How to Find Your Dream Dog Book By Dixie Tenny

Book Description:

Bringing a new dog into the household should be one of life’s happiest events. The process always starts with excitement and high expectations. Too often, though, it ends in disappointment. The new puppy wakes everyone three times a night, gnaws on furniture, piddles everywhere, knocks the children down. The new adolescent dog is too wild. The new adult dog growls at your neighbors. And where did all this dog hair come from?
  Most people spend hours researching a new mattress, days researching a new car, and weeks researching a new home or job. Yet for a new dog, a companion for the next 10-15 years, the most they do is visit the nearest shelter or pet shop and buy whatever looks cute and appealing. It’s no wonder they end up disappointed. Whether you are looking for a purebred puppy or a charming mixed-breed, the type of dog you bring into your home matters. A quiet owner will struggle to keep up with a high-energy labrador mix, for instance, while an active outdoor family will be impatient with a snoozy bulldog. And finding the right kind of dog means becoming the right kind of owner—a task that takes some forethought and planning.

How To Find Your Dream Dog is here to fix the disconnect of dog ownership. It walks you step-by-step through the process of choosing the right type of dog for you—not only exploring the canine qualities that can determine your perfect puppy, adolescent, or adult dog, but also assessing your lifestyle to make sure you’re a good match for the dog, too. The book also looks at good (and bad) sources for finding healthy and sound pet dogs, gives guidelines for evaluating individual puppies, and warns of some red flags to watch out for during your dog search. With this guidebook in hand, you can be confident that the next puppy or dog you bring home will be the right companion and friend for you for the rest of its days.

Our furry girls Maggie and Molly rated this book 5 paw prints Both my Mom and I loved reading this book.  My mom finished the book first. She then asked me to read it to see what is my thoughts about this book How To Find Your Dream Dog.
We found already our dreams dogs the American Staffordshireterrier dog named Maggie and Rat Terrier named Molly. They both are girls. Maggie is four and Molly just turned two years old yesterday.
Reading this book is so amazing. You will learned a lot. Owning a dog takes many responsibilities. I know that my Mom sometimes gets mad at me if my big brother and I won't take them out to do their thing. You will also gives them exercise. Our dogs loves to go outside for a walk and run. Maggie loves to run and chases Molly. While Molly loves to hunt and being chased with Maggie.
Though Maggie came to us miraculously. I was at that time has severe dog allergy. She helps me a lot coping with my dog allergy. Sometimes I get hives when she gives me sloppy kisses. We will trade anything for the world with our dogs. We both loved them to pieces. They are both amazing house and guard dogs. They have both different personalities. Maggie is so giving while Molly is being bossy. If you are looking for your dream dog, this book is your best guide. My mom and I both highly recommend this book. I wish you all the luck.  

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Author's Bio:

​Dixie Tenny is a Certified Training Partner with the Karen Pryor Academy of Animal Training and Behavior. During her 30+ years spent working with people and their pets, she has seen again and again how mismatches between dog and owner can create “behavior problems” that never would have happened if the right dog had been matched to the right owner in the first place. She wrote this book to help puppy buyers and dog adopters start out on the best possible foot with their new pet dogs, and stay on that path for years to come.

Dixie Tenny has been helping people and their dogs find each other and form successful partnerships since the early 1980s. She founded two rescue organizations: Purebred Dog Rescue of Saint Louis in 1984, and Seattle Purebred Dog Rescue, Inc. in 1987. Dixie was the Director of Training for the Greater St. Louis Training Club, Inc., for five years, creating classes and overseeing the work of 40 head and assistant trainers. In 2003 she and another experienced trainer created Dogs Unleashed, LLC. They traveled to clients’ homes and worked with behavior and training issues.

Dixie’s professional credentials include trainer certifications from the prestigious Karen Pryor Academy for Animal Training and Behavior, and the Association for Pet Dog Trainers. Dixie formed her own business, Human-Animal Learning Opportunities, LLC (HALO) in 2013. HALO hosts continuing education seminars for dog trainers.

Dixie has lived with a wide range of dogs over the years including mixed breeds, Australian Shepherds, Welsh and Cairn terriers, and more. While in Seattle, Dixie raised a labrador puppy for Canine Companions for Independence, Inc. (CCI). Currently Dixie lives with a Beauceron and an elderly Papillon, as well as four cats. When not doing things related to animals, she reads widely, enjoys the company of her three grown children, follows baseball and English Premier League football, and travels the world.

​Interview with ​Dixie Tenny, author of How to Find Your Dream Dog

Q: Why did you write a book about choosing a dog?

A: I began helping people with their pet dogs’ training and behavior over 30 years ago. Through all those years, I saw so many mismatched “couples” — people who had chosen a wonderful dog, but also a type of dog that just didn’t fit into their lifestyle. Those were my hardest cases, because so much of what the owners thought of as “behavior problems” was really just normal behavior for that type of dog. I wrote this book to try to help people find the right dog in the first place, so those mismatches don’t happen.

Q: Are dogs your favorite animal?

A: I can’t imagine my life without dogs. I love cats, too: I have four of them! And I have a soft spot in my heart for a funny little animal called a pangolin, which, sadly, is the most illegally trafficked animal in the world.

Q: Have you written any other books?

A: Yes. I wrote a young adult suspense novel when I was a young adult myself! It’s title is “Call the Darkness Down,” and it tells the story of an American college student who goes abroad for a term in the country of Wales, where her mother came from, and becomes involved in a dark family mystery.

Q: What is your next writing project?

A: I hope to write at least two more books that follow on “How to Find Your Dream Dog”: one about preparing yourself and your household to bring a dog home, and one about setting a great foundation during the first week at home with a puppy. I also dream of creating an online puppy course for pet owners.

Q: Have you done any other interesting work?

A: I really enjoyed working as a volunteer tour guide - a docent - at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle for several years. Learning all about the animals and then sharing that with the zoo visitors was very rewarding. As well as animal facts, I loved telling visitors about the fun behind-the-scenes stories, like the time a zookeeper dropped his radio in the orangutan exhibit…the big male orangutan took the radio completely apart, put it back together, and when he handed it back through the bars to the zookeeper, it worked!