The Right Dog For You

by Daniel F. Tortora

How to Find the Perfect Match for You...

Here is a systematic and enjoyable way to choose a dog. This highly informative and useful book will take the guesswork out of choosing a dog while leaving in the fun. It will tell you about more than 110 breeds and help you to select a dog compatible with your personality, family, and lifestyle. Choosing a dog can become easy and enjoyable as you learn everything there is to know about the breeds, including:

* physical characteristics -- height, weight, strength, coat color and texture, tendency to shed, and food requirements

* temperamental characteristics -- indoor/outdoor activity level, emotional stability, sociability, training potential, and watchdog/guard-dog ability

* popularity, background, and unique qualities of each breed

This fully illustrated guide includes easy-to-read tables and pages of practical advice, plus a miniquestionnaire to help you narrow down your selection to the perfect match for you, your family, and your lifestyle.

Genres: Nonfiction, Dogs, Animals, Nature

384 pages, Paperback

First published March 31, 1983

Reviews

[Qctrua · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is this book relevant 40 years later in a world with an internet full of articles and anecdotes? Absolutely yes. With the caveat that it's missing the breeds that have since been recognized by the AKC. I'm not going to go through all 195 breeds and list out those that are missing, but I did notice a few: Havanese, Border Collies, and Australian Cattle Dogs are not in this book. It does not include cross breeds either, since cross breed temperaments are much more variable.

This book has a clearly defined system to choose a breed. The book includes thorough charts to plot various attributes across all breeds, like sociability, watchdog/guarddog-ness, activity level, etc. It goes into more detail than most of the information I've found online, like breaking sociability into three categories (within family, with children, with strangers), learning into three categories (rate, obedience, problem solving) and including novel and useful other attributes, like vigor (how vigorously a dog attempts something, its drive, from gentle to aggressive) and constancy (how single-minded a dog is at a task.) I don't think the individual questionnaires and results should be followed to the letter, but it gives you a good idea of what breeds will match your lifestyle best. What this book doesn't have is a detailed description of each breed. It's much more about describing breeds by contrast with others.

I went into reading this book with about 12 breeds in mind, and narrowed it down to a solid 5. It's a great complement to internet research.

[Doug · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are in the market for a dog. STOP! Do nothing until you've read this book.

[The Halfwit Writer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tortora uses a very systematic process for choosing a dog backing everything up with research and facts. If you take the time to read through the entire book, you will note that it is not "general" but very specific in aiding someone find the "right dog" for him or her.

For more details on each breed or a history of each breed, this is not the book for you. But if you are looking to make an informed decision about the time, care, personality, abilities of each dog breed, this book is a must. It will prevent the mismatch of dog and owner and decrease the chances of one hating or mistreating a puppy that is not right for him. Obviously time and effort goes into creating an obedient and well-trained dog, but Tortora makes notable mention of this as well.

If you don't have time to read this book, you definitely won't have time to raise a puppy.

[Leslie Manis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has lots of information & charts, which may appeal to more analytical types of people, but I found it to be a great resource in choosing a breed. I had had a Scottish Terrier mix growing up & planned to get a purebred Scottie after I had graduated college. However, I learned through this book that the Sealyham Terrier is less of a one-person dog and has a great sense of humor. My husband and I got our first Sealyham Terrier puppy after that and have had a love affair with this breed since 1990. The breed is so well-suited to us & I have this book to thank.

[ThDogs · Rating 3 out of 5]

An oldie but a goodie. Despite being outdated across a range of topics, this book has incredibly succinct and insightful breakdowns of dog breeds. Especially useful for anyone wanting to compare and contrast the regard for assorted purebreds over time. The 16 scales of dog temperament, the breed summary pages and the detailed explanation of the 16 scales are quite enjoyable.

A good book to gift to the pedigree/breed/history enthusiast in your life.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an awesome book. I have gone looking for a dog twice, and both times I've found this book tremendously useful. How aggressive is each breed with other dogs? With kids? How energetic are they indoors? Outdoors? If you're trying to narrow down what sort of dog you want, you should check out this book. I've bought it for friends numerous times.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

helpful and clear with lots of ideas to consider. Well worth using when thinking about a breed to get and live with for over a decade!

[Estelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Comprehensive and exhaustive.

[Chrissie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book if you are considering getting a breed dog. Why? Because you should never pick a dog by its looks, but rather by its tempermant. If you are considering a particular breed it is important to know the particular breed's need for exercise, how active it in inside, how consistent is its behavior, how hard are they to train, are they good with children, are they guard dogs...... Of course every dog is different even within a given breed, but there are general characteristics that one should be aware of before picking your dog. The book is arranged by matrixes, with a short text description for each breed. I compared what it had to say about curly coated retrievers and found it very accurate. Of course nothing is fullproof, and how you raise your dog is of the utmost importance!!!!! Still it is a good book to check out.

[Niffer · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book on dog breeds that explores some important aspects of different breeds that other books don't really mentio. For example the authough breaks down dog size by height and "bulk", pointing out that a Basset Hound might not be a terribly tall dog but weighs quite a bit for its size. Or watch dog versus guard dog potential (a dog that barks at strangers might be a good watch dog but might not be aggressive enough to be a guard dog--and that might be what you're really looking for).

The author does have some fairly strong prejudices against certain breeds but overall the book is quite useful.

[Mpjenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A reasonably good breed evaluation / comparison book. The author attempted to do this scientifically / methodically, rather than subjectively - he's documented several different dimensions of dog behavior, and compared various breeds as objectively as I could possibly imagine.

[Truthful · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is another book we have a hard time keeping in our library because we loan it out so frequently; indispensable when dog-hunting.

[Tommyb]

Dogs

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

a little out of date (no designer dogs) but deals with many, many aspects of dog/owner interaction and personality, really made me think.

[Dani · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit too general for my tastes but a good place to start researching a dog breed.

[Kelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really a fantastic book that compares breeds, and quizes your personality.