Customer Reviews

Your Golden Retriever's Life: Your Complete Guide to Raising Your Pet from Puppy to Companion

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This is a wonderful reference for prospective or current owners of a Golden Retriever, but especially for someone who has a new Golden puppy. I bought this book as soon as we had decided on a Golden when the litter was 4 weeks of age so I could do a lot of reading before the puppy came home. The author is "right on" when it comes to the breed. She accurately describes all of its best traits as well as its shortcomings regarding food allergies, skin allergies, etc. She tells you exactly what to look for in a new puppy and what to avoid. There are no surprises about the breed once you have read this book. It covers all aspects regarding feeding, grooming, bonding, training, living with an older dog - everything you will encounter over the years with your dog. If you have any doubts, check this book out at your local library or bookstore . . .

This book is very long on lauditory rhetoric for golden retrievers, but the density of practical information is low. What and how much should my dog eat? High quality food and enough but not too much. The breeder gave me a little pamphlet issued by Purina that had the same basic information that I got from this book in about 3 pages.

After waiting over two decades to embark on the creation of a Golden Retriever family, I soon found that I was embarking on much more than my first baby's pretty face. Schroeder was a giant handful from the time he was born! My husband said, "What have you adopted, a baby who wants to sleep in our bed and play fetch there too?"

Betsy's text describes quite precisely the nature of our two Golden Retrievers and her advise will ensure that your Golden develops physically and psychologically healthy and you will too--so long as you follow the "rules". Without a thorough understanding of my dog's not only family oriented but, generally, people oriented nature that requires plenty of games and exercise (outside), Schroeder would have continued being very eager to take me anywhere by my shirt, and he probably would have succeeded before he was full grown. So, I consider myself lucky that I outran him to the bookstore beforehand and picked up Betsy's book. We now have a healthy, happy home with two Goldens. Yes, I can now resume graduate school knowing that my "kids" are happy at home without ball and bottle in my hand for several hours per day.

In sum, I recommend this book as a must read for those considering a Golden family member. Again, these dogs are extremely active, loving and family oriented and need to be treated with this understanding. If this type of companion is in your reality, even training becomes a joy. Otherwise, try another one of her books--you can't miss with Betsy but you could avoid your seemingly empirical perception of a pretty face quickly changed if your golden son rises without you.

PS. I would like to hear from Betsy concerning my "essential" goats.

I checked this book out at our public library. I felt that the author reiterated points over and over. Some of the items were basic common sense things, but good to review nonetheless. But, as I was reading, I noticed a common theme... she didn't care much for children. Just listen to this paragraph... "How irritating it is to be out walking your dog, enjoying the fresh air and sunshine, and suddenly find that you are about to be attacked by a young child....." There's more.. and she tries to soften her response later in the chapter by obviously trying to cover up how she really feels about children. YIKES! That made me put the book down right then and there. Sorry, Betsy.. Dogs and kids go hand in hand. My suggestion to the reader is don't buy her books. There are many other good authors out there.

Not a bad book, gives some decent advice on care. But it leaves out information on a lot of things. It doesn't even mention that there are differences between hunting and showing lines, and actually makes no mention of hunting except to say that Goldens were once used for hunting. With hunting being such a big part of the Golden Retriever's history (not to mention modern life), it should've gotten a bigger mention. Also, the training section was very simplistic.