Your Dream Dog: A Guide To Choosing The Right Breed For You [Hardcover]

Bash Dibra (Author), Elizabeth Rudolph (Author), Kitty Brown (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 6, 2003

"Recognized as an authority and deservedly so,"* Bash Dibra explains to readers why finding the right dog for their lifestyle is so important-for the happiness of both pet and owner. Filled with personal anecdotes, Your Dream Dog includes detailed descriptions of all officially recognized breeds (plus some unofficial ones), tips on how to match the dog's needs with the owner's lifestyle, and hints on how to acquire a healthy dog, whether it's a purebred, a mixed breed, or an all-American mutt.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This guidebook by an animal behaviorist to the stars (including Sarah Jessica Parker and J-Lo) helps readers with the all-important decision of selecting the right dog breed for one’s lifestyle, circumstances and personality. Dibra’s goal is for pet owners and the pets themselves to be utterly satisfied with the relationship, because "when the wrong one moves in with you, nobody—including the dog—is happy." With cautionary anecdotes of what can happen with the wrong dog, and encouraging stories of perfect matches, he introduces readers to the five-point temperament test, which can be used to pick a specific dog, then provides basic information—size, breed history, height, weight, life expectancy, exercise requirements and potential behavior problems—on more than 160 breeds, from Affenpinscher to Yorkshire Terrier. He also provides tips on where to find one’s dream dog, how to get the relationship off to the right start and how to keep the animal healthy.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Dibra is the man with the answers. (Woman's Day) Bash Dibra has such a cult following among Manhattan pet owners that he is known simply as Bash, like a rock star. (New York Times)

He doesn't train your dog; he trains you to train your dog by thinking like a dog. (In Style) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: NAL Hardcover (June 6, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451208714
• ISBN-13: 978-0451208712
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,002,286 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Looks like a winner to me!, August 1, 2003

By 

goodoldmac "goodoldmac" (Charlotte, North Carolina United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Your Dream Dog: A Guide To Choosing The Right Breed For You (Hardcover)

Before I really get into to this, one mild word of warning. In the past couple of years, I have become friends with noted dog trainer Sarah Wilson, who along with her husband, Brian Kilcommons, have written several dog books, including the one I consider the current reigning and undisputed champ of the "how to pick your dog" genre, "Paws To Consider"...it may be worth your while to keep that in mind as you read this...and with that in mind, how does Bash Dibra's "Your Dream Dog" stack up?

Pretty well actually. Mr. Dibra is well-known dog trainer himself, and to be honest about it, his book does offer a couple of advantages over "Paws" (although it feels slightly treasonous to me to say that...)To begin with, his breed listing contains more breeds than does "Paws" (over 160 compared to 147) and some may also find his straight alphabetical listing easier to use than the by lifestyle approach used by Brian and Sarah. Okay, no more comparisons to "Paws" or mentioning of other dog trainers...

Mr. Dibra does all dog lovers a favor by listing in his dog "groups" (or types in this case) the most common of all breeds/types/ call it what you will...the common everyday mutt. And along those lines he echoes the feelings of other noted "dog people" that the potential new dog owner not be fooled by the current fad of matching one breed or another to a poodle, calling it a "something-a-poo" (cockapoo, pekeapoo, whatever) and billing it as a new breed. They not. Period. Cute, yes, adorable without a doubt, but folks, these guys are just plain mutts. Don't pay pure breed prices for a mix.

"Your Dream Dog" also deserves applause for mentioning that your dream dog maybe one of those unfortunates abandoned at the shelter. Yes you can get pure breds there too, and the number of dogs (and cats) that are killed each year in this country is nothing short of criminal.

More credit must be given to Mr. Dibra for including the "puppy temperment test", a more or less standard test used to be the right puppy for you out of a liter, mentioned in dog books by..er...other dog book authors. (See? No names.)

Other pluses includ what to have ready when your new puppy comes home, something so many of us forget, until you raise a frantic shout "Oh my god, I forgot to get...(what?") He also lists activties that you can share with your dog, (and there are a lot of them) and the fact that your dream puppy may be and need not be a puppy at all. Adult dogs can and do bond to their new owners. Our own West Highland White Terrier( ada "Westie), Sally, was five when we got her, and it has been a great match-up.

So what is wrong with the book? Well, a few things, minor for the most part. The brief breed description are a little too brief, especially in regard to the diseases that various breeds are subject too. Mitral Valve Disorder is listed as a problem for the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, with no mention that this problem is a real killer in these cute little fellows. The national breed assocation for the Cavvy estimates that as many as 50% of the dogs may have this. Breeders are working hard on curing the problem, but starting out so far behind is real handicap. Skin allegeies are real problem, especially in summer for Westies and their owners, but this is not even mentioned in the breed description, although it is in the appendixes dealing with medical problems, but the potential owner of these dogs would not know that without specifally looking for it.

Which brings me to what I think is the major flaw in "Your Dream Dog." There is no index. I was actually more than a little surprised to see that, since this is a book intended to be used, and used hard. It's not fair to blame Mr. Dibra for this of course, but someone sure dropped the ball here.

Still the book is a worthwhile additon to a dog-lovers library. "Your Dream Dog" doesn't merely lecture, it teaches. All dog trainers, breeders what have you, will agree that research in arugably the most important of the first steps in getting your canine companion and this book will be a good one to begin your search.

Would have given it a 5, but since, you know, there ain't no-stinking-index, I took away a point, (actually a half, but Amazon won't let me do that) for a score of 4 1/2

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I worry about incorrect information, August 8, 2005

By 

Gini B (Missouri United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Your Dream Dog: A Guide To Choosing The Right Breed For You (Hardcover)

I think this book would appeal most to folks searching for a dog with little knowledge of the breeds themselves. I won this book and paid little attention to it for a long time. When I finally browsed through it, I was shocked to find that the breed information given about "my" breed (Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs) is almost 100% incorrect. The breed history is inaccurate, the breed standards are misstated and the personality traits are totally wrong. It seems like Mr. Dibra didn't even do cursory research on the breed before writing a summary about it. I'm not as familiar with many other breeds, but did find some glaring inaccuracies about others as well. Please research breeds through nationally accredited breed websites. If you want to research a breed or breeds, don't trust this book as an accurate source of information. I'm sure Mr. Dibra is an expert on dog training, but he obviously is no expert on breeds or types.

5.0 out of 5 stars Get the right dog the first time., June 13, 2010

By 

Dan Proctor (Kent, WA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Your Dream Dog: Guide to Choosing the Right Breed for You, A (Paperback)

Bash rocks. This book was recommended to me by a Cesar Milan book. Read the Cesar Milan book first, then this one. I love this book because it gives a reasoned assessment of different dog breeds. Grooming, suitablility to appartment / city life, how to deal with a puppy, more more more. Also, before it even gets into the details of the breeds, it takes you through a questionaire to help you define what you are looking for. After the questionaire I could easily eliminate from my list certain breeds and I found myself left with a nice list of possible candidates. Now I use this book as a quick resource for dogs I come across. Very helpful, but be sure and under the whole pack leader, daily walk thing before you add the dog to your life.