Roger A. Caras (1928–2001)

Not at all what I was looking for. I was hoping that I would get an insider's view on what goes on behind the scenes at dog shows. Instead, I got brief explanations here and there of what judges look for in the show ring, and lots and lots of explanations of why people breed show quality dogs.
I get it! I have champions at home, so I don't need to be convinced why mixed breed dogs should not be bred. What I thought I was going to be reading were stories on how dogs got to be champions, how people cheat to get their dogs looking good, the politics and backstabbing that goes on in the show world...basically the low down dirty stuff. This book was very bland, containing nothing like that. A summary would be:
choose a breeder wisely; hope your dog has the personality for the ring; here are a few sentences on what they look for in the ring; don't breed mixed breed dogs; all dogs need love whether they are champions or not.

One thing I'm glad about is that I borrowed it from the library. If I had spent money on this book I would have been livid. Not that it was badly written, but it just wasn't what I was expecting.… (mais)

Overall decent field guide to have while camping, researching or just to store in your library for reference. The information is a little imbalanced, almost showing favoritism to certain animals over the rest. For example- there are almost 30 pages on snakes (including NON-venomous ones?) and a meager 16 pages on invertebrates, including only 1 scorpion. There are over 70 species of scorpions in the United States alone. I think this can serve as a handy first guide to someone looking for this kind of information to consult. A heavy handed amount of text and some decent textbook style BW illustrations to compliment the color photos.… (mais)