Customer Reviews

Hiking With Your Dog: Happy Trails: What You Really Need to Know When Taking Your Dog Hiking or Backpacking

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

 

 

This is a basic guide to taking a dog into the wilderness. There is plenty of commonsense advice about first aid, supplies, and
outdoor etiquette (i.e. yield to horses and clean up if your dog poops on the trail). The downside is that it assumes that you can take your pet just about anywhere--like across rivers and onto ledges--and that leashes are optional. For seasoned outdoorsfolk and dogs that are both suited to and trained for such adventures, fine, but that's probably not most of us.

Also distracting is the sheer number of spelling and grammatical mistakes. "Dogs," for example, is consistently used as a possessive form, while apostrophes are used to designate the plural. And I won't even go into "its" and "it's." Any decent editor should have found these in the draft stage. Rightly or wrongly, such errors undermine the reader's faith in the writer's expertise.

This is the first "Dog hiking"-book I've seen that has something for the more difficult situations. The book has even short chapter about things like fording and bouldering. It still has the basics too.

No photos, just drawn pictures. Not very informational ones, except the ones about first aid.

Good book, but a bit short. Especially if you do longer, overnight hikes in difficult terrain. LaBelle's book "Guide to backpacking with your dog" is definetly better if you do shorter walks that last only a day. If you decide to buy it, avoid 1st edition. The 2nd edition is definetly improved version.

This book helped me so much the last time I went camping. I was always so scared to bring my dog with me...too many variables. My friend told me about this book and that it might help. It told me everything I really needed to know in a simplistic way. Gary Hoffman didn't make me feel any less intelligent for my lack of knowledge about camping with my dog. I got all the information I needed and the trip was a success. Next time I just might stay longer!

Gary Hoffman's book, Hiking With Your Dog, is extremely helpful when backpacking with the family dogs. I consider myself a well informed person, but having information available in print is invaluable. It's not always easy to keep your facts straight while dogs bark, children yell and husbands fish. I would have liked even more information. I'm not concerned about typos. Content presented in a concise and simple manner, to me, means the difference between a wonderful camping trip and a disaster.

This book is delightful presented as well as informative due to the very artistic and funny bone tickling illustrations. The author is obviously writing about something he has done many times and holds especially dear to his heart. There are two "loves" in this book - the rewarding pleasure of canine companionship enhancing the awesome grandeur of outdoor experience. A joy to read!

This is a very disappointing book. Almost anyone with dog experience and an 8th grade education could do a better job. The author states in his foreword that he makes no apologies for spelling or grammar mistakes. No excuse! There are errors of punctuation, grammar, and spelling throughout. This might be excusable if the information were of any help, but it's not. About 80% of the information is self-evident, 19% is speculative personal opinion, and only 1% is anything I was unaware of (and I'm not exactly a dog expert). The number of pages is misleading, as there are many blank pages or pages with almost no text, silly cartoons, or big type. The material could fit into about 20 pages of double-spaced text.

Don't waste your money on this book! I recommend Charlene Bell's book instead.