4 The Love of Animals- animal rescue, wildlife, pets, and more!

I have 3 copies of the new book, Thanking the Monkey, to giveaway! If you would like a chance to win a copy, please leave a comment on this post before 10:00 PM (MST) on May 8th. Please only comment once, and be sure to fill in the email field so you can be contacted if you win. This giveaway is open to those in the USA and Canada, and the winner will be chosen by a random number generator. Winners will be contacted by email on May 9th.

About the book:

The animal rights movement has reached a tipping point. No longer a fringe extremist cause, it has become a social concern that leading members of society endorse and young people embrace. From Michael Vick’s dog fighting scandal to the incredible success of the bestselling Skinny Bitch veggie diet book, animal rights issues have hit the headlines—and are being championed by students and senators, pop stars and producers, and actors and activists.

Don’t you want to be part of the conversation? In Thanking the Monkey, Karen Dawn covers pets, fur, fashion, food, animal testing, activism, and more. But as the title playfully suggests, this isn’t like any previous animal rights book. Thanking the Monkey is light on lectures meant to make you feel guilty if you’re not a leather-eschewing vegan. It lets you have fun as you learn about Paul McCartney’s love of lambs and why Prince won’t wear wool. You’ll meet Fall Out Boy’s Andy Hurley and Pete Wentz—and their favorite traveling companion, Hemingway, Pete’s dog. You’ll read why Natalie Portman, Alicia Silverstone, and so many of those skinny but not bitchy actresses won’t eat or wear animals. And you’ll laugh over dozens of cartoons from Dan Piraro’s Bizzaro to other animal-friendly comics.

This fun primer for a smart and socially committed generation delivers some serious surprises in the form of facts and figures about the treatment of animals. Yes, it will shock you with tales of primates still used in animal testing on nicotine or killed for oven cleaner. But it will also let you lighten up and laugh a little as we work out how to do a better job of thanking the monkey.

*this giveaway is now closed. Congrats to numbers 97,41, and 72. *

I have three signed copies of the book Salty Dogs up for grabs! Salty Dogs is a great book that combines carefree canines at the beach, with inspiring thoughts. The author, Jean M. Fogle, is well known for her photographs of dogs and of gardens, as well as her writing. Visit her website here to learn more about the book.

• Leave a comment on this post before midnight on April 12th, 2008.
• Do you have a “salty dog”? Why would you love to win this book?
• Please only comment once, duplicates will be removed.
• This giveaway is open to those in the United States and Canada.
• Be sure to include your email address in the email field so you can be contacted if you are one of the three winners.
• The winners will be chosen by random, and contacted by email after the 12th.

Good luck! This really is a very fun book for anyone who loves dogs, the beach, and great quotes.

*this giveaway is now closed, winners will be notified by email*

I have three paperback copies of the wonderful book Marley and Me up for grabs! Would you like a chance to win one? Here is what you need to do:

• Leave a comment on this post before March 31 at midnight (MST).
• Be sure to fill in the “email” field so you can be contacted if you win.
• Include a “dog behaving badly” story if you have one. After all, the book is about life with the world’s worst dog.
• This is for USA and Canada residents only.
• One comment per person, duplicates will be removed.

The winners will be chosen by using a random number generator. Here is a little bit of what the book is about from the Harper Collins website:

The heartwarming and unforgettable story of a family in the making and the
wondrously neurotic dog who taught them what really matters in life

John and Jenny were just beginning their life together. They were young and in love, with a perfect little house and not a care in the world. Then they brought home Marley, a wiggly yellow furball of a puppy. Life would never be the same.

Marley quickly grew into a barreling, ninety-seven-pound streamroller of a Labrador retriever, a dog like no other. He crashed through screen doors, gouged through drywall, flung drool on guests, stole women’s undergarments, and ate nearly everything he could get his mouth around, including couches and fine jewelry. Obedience school did no good—Marley was expelled. Neither did the tranquilizers the veterinarian prescribed for him with the admonishment, “Don’t hesitate to use these.”

And yet Marley’s heart was pure. Just as he joyfully refused any limits on his behavior, his love and loyalty were boundless, too. Marley shared the couple’s joy at their first pregnancy, and their heartbreak over the miscarriage. He was there when babies finally arrived and when the screams of a seventeen-year-old stabbing victim pierced the night. Marley shut down a public beach and managed to land a role in a feature-length movie, always winning hearts as he made a mess of things. Through it all, he remained steadfast, a model of devotion, even when his family was at its wit’s end. Unconditional love, they would learn, comes in many forms.

Is it possible for humans to discover the key to happiness through a bigger-than-life, bad-boy dog? Just ask the Grogans.

