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Dog Owner's Manual › Introduction ›Welcome to the Dog Owner's Manual
Whether you have just acquired a new dog or are contemplating getting one, congratulations. This product’s legendary utility has inspired unprecedented customer loyalty among humans of every culture, age, and locale. With proper care and maintenance, it can accomplish almost any task its owner cares to assign. The dog is surprisingly similar to other high-tech devices you may already own. Like cars, dogs are available in numerous makes and models. Like PCs, they can be configured to serve different functions. And like home security systems, they can keep you and your property safe and sound. However, while most such highly developed consumer products come with instruction manuals, dogs do not. This is a major oversight, since the complexity of their programming far exceeds that of even the fastest computers, and their mechanical functions are more varied and subtle than those of the finest automobiles. With proper guidance, this near-autonomous system can master numerous desirable behaviors. It can even provide companionship and love. But used improperly, it can manifest traits inconvenient and/or harmful to you, your family, and your possessions. Hence this book. The Dog Owner’s Manual is a comprehensive user’s guide that explains how to derive maximum enjoyment from your canine. It is not necessary to read it from cover to cover. If you have a question or problem, turn to any of the following chapters.  Introduction
Comments for This Page (16) | Post a CommentWhile I applaud Dogster for the idea of bringing such a feature to its members I have to say that the trouble with many of these one volume encyclopedic approaches is that they try to cover too many topics in too little depth and as a result there overall value is greatly diminished. For example, the sections on nutrition and training overall are very disappointing in terms of content and accuracy. I realize this may all sound too critical but remember the audience. Dogsters are among the most committed, knowledgeable owners out there. Many of us are dog geeks, we live for this stuff, lol! So, I'd give it a 10 for the idea but a maybe a 5 for the execution based on the sections I've read. I am hopeful, like the breed specific information, it will continue to be improved over time. I agree with Nick. It was a great idea, but in execution really faulty. Because it already exists as a print book (and I talked to a couple people who's response was "Oh that book? I picked it up at the book store and then put it down in disappointment after reading it") I'm not hopeful that anything can be altered. Which is shame. It is a great idea, but to have a veterinarian writing about things like training and socialization and nutrition is just silly. An honest vet will tell you that they don't receive much education in these areas in vet school, and unless the author is a veterinary behaviorist or veterinary nutritionist, he should have farmed these sections out to someone who knew more about the topic. I am glad that Dogster allowed comments though. Hopefully people coming to refer to this will see them and think twice about the information contained in the sections with a lot of negative comments. Come on now... any information is helpful. At least they are making an attempt. Many pet owners are clueless. They pick up a dog and don't know anything about grooming or feeding, so anything simple is a start. There are many dog books out there and lots of info on the web. I wrote a VERY long comment on the beginning of the training section so see that for my big overall points... i just want to point out that some of the misinformation in this book can be dangerous (the dominance parts in particular) so i dont think that just "any information is helpful"--i think parts of this book are fine and well written but others have NO right being advertised as truth. Cressida's comment about people seeing this book on shelves is spot on. I saw this at a half price book store, thought it looked interesting...and was disappointed. Cute idea, but there are much better, accurate, and safer books and information openly available. The extremely basic, extremely limited, and in some cases outright wrong information, aren't helpful on a site like this. Nor is, I think, the humorous tone. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against humor, and nothing against using humor to make information go down easier, but while the "owner's manual" tone is right for a print book on a shelf among others, where different readers can pick the book that's most accessible and readable to them, it's wrong for the only choice on this website. This is very interesting. I like the idea of a free book to read on dogs. I don't own that many dog care books. This manual was written in a tongue-in-cheek parody of a computer or mechanical owner's manual; no where in the manual is there any language that should be construed as devaluing your dog. It is a parody, with a comic slant to very useful information. Please do not read the content to be an attack on the love we all have for our dogs, because it clearly was not meant that way. I found the entire manual to be hilarious, along with the "mechanical" illustrations. Could the posters claiming inaccurate information please provide some references? Thank you. Thank you for the manuel Post a Comment for This Page
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The Dog Owner's Manual is a basic guide to dog care.
Love the whole owner's manual approach. Makes it fun to read!