Shetland Sheepdog: A Comprehensive Guide to Owning and Caring for Your Dog (Comprehensive Owner's Guide) [Hardcover]

Charlotte Schwartz (Author)

Book Description

Series: Comprehensive Owner's Guide | Publication Date: September 1, 2003

Small yet adaptable and durable, the Shetland Sheepdog embodies the characteristics of the rugged Scottish mountain country from where it originated. Originally developed to work the herds of the Shetland Islands, and commonly known as the "Sheltie," this highly skilled sheep-herder has won admirers for his working ability and stamina, while his friendly disposition and compact size have made him a favorite of pet dog owners around the world. This book provides the much-needed factual information about the Shetland Sheepdog and its ancestry, character and standard, as well as the proper selection, feeding, training, preventative health care and behavior of the breed. The new owner will welcome advice about puppy-proofing the home, preparing for the pup’s arrival, housebreaking and preventing puppy problems.

In addition to an extremely authoritative text, this book presents over 135 photographs in full color, which prove to be as informative as they are attractive. Helpful hints and important information are highlighted to provide easy access to everything the reader needs to know about life with a Shetland Sheepdog from puppyhood to the senior years.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 158 pages
• Publisher: Kennel Club Books; Revised edition (September 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1593782322
• ISBN-13: 978-1593782320
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 6.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #342,991 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great book for new sheltie owners., August 27, 2004

By 

Michael B. Young "shelte owner" (delano, mn) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shetland Sheepdog: A Comprehensive Guide to Owning and Caring for Your Dog (Comprehensive Owner's Guide) (Hardcover)

After losing our beloved dog TJ after 16 years of great companionship, I was looking for a good book to get back into the swing of owning a puppy. This book is very good at covering all the basics of dog ownership and also touches on the advanced aspects of ownership. All the info. is up to date ( unlike the Sheltie "bible" Sheltie Talk...which hasnt been updated since the mid '80's.). Very nicely illustrated with drawings and color photos..with a nice back section to put in important info about your sheltie and a nice baby photo!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book for any owners of a Sheltie, March 30, 2009

By 

L. Anthony - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shetland Sheepdog: A Comprehensive Guide to Owning and Caring for Your Dog (Comprehensive Owner's Guide) (Hardcover)

This book is a great all round book on the Sheltie. It has a nice introduction to the history of the breed. It then goes into details about what a good show dog should look (and act) like. This information is also useful for pet dog owners.

It then gives some very good advice on how to look after your dog and teach it basic obedience (sit, down, stay, etc)

The book also gives helpful advice on dealing with health and behavior problems (even covering old aged dogs), and includes good, clear diagrams of the dog's anatomy.

Finally, the book is full of lovely photos of Shelties, and has a attractive design.

I strongly recommend it if you are a Sheltie owner.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent introduction to the Shetland breed, January 4, 2011

By 

Darren Harrison "DVD collector and reviewer" (Washington D.C.) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Shetland Sheepdog: A Comprehensive Guide to Owning and Caring for Your Dog (Comprehensive Owner's Guide) (Hardcover)

My girlfriend and I are both big animal lovers and have known for some time that we wanted to adopt a dog to take for long walks and play with in our backyard. But, we also knew that whichever dog we adopted would have to be able to get along with our two house cats.
My girlfriend had a Schnauzer and cats when she was growing up so we first adopted a Schnauzer only to find that he viewed our cats as prey instead of pack members. We tried everything, even hiring a dog whisperer, but to no avail. Determined to do more research before adopting our next dog we then came across the Shetland Sheepdog (known as a "Sheltie") and we knew almost instantly that we had found the right breed of dog, but also determined to read up on the breed as much as possible.
Which is preciely why we purchased "Shetland Sheepdog: A Comprehensive Guide to Owning and Caring for Your Dog (Comprehensive Owner's Guide)" from Amazon.
The book serves as an excellent introduction to the breed and apart from some factual glitches (I don't recall ever seeing reindeer in Scotland), the author does an admirable job of covering all the conceivable bases with a great collection of photos and select factoids pulled out that allows one to casually peruse through the book to catch odd facts and also to sit and delve more deeply into the text at other times.
One issue I had with the book (and this is purely one of perspective) is that quite a large portion of the book covers breeding and breed standards. Since we are adopting a Sheltie to be a family pet these chapters held little interest to us, but the rest of the book is uniformally excellent.
Highly recommended.