*this giveaway is now closed. thank you for entering, the winners will be notified by email*

I got a great email recently about some ground breaking research done about the effects of sound on dogs. Joshua Leeds, a sound researcher, Susan Wagner a veterinary neurologist and Lisa Spector a pianist, have taken this work to heart and have presented it in a book along with a 45 minute starter CD for calming canines. It’s called Through a Dog’s Ear and will be released on March 1, 2008.

Here are some excerpts from the press release that I found interesting.

Through a Dog’s Ear: Using Sound to Improve the Health & Behavior of Your Canine Companion (Sounds True, March 1, 2008, $18.95) is the first book of its kind to take a close-up look at sound and its effect on our loyal friends, shedding new light on the link between modern sensory overload and the uptick of psychological and physiological problems in the canine population. A 45-minute starter CD of music—specifically designed to calm dogs—accompanies the book. Clinical trials of the music conducted in kennels, shelters, clinics, and in homes produced results that were…well, like music to any dog-lover’s ears. Seventy percent of dogs in kennels and 85% in households showed a reduction in stressed-out behavior, including thunderstorm trembling, excitement with visitors, and separation anxiety.

With the television blaring an average of six hours a day in the American home and the cell phone ringing 24/7, Through a Dog’s Ear suggests we examine our environments to determine whether we’ve created an uncomfortable sensory space for our pets and ourselves. The authors tell us to listen with our dog’s ears while taking a Sonic Inventory—an assessment of all the sounds inside and outside the home—by doing the following:

1. Sit quietly for 30 minutes, pen and pad in hand.
2. Tune into the sounds you hear inside your home and outside on the street—the hum of the fridge, the cycle prompt of the dishwasher, the beat of a dryer, the alarm clock, hair dryer, vacuum, television, telephones, computers, video games, traffic, car alarms, air traffic, screaming children, stereos, etc.
3. Notice your dog’s behavior. Does he actively respond to the sounds? Is there a lack of reaction, or an overreaction to sounds you take in stride? When TV, radio or music is playing, does your dog move closer to the source or away from it?
4. Rate the sounds from one to ten, ten being the most disturbing, one the least noticeable. Use two columns—one for your pooch and one for yourself.
5. Ask yourself how you can make your home a calmer, more peaceful place. Which sounds can you change? Which can you avoid, turn down, or mask? Often, just by listening, we become more sonically aware, an important first step.

Joshua Leeds, a psychoacoustic expert, has spent the last two decades studying the psychological and physiological effects of sound and music on the human nervous system. Approached by award-winning concert pianist and dog-lover Lisa Spector to create “intentional” music for dogs in the hopes of modifying Fido’s dysfunctional, anxiety-caused behavior, Leeds was intrigued.

“I couldn’t help but wonder,” says Leeds, “if music could change a dog’s heart rate and brainwaves, and reduce levels of stress just as it so easily does with people. I wanted to see if the psychoacoustic techniques that I’d honed so effectively with humans could also be effective with dogs.”

Sounds like a great book and CD for people who have dogs that are stressed out by noises! I’m sure it would be nice for the humans in the pack too!

The following is a guest post from Susan Daffron, author of two wonderful books about animal rescue.

Thank you for letting me write a guest post for your blog about my books Happy Hound (HappyHoundBook.com) and Happy Tabby (HappyTabbyBook.com).

I wrote these two books specifically for people who have adopted dogs and cats from animal shelters. After years of volunteering and working at animal shelters and at a low-cost vet clinic, I saw what happens when the relationship falls apart between pets and their owners. The reason I wrote the books is simple: I want to see more pets stay in their forever homes!

Too many dogs and cats are “dumped” at shelters. Those people who have stood at an animal shelter intake area and listened to the explanations and excuses people make when they drop off a pet know what I’m talking about. The reality is that people bring animals into shelters complaining of all the “terrible problems” they had. Most of these so-called problems are easily solved with a little understanding of animal behavior. (Or an understanding of human behavior!)

Dogs and cats are motivated by only a few things, I try and explain them in the books and how people can develop a wonderful lifelong relationship with their new pets. In Happy Hound, I cover everything from the reasons dogs bark to how to bond with your new canine. Happy Tabby gives new cat owners answers to common questions like how to “kitty proof” your house and why cats scratch furniture.

Plus, because my main motivation is to help educate people about pet ownership, we are offering Happy Hound and Happy Tabby to humane organizations at a substantial discount. Non-profit groups can use it as a fund raiser or educational tool in a number of ways.

We also encourage those groups with Web sites to join our affiliate program. When people buy the books using the affiliate link, the rescue group gets 20% of the purchase price. More information on how the books can be used to raise money is located on these pages:

Happy Hound:
HappyHoundBook.com
Happy Tabby:
HappyTabbyBook.com

Pet care education is so important, so thank you again for helping me spread the word about my books and how they can be used to reduce the number of animals that are returned to animal shelters. Here’s to saving more lives!