Customer Reviews

The Dog Lover's Companion to Washington, D.C.: The Inside Scoop on Where to Take Your Dog (Dog Lover's Companion Guides)

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4 star:		(0)
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2 star:		(1)
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I am still trying to figure my way around the DC area and with a high-energy dog and a tiny backyard, I have been looking for a way to get to know the best parts of the city. This guide book is excellent in giving honest reviews and directions. I love the cheesy humor, DC-life commentary and canine-related puns throughout! It makes reading a guide book enjoyable and not meticulous or boring. The illustrations are fun, too. A great book that I recommend all dog-owners in the DC area buy!

The Dog Lover's Companion to Washington DC is a fairly thorough guidebook, listing a vast number of dog friendly places in Washington DC, Northern Virginia, and Maryland. It is not comprehensive and doesn't claim to be so, but I found it to be pretty thorough and fun to browse. The book lists a variety of dog friendly places, including dog parks, regular people parks, places to hike, cafes, restaurants, hotels, local attractions, and even some dog friendly retail shops. Each place is rated on a scale of one to four paws. In addition, the author indicates whether or not there is something special about the place for humans and also notes the places where dogs can be off-leash.

The guide is organized off by geographic area and begins each section with a map. The book is well-organized and easy to use. In each section, there are a few useful boxed highlights. The first highlight of each section is "the best of", and the author lists the best parks, restaurants, and attractions in that particular geographic region. So, for example, if you want something quick, you can just jump to this box and check out the best park in Northwest DC. Additionally, the author also highlights dog relevant events that occur throughout the year in the various geographic regions. You will need to search the web for more details on events, but it's a good place to look for ideas.

This book is a great compilation of all on dog friendly places in the metro DC area. In my experience, this book is better than what I could find on websites. The websites I've come across are not as thorough in their listings, the information is not as complete, and ratings are often lacking. I use the book as a way to browse for new ideas and then go to the web for more information about a particular place.

The main drawback of this book is that it's not digitally searchable. I wish all of its information was put on a website in a database format. That way, I could search for only fenced dog parks with at least a rating of three paws in a 10 mile radius from my home.

The wrong book was delivered twice... The second time it was also in bad repair. Atleast Amazon gave my sister (it was a Christmas present) a gift certificate. I do see how it is easy to confuse Washington, DC and Seattle, Washington, but twice...