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Many of you, especially those who have been deeply involved in a particular breed
or two, may remember back several years ago when the number of good breed
books written by real experts in the field were much more widely available
than is the case today. When we first started off in this business, the bulk
of the titles we carried off to dog shows were breed books - now they make
up less than half the titles. What happened? We think its really a combination
of three things. First, some of the traditional dog book publishers were
purchased by larger mainstream publishing companies whose focus on the bottom
line steered them away from "niche books" with small markets. The days of
a big publisher doing a book on Skye Terriers by a leading breeder, for example,
are probably gone. Second, there seems to be a trend away from purebreds
in the public at large and some drop in interest in showing dogs. What the
reasons are behind this are not clear to us, but we do know that driving
a motor home to a dog show is a lot more expensive than it was ten years
ago! Whatever, demand
for breed books is perceived by some publishers to have shrunk to some degree.
And thirdly, it is much more expensive to bring books in from England than
it used to be because of unfavorable exchange rates and higher costs of shipping
- and England always was a great source of breed books.
This is NOT to say that there aren't good breed books available. We still have
in stock many of the old favorites and some publishers (and self-publishers)
are still putting out good books - there just are not as many to choose from
as in the past. One alternative that you should be aware of is a number of
books that focus on a group of dogs and/or dogs that have common geographic
origins. Sometimes the chapter on your breed in one of these books contains
more solid and useful information than a short mass-market kind of book on
the breed. Here are some that we think are especially good:
Sighthounds: Their History, Management and Care by Juliette
Cunliffe. Aghans, Deerhounds, Wolfhounds, Greyhounds and Salukis are
included.
Terriers of Scotland and Ireland by Bryan Cummins. Westy,
Wheatens, Scottys, Dandie Dinmonts, Skye Terriers, and Kerry Blues
are included.
Dogs of Africa by Sian Hall. Ridgebacks, Greyhounds, Basenjis,
Salukis are included.
Thanks from all of us at Dogwise.
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Your friends at Dogwise
1-800-776-2665
mail@dogwise.com
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