Two weeks ago we added a new member to our family.
We went from being a two-adult person household to two adults and one tiny, Yorkshire terrier puppy. Wow, what a change! We have not had a dog (or a baby) in more than 25 years so this is a real learning experience.
What does this have to do with the library you might ask?
Well let me tell you, the library is once again my lifeline. My friends and staff can only take so many questions about living with and training a puppy but thanks to the Muskogee Public Library’s very complete collection on dogs I have a wealth of expert information available at no additional cost to me. All I need is my library card. Believe me this is wonderful since I already have discovered that a tiny puppy is very expensive.
I must admit that since we got the puppy on a Sunday, my first search for information was on the Internet and, yes, I found a lot of material. But I quickly realized that much of it was “teaser” material. They gave me a little information and then wanted to sell me a book or downloadable book for just $19.95 or maybe $17.95 since I was a new customer.
The other thing was if they didn’t charge for all their excellent advice it was going to cost me a pretty penny to print the information or I was going to have to carry my computer with me all the time. This would not work for me. So come Monday morning I arrived at the library just a little early and immediately headed upstairs to the 636.76 section of the library. This is the Dewey number for dog books.
Here, I had a huge choice of material from which to choose so I started examining all the relevant sounding titles. I finally selected five that seemed the best variety. I was able to check them out and take them home for three weeks without paying even 95 cents and when I glean all I can from these, I can get more books. I probably will find enough to get me all through the puppy stage and even way into all the joys of living with a well trained adult dog.
I did not find a book specifically on Yorkshire terriers on the shelf on Monday but I did find one on silky terriers by Brenda Belmont which has been very informative and helpful. Two others that are proving very useful are “Puppy Training” by Charlotte Schwartz and “House-Training Your Dog” also by Charlotte Schwartz.
These are very basic and provide excellent, step-by-step instructions. An interesting book I picked up but have not really had much time to delve into is “Teach Yourself Visually: Dog Training” by Sarah Hodgson. This has many illustrative pictures to help you know how to get your train your dog.
Finally, I picked up “The Dog Whisperer” by Paul Owens. While I am sure it has much valuable information it has way more than I can absorb at this time so I am going to turn it in and check out some of the other available titles.
Once again, Muskogee Public Library has come to my rescue. I have no out-of-pocket expense and yet have access to the best of the best in the dog world.
Not only that I can read them at my leisure whether in my home, car, or even out of doors while I am waiting the suggested five to 10 minutes for him to take care of business. It looks like I will find enough resources to get me all through the puppy stage and even into all the joys of living with a well trained adult dog.
So, if you have a new puppy at your house you might want to check out the selection of dog books at Muskogee Public Library.
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