Customer Reviews

The New Encyclopedia of the Dog

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is overall an excellent book which includes about 500 different breeds, far more than other similar books I have seen. However, the texts are brief and not very informative. The symbols (which indicate a breed's temperament, grooming needs) are ambiguous at best. e.g. When there is no symbol indicating whether a dog needs room to run, does it mean the dog has no such need? Basically, one can get an idea of the size, look, origin, and original purpose of a breed from this book. For any information beyond a one-sentence summary, one must find another source.

It's an impressive book to look at and hold ... quality paper and the photographs are very well done ... lovely printing and colour seperation ... But for a book this size, price and with the title "Encyclopedia" ... I was hoping to find more information about the dogs themselves. Most descriptions are brief. Perhaps too much space has been taken up by those wonderful photographs. So, unless the reader is into collecting pictures of dogs, the books offers little that an average/reasonable dog owner does not already know, or cannot easily find out with a quick search on the Internet for the price of a phone call.

More of a coffee table book perhaps?

This is by far one of the most colorful and informative dog encyclopedias I have seen. Many rare breeds are covered that most books do not cover as they are not AKC. I own Shiloh Shepherds and a King Shepherd and this is the only book that has either one in it. DK books always have beautiful photography as well.

I have posted a review earlier, when I had not bought this book, but just looked at it, and, after having bought it and looked through it, it is far better than I expected.
With over 420 breeds and over 600 photographs, this book could make any dog-lover go mad! Excellent quality photos provide the reader with a very good idea of the size, weight and looks of each breed. Little, easy-to-read icons below the Facts provide the reader with information about the grooming, exercise and climatic needs of the dog, along with the temperament.
Short, but comprehensive, text provides the reader with an overview of the breed and the hunting and companion abilities.
Apart from all the various breeds, the whole structure and various characteristics of behaviour of dogs have also been explained. Dog food and dog products have also been printed and these would be of great help to new owners.
Buying a puppy is a big decision and, so, it has to be done carefully and this book is just right for it.
All in all, it's pretty amazing and I highly recommend it.

This book is excellent. You will not regret your purchase. I read this book everynight. If your interested in buying a dog and want to choose a breed, this book is perfect. Each dog has its own description and history by the author. There are also icons which represent aspects of each dog: A pitbull might have a child icon crossed out, meaning: "not suitable for children". Therefore, a husky might have a snowflake, building crossed out and a brush icon meaning: "good in the snow, not suitable for urban environment and requires much grooming". This book is exremely helpful, educational and entertaining. The pictures are amazingly vivid. The book layout, order and organization is excellent. Again, if you are interested in purchasing a dog, this book is PERFECT!! If you are interested in dog breeds, this book is PERFECT!! If you love good photography and tons of reading time, this book is PERFECT!! You wont regret buying this book..

It has the potential to be a great book if the author had taken some time to actually look into each breed. The "Canadian Eskimo Dog" is now referred to as the Canadian Inuit Dog out of respect for the Inuit people. He has the dog's height wrong, and the weight range is much too high. This leads me to conclude that if there were that many errors on one dog breed, who's to say that it's not wrong on other breeds too?
I was quite disgusted and mad to see the "designer dogs" put as purebred dogs. Labradoodles, Bichon/Yorkies, Cockerpoos, and Bull Boxers are NOT purebred dogs. They are mixes given a fancy name and sold for staggering amounts of money.
The first few chapters on the history of the dog is quite fascinating though, and the pictures are nice. If you need an all-in-one book and don't mind many errors, this is a great book for you. If you're like me, go down the road of buying a better dog encyclopedia and different books on different subjects rather than this faulty all-in-one.

I found this book to be one of the most complete dog guides I have ever seen. I have seen a lot. In fact, I don't buy a dog breed guide unless it has one the most uncommon dogs in the world in it. The Encycopedia of the Dog does have this breed in it. Not only does this book cover dog breeds, but it also covers dog anatomy, and much more. I would suggest this book to anybody wanting to know a little more about a lot of dog breeds!!!

Appears at first to be a comprehensive guide to a wide variety of breeds, however on closer examination the information is skimpy and often just plain inaccurate on several of the rarer breeds. The breeds that suffer the worst from Mr. Fogle's misinformation also happen to be the breeds banned by the UK. For example, Mr. Fogle claims that the sole purpose of the Dogo Argentino (one of the banned breeds) is for dog fighting - a claim which is completely untrue. Anyone who knows anything about the breed, knows that the breed was created specifically for HUNTING WILD BOAR IN PACKS and is still extensively used in this capacity to this day - but Mr. Fogle makes no mention of this whatsoever. Having been a Dogo owner, breeder, trainer and specialty judge for the past 10 years, I feel quite qualified to call Mr. Fogle out on the carpet for either his ignorance of this breed (in which case, he has no business writing about it) or his deliberate lie (no doubt to appease his British publishers). Having found several "inaccuracies" in the descriptions of some of the breeds that I am very familiar with, I am very suspicious of Mr. Fogle's descriptions of the breeds that I am not very familiar with. Since I can not trust Mr. Fogle's information, I find the book virtually useless. I am glad that I only checked the book out from a library and therefore didn't waste any of my money to buy it. I would recommend "The Atlas of Dog Breeds of the World" by Bonnie Wilcox, DVM and Chris Walkowicz. I did purchase this book and treasure it as an excellent, accurate reference with wonderful pictures. This book is coffee table quality. Also, for more information on some of the rare breeds here in the US, I would recommend "A Celebration of Rare Breeds" by Kathy Flammholtz. The information is good but it doesn't have really great pictures, since some of the breeds are so rare that even a picture is difficult to get.

This book is the first source that I recommend for anyone looking for a dog that doesn't know what breed they would like. It has very comprehensive descriptions on both carachter and looks, not to mention beautiful pictures. I am a dog trainer, and vet tech. This book is also the only one I have found that includes many rather unknown breeds.

My mother and I love dogs and are able to identify most breeds by sight. Naturally, we loved this book. Not only does it provide information on many, many breeds, but it has at least two pictures of every kind of dog. From the popular Golden Retriever and Poodle to the extremely rare Chinook and Danish Chicken Dog, this book has a lot of information. I especially liked that it gave favorable descriptions of the Newfoundland and St. Bernard. I own one of each.