Synopses & Reviews
A San Francisco Chronicle bestseller: a veterinary behaviorist evokes James Herriot with these remarkable stories of distressed pets and their equally troubled owners. With humor and compassion, renowned animal behaviorist Dr. Nicholas Dodman explores the complex emotional problems of troubled animals and their (often) equally distressed owners, creating a classic of animal literature, with stories as wise, and almost as human, as the lives of the animals they portray. Did you hear about the dog who always arranged exactly six pieces of kibble in buttonhole depressions in the couch before he could lie down? Or the cat who compulsively hoarded shiny objects? Fifteen years ago Dodman began studying the psychological maladies that afflict our pets, helping to launch a field of animal psychotherapy and psychopharmacology that suggests that animals' emotional problems are often as complex, heartrending, and treatable as those of their human counterparts. If Only They Could Speak, with thirteen true stories culled from Dr. Dodman's own practice, echoes the wisdom of writers like Elizabeth Marshall Thomas and Jane Goodall. The stories here are as wise, and almost as human, as the lives of the disturbed animals they portray. Animal Personality Assessment Guide included. 15 b/w photographs.
Review
This book is nearly as fun to read as a game of fetchexcept you come back knowing a whole lot about why our pets do the things they do. (Steve Dale, author of the syndicated newspaper column "My Pet World")
Review
This is a "must read" book for anyone interested in the behavior of dogs and catsand people too! (Stanley Coren, author of How to Speak Dog and The Intelligence of Dogs)
Review
Skillfully written, very exciting and highly entertaining to read.... This book should be required reading for anyone who even thinks about getting an animal. (Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, author of The Hidden Life of Dogs)
Synopsis
Named one of the top five books on dogs by the Wall Street Journal.With humor and compassion, Dr. Nicholas H. Dodman explores the complex emotional problems of troubled animals and their (often) equally distressed owners. If Only They Could Speak has become a classic of animal literature, with stories as wise, and almost as human, as the lives of the animals they portray. 15 illustrations.
Synopsis
With humor and compassion, Dodman explores the complex emotional problems of troubled animals and their (often) equally distressed owners, creating a classic of animal literature, with stories as wise, and almost as human, as the lives of the animals they portray.
About the Author
Nicholas H. Dodman, MD, trained in Scotland, is a leading veterinarian and currently practices at Tufts University. He lives in Westborough, Massachusetts.