What do you think?
Rate this book
For Dummies
Dog Health and Nutrition For Dummies
You do everything you can to maintain your optimum health. Doesn’t your best friend deserve the same? Your dog’s a member of the family and needs the same attention to health and nutrition as you do to stay healthy, be happy, and live longer. However, it’s easy to get lost in the pet store’s sea of dog products, passing aisle after aisle of dog food. Keeping your dog healthy or getting her back on the road to good health doesn’t have to be difficult, though. Dog Health and Nutrition for Dummies makes it easy to make sure your canine is living a healthy lifestyle. It gives you expert tips and advice Author M. Christine Zink, DVM, PhD is a specialist in canine sports medicine and professor at The Johns Hopkins University, but above all, a dog lover. She breaks down the complexity of caring for your pooch into easy terms with helpful reminders, warnings, and information, including information Dog Health and Nutrition for Dummies gives you all the information you need to properly care for your beloved canine pal.
400 pages, Paperback
First published June 15, 2001
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 5, 2026
First of all, I'm so glad to finally finish and put down this book - this is by far the most flimsy and slippery book I've ever read! It kept sliding off of everything that wasn't a 100% level surface!
On a serious note, despite some information being outdated (it was published in 2001), this was a very valuable read for me. While preparing for getting my first dog, I was looking for a comprehensive guide about everything health-related and this was the only match far and wide.
It covered everything from illnesses, vet-visits, nutrition, routines, struggles in old-age, to euthanasia; all with plenty examples and a pleasant style of writing. There are also neat summaries in the back which I really appreciated.
As said, some of the information is, to my knowledge, outdated. Such as:
- keeping one's dog permanently locked up in a crate while you're away
- keeping a dog confined to one's property using a electric collar
- tattooing as the main means for identifying a runaway dog (microchips = a novelty)
- the harm of unethical breeding isn't emphasized to the extend it is today (sometimes described with humour, even) and the author doesn't highlight adopting from animal shelters as much as I would expect it nowadays
Example: Cropped ears as well as decked tails are explained as (often) cosmetic procedures but not classified as animal cruelty
- linked resources are largely not available anymore
Lastly, it's important to note that this book is heavily US-centred, which makes some sections less internationally applicable than others.
On a serious note, despite some information being outdated (it was published in 2001), this was a very valuable read for me. While preparing for getting my first dog, I was looking for a comprehensive guide about everything health-related and this was the only match far and wide.
It covered everything from illnesses, vet-visits, nutrition, routines, struggles in old-age, to euthanasia; all with plenty examples and a pleasant style of writing. There are also neat summaries in the back which I really appreciated.
As said, some of the information is, to my knowledge, outdated. Such as:
- keeping one's dog permanently locked up in a crate while you're away
- keeping a dog confined to one's property using a electric collar
- tattooing as the main means for identifying a runaway dog (microchips = a novelty)
- the harm of unethical breeding isn't emphasized to the extend it is today (sometimes described with humour, even) and the author doesn't highlight adopting from animal shelters as much as I would expect it nowadays
Example: Cropped ears as well as decked tails are explained as (often) cosmetic procedures but not classified as animal cruelty
- linked resources are largely not available anymore
Lastly, it's important to note that this book is heavily US-centred, which makes some sections less internationally applicable than others.
Displaying 1 of 1 review