guide booklet, there really isn't any other publication available on this breed, so I consider it a must have if you own one of these dogs.

This book is printed on demand so I don't understand why the author has not corrected all the misused words that others have mentioned in their reviews. Luckily the book is only 100 pages long because it does get really tiring with multiple errors on nearly every page. Do you really need to "insure" your dog, or "ensure" that they do something? There are no spelling errors so he must have relied on Word to check it for him, but it missed all the misused and incorrect words. Clearly there was no editorial review or proof reading done by a second person. Come on - two years with no revision? Do it before the next copy is printed.

Still, I recommend it. It would be 5 stars if not for the poor grammar.

The author is obviously an experienced dog breeder who does not march to the conventional drumbeat of the humdrum. It may be upsetting to some who expect the usual banal hackneyed drill about raising the typical dog. The usual and the commonplace, the ordinary and the prosaic, the facile and the trivial seem to be missing in this book.

Instead, there is a forthright common sense approach to dog rearing, which includes many nontraditional approaches to selecting, feeding, training, and healthcare that you won'tfind in most dog books.

I have owned several English Shepherd dogs over the years and found this book to be quite enlightening as well as entertaining.

From my experiene with this breed, it seems to be very comprehensive in dealing with its background and history, its breed standards, nutrition and training. The author is very thorough when he describes puppy selection, and even delves into the areas of breeding, caring for the puppies as well as marketing them. It is obvious that he has a large kennel and is quite successful with insuring the continuance of the several old bloodlines of the breed.

Along with the chapters on training and acclimating your new puppy, I was particularly impressed with his chapters on nutruition. Certainly a bit unorthodox, but revealing about exactly what counts as unadulterated canine nourishment and what is proper and safe.

In all, a different approach to raising your dog, and especially a dog as rare and intelligent as the English Shepherd. A very good read.

There isn't much information on English Shepherds so when I found this book I was excited to learn more about the breed. Unfortunately, this book falls short. There is more useful information about the breed online then in this book, and even the information that's provided by the author on raising a puppy, training, health etc. is marginal at best. If you want excellent information on raising a dog or a puppy I highly recommend reading two books, The Art of Raising A Puppy and How To Be Your Dogs Best Friend, both written by The Monks of New Skete.

This book is informative but the information given isn't solely designed for ES-lovers or prospect ES-buyers. Many chapters cover normal issues of dogcare like food, health care, housing, training. As I had already done a thorough internet research on ES the book didn't offer that many revelations about the difference between English Shepherds and other dog breeds - maybe it's different for other people.

A very easy read from a down to earth farmer who adds commentary to opinion. There are spelling and grammatical errors throughout but they do not interfere with the content meaning. It is a delightful book filled with good, practical information.

Mr. Hammond obviously loves the English Shepherd dog, and his book has been valuable to us as we researched the breed. This seems to be the only text on this breed. We also found helpful information on the websites for the United Kennel Club and the English Shepherd Club. Our only criticism of the book is that it is very poorly edited because there are many words misspelled or simply used in the wrong context. Mr.Hammond says he is a lawyer, and we expect such a professional to know how to spell and write. In any case, we did purchase a puppy from an excellent breeder in Iowa, and so far our experience is entirely consistent with Mr. Hammond's writing.

I spent a lot of time on the internet researching working farm dogs and then specifically English Shepherds before I found this terrific book, but nothing on line gave me the kind of firsthand sense of what these very special dogs are all about, or what living with them would really be like. I expected a typical breed book and was delighted by the author's charming, somewhat irrascible tone, and I cried at least twice while reading the book. His insight into the dog food industry and its brilliant marketing of canine junk food was eye-opening as well. Mostly what i appreciated was a real sense of the breed and, for the novice dog owner who is lucky enough to start out with an ES, this book provides an excellent guide to all the basics. Bottom line: within hours of reading the book, my own ES puppy was on his way to me. Now I've shared the book with a friend who decided she didn't want a Border Collie after all, and we're looking forward to raising our puppies together. Buy this book, you won't be sorry.

Hammond's book on this breed shows his intense devotion to it and his in depth knowledge as well. In his easy, laid back style, he tells you what you need to know about the whole process of acquiring the dog, breeding it, raising and marketing puppies. This would be a great book for anyone who has decided to go into the dog breeding business regardless of the breed. I really enjoyed this book.