The Complete Healthy Dog Handbook: The Definitive Guide to Keeping Your Pet Happy, Healthy & Active

As soon as I got to the part where she insisted it is entirely inappropriate to feed a puppy homemade food, I was so thankful I had only borrowed this book and not paid money for it. Her reasoning is that there is simply no way an owner can provide their pup with the nutrients they need. Really? Feeding your pup a dry food full of preservatives and corn, and cooked to a freakin pulp is better than feeding them REAL MEAT, fresh bones, and high quality vegetables and grains other than corn and wheat? I would happily challenge any puppy being fed a commercial diet to have their physical exams/blood work compared to that of mine that are fed fresh foods, and I will not respect any vet who refuses to recognize how very little the AAFCO standards really mean...I am glad to have the support of many vets who do. Love how she even recommends refusing any other forms of food (even chew bones and treats) to a dog who refuses his commercial dog food. Yeah, if I was fed that processed crap I'd probably refuse it, too. To top it off, she admits that the most common causes of gas and digestive upset in dogs is the in-digestibility of foods like soybeans and corn...gee, has she checked the ingredients of the AAFCO foods she so highly supports?

I am stuck with this book but I definitely can't recommmend it. The format is because a question and answer. People ask questions about their dogs issue and the vet answers. It's like a looooong DEAR ABBY column. And I don't agree with many of her recommendations. Adding not to waste your money on garlic to prevent flees??? Um hello... I am currently using garlic tablets and haven't seen one flea on my dog this summer. And I don't use any frontline stuff. And saying that animal by-products are safe just because the FDA says so?!!!! Oh please!!! I havr been flipping through this book and just picking certain stories so I can imagine if I spent more time on this how much more this "expert's" nonsense will make me even more mad that I sent money in this. Glad I purchased it used but even for less than $10 I want my momey back.

This book gives wrong information on Hip Dysplasia and Tapeworm and who knows what else. I found these errors in my skimming the book.
First the easy one, Tapeworm. Dogs to NOT get tapeworm from flea bites. Tapeworm is the only worm that needs 2 hosts. The first host is the flea and the second of course is the dog. The dog has to eat the flea that is infected with a tapeworm in order to get tapeworm. It cannot be passed to other dogs. It is the only way to get a tapeworm. So when the dog feels the flea biting and starts to chew that area he can swallow a flea and the flea could be a host for the tapeworm. The tapeworm is the little white rice looking worm (actually segment of the worm) that you see in dog feces. It can be killed with over the counter wormers but they must state tapeworm on the box.
Before talking about the gross errors in the hip dysplasia you need to know more about how this book is constructed.
At the beginning of "Complete Healthy Dog Handbook" starting on page 20 is "Health Checklist for 130 Popular Breeds and 13 Designer Dogs" You will find in alphabetical order these 130 breeds and that breed's "significant health problems" that occur more often in the breed than in other breeds.
Now the Hip Dysplasia issue. Any info that I give you can be found on the OFA (Orthopedic Foundation for Animals) website. The book makes several favorable comments about the OFA. In fact they give half of a page to explain who and what OFA is. OFA is the organization that reads and grades the x-rays done in adult dogs with potential hip dysplasia. It is the organization where this info is complied. They read other x-rays also on a wide variety of health issues. It's just too bad the author of subject book didn't actually visit the site and read the info before making such huge errors! There is a chart on the OFA site titled "Hip Dysplasia Statistics". There are 172 breeds listed on the chart and they are in order from worst to best. Worst breed for Hip Dysplasia problems to breeds that do not have any recorded dogs with hip dysplasia. I myself have Australian Shepherds. In this book they list Hip Dysplasia as being a health issue for Australian Shepherds. When in fact they are #135 on the OFA site. That means that there are 134 other breeds that have hip dysplasia more that Australian Shepherds. Wow with the list being only 172 breeds long I would say Aussies have a very low risk of Hip Dysplasia! In fact less than 1% of Aussies with hip dysplasia are genetic related. I also have a Collie. The Lassie kind of Collie not Border Collie. In the "Complete Healthy Dog Handbook" it lists that hip dysplasia is a health issue for Collies. Collies are #161 on the OFA list! Only 11 other breeds out of 172 are less likely to have hip dysplasia! Less than 1/2% of Collies have genetic hip dysplasia. My guess is this author just falls back on the false statement that hip dysplasia is a large breed issue. Over and over "Complete Healthy Dog Handbook" states that large breed dogs are the breeds with the hip dysplasia problems. In the OFA the worst breed is a Bulldog and the second worst is a Pug. Not very large breed dogs are they? In fact there are several spaniels, bulldogs, terriers and the basset hound in the top 20. All small breed dogs. The Great Dane that they claim is a high risk for hip dysplasia is actually 82 on the list. Hey just saying that is one of the largest breeds and most people would think of them first when they think large breed but 82 is pretty far down the list. In fact this book has several breeds with hip dysplasia as health issues that when checked against the OFA site are actually very low risk.
The author also states that the earliest an x-ray can be done is at 4 months. In truth dogs need to be over 2 years old for an x-ray to be graded by the OFA. Unless there is an obvious problem with a puppy and the and x-rays are taken to determine the problem. If you are wanting to have your puppy checked to see if hip dysplasia is a potential problem in the future doing an x-ray at 4 months is really pretty worthless.
They also blame genetics for hip dysplasia. The Germans have recently done a very extensive study on German Shepherd Dogs and hip dysplasia. They have found that at least 75% of German Shepherd Dogs with hip dysplasia have it because of environmental issues. Examples of environmental issues are overweight (the biggest reason in any breed), poor nutrition, over exercise at a young age, injury and poor care.
So really hip dysplasia in at least 3 of 4 dogs is caused by the owner and not genetics. They suspect that it is even a greater percentage than the 75%.
I would never recommend this book based on these 2 errors I found when skimming through. If the author makes errors on these 2 easy things what else is misinformation? Especially when they mention OFA several times but incorrectly list hip dysplasia as a health issue for several breeds when it is not. To not read the info on the OFA site and miss use their name is wrong!
Just an additional note. After writing this review I went back and checked out some of the other breeds listed in the book with hip dysplasia problems. It lists Siberian Husky which is #167 in the list and has less than 1/4 of 1% chance and the Borzoi has had 0 that's right 0 cases of hip dysplasia. Yet "Complete Healthy Dog Handbook" says they at risk for hip dysplasia!?! The Affenpinscher does not include hip dysplasia as a significant health problem yet they are listed as #55 on the OFA list with a little under 10% having hip dysplasia. WOW a much higher risk than all the breeds I have mentioned that the subject book lists hip dysplasia as being a health problem.
It really makes me wonder about the other health issues they list for breeds. Are they accurate? I would be very doubtful. It looks to me that this book was written to make money and not to give truthful and accurate information on dog health!

The Complete Healthy Dog Handbook by Betsy Brevitz is an excellent resource for pet owners. The beginning covers basics of dog ownership and temperament testing. She gives guidelines for both puppies and older dogs. I'm familiar with the puppy temperament testing from other books, but was glad to see a section for older dogs. She also breaks down the common complaints to most breeds. It is more extensive than what I've seen on the web, and should help prepare owners for possibilities, although, some of the conditions I would think would be rather rare in well bred dogs. The majority of the book covers basic health problems and care. Set up in a question answer format Dr. Brevitz explains in laymen's terms the various medical conditions. The first of each chapter gives an outline of what would be a major emergency and what can wait. This section alone could probably save pet owners considerable money at emergency vet clinics. The last couple of chapters deal with poison control and first aid. I would have liked this section to be a bit more extensive. The basic are there, but in parts seems superficial. The illustrations are the weakness in this book. Actual pictures would give a better understanding than simple drawings. Overall, I recommend this book for any dog owners library.

I've been wanting this book for quite sometime, finally ordered it and I am not disappointed. It's written so well, by a vet, with so much information to help keep your pets healthy and well. I was particularly interested in the information on seizures since my small dog has had a few small ones, and recently a grand mal. I've learned a lot, and had lots of questions for my vet. This book is worth having around. My little dog has kept me hopping in the past couple of months, even getting into chocolate at Christmas. Never had a dog do that. He didn't get enough to hurt him, but he did swallow a lot of the plastic packaging. This book will just give you a heads-up on what to do if an emergency arises, and lots of helpful ideas.

This is not a bad book but it's too western for me.
For some reason I thought I was getting something more holistic.

I have not compared them page by page (yet), but this book seems to be the same as the 2004 Hound Health Handbook.
It is too bad they don't tell you that before you order thinking it is something new.

This is a book every dog owner should have. It contains tons of great medical and overall health info. I reference it if I see anything different with my dog, such as when my dog had an ear infection last fall. I knew what he had before the vet swabbed his ear and told me it was a fungal infection in his ear. It even talked about putting flea and tick medicine on your dog and why it says to wash it off immediately if you get any on your own skin. The reason behind that might be different than you'd think. I like it because you can make a better decision on when and when not to take your dog to the vet. I highly recommend this.

I was given this book as a gift a few years ago and refer to it all the time. It's easy to read and offers great insight into most behavioral & health issues. I keep it on my coffee table and often times just glance through it because I find it so interesting. I even offfer up advice every now and then to my friends who have dogs! I like this book so much that I recently just ordered it for a fellow dog owner friend of mine. It's a book I feel that all dog owners should have. Buy it, you will be happy you did!

This book is my "go to" care nook for my doggies. I've owned dogs most of my life and have even managed 2 pet stores. It's detailed, shows care, feeding, health management, and details on specific health issues that can come up, and what to look for in even your specific breed (s) of dogs.
I cannot say enough, but I will tell you it is profusely filled with detailed pictures of conditions, questions this vet commonly and uncommonly has run into, and how to care for, and seek out the treatments needed for either a seriously ill dog. Cancer types and treatment protocols are in general discussed, as well as how to care for an elderly dog and what to expect ad your furry care gets older. Even end of life issues are discussed, as is guidance in what to look for in dog insurance should you choose to go that route. Now, go get this book and feel comfortable with its purchase. I have not been given anything to say all this. I just love pets and want them all to live full lives!