Customer Reviews

The Holistic Puppy: How to Have a Happy, Healthy Dog

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Let me preface this by saying I haven't finished this book yet. I'm less than forty pages in, but that said, it's ridiculous. This is the first time I've been moved to write a review like this. After fostering our dog, we adopted her at the beginning of this month. We saved a lot of money because it's National Adopt a Shelter Dog Month, so I decided to buy some odds and ends at the shelter to give more anyway. They had a few worn copies of this book for six dollars each, so I purchased one for my husband, who's never owned a dog before. As someone with an interest in holistic treatment and living, I thought it might contain helpful hints for him. He later joked to me that I always give him the same book. The last book I recommended to him was DMT: The Spirit Molecule by Rick Strassman, MD, which is about the powerful psychedelic drug, so I didn't understand. I do now. My views are a little more out there than most people's, so I can't even imagine how much most people will hate this book. Right off the bat, the second chapter is devoted to "interspecies communication," and details a thorough conversation Stein had with one of her dogs about how dogs and dolphins are Great Intergalactic Be-ings. ("Being" is always hyphenated, just like she spells "magic" with a K.) I am not sure why this crap is important to owning a dog, but if it is, she doesn't even bother to tell us what drugs are required to achieve it. Just so you know, I believe in talking to your dog. It's just that when I do, she tells me things like how great her butt tastes, not what her spirit guide is wearing. Stein also says that dogs can die simply from absorbing their owner's negative energy.

All this could be cute if she at least gave good advice. She doesn't. On page 22, she says small breeds are better for people who don't have time to train a dog, because you can just pick them up when they misbehave. What? You don't just train a dog to make your life easier, you train it because dogs are pack animals and like rules. Being trained makes them happy! This kind of logic is why there are neurotic Chihuahuas and Pomeranians running around. When she talks about crating, she suggests lining the pan with newspapers. Crating takes advantage of a dog's desire to keep its den clean, so why would you make it look like a toilet? She thinks her dogs read minds and talk to angels, but they're too dumb to realize that newspapers on the floor can only serve one purpose. She later makes a vague statement about using the crate for "misdemeanors," and even an inexperienced trainer knows you never use a crate for punishment. On a lighter note, on page 37, she says she only uses Nylabones and even rawhides for chewing because she's a vegetarian. lol WHAT. My husband and I are vegan, and our dog eats a premium vegetarian formula. She has a Nylabone, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, but they are flavored with meat, so it's stupid to recommend them because they're vegetarian! I wonder what she thinks rawhide is made from?? I'm guessing Ms. Stein is the kind of "vegetarian" who regularly wears leather but believes fur is murder. On the same page, she mentions that one of her dogs will "snap or growl" when you try to take his bone, and seems to think that's normal! Granted, she has Siberian Huskies, which I've never raised, so I don't know if that's acceptable within their temperament.

From a writing standpoint, this book may irritate you if you're not a female with children (or even if you are), since she occasionally assumes that of the reader. I have no idea why.

I saved what I feel to be "best" for last: Right on page 3, Ms. Stein tells us that she herself bred her dog Dusty from her dog Tiger (she later discusses the importance of spaying and neutering). She talks about all five dogs she's owned in the beginning of the book. Her first two dogs, Cinde and Tiger, were from dog shows, a retired breeder, and a brand-new puppy, respectively. According to the back of the book, Diane Stein "rescued three grown dogs and two puppies from animal shelters." Never mind that I already listed two puppies and she acquires a third later, what new math demonstrates that breeding one puppy and presumably buying another (unless purebred dog breeders of show winners give out donations now) equals rescuing dogs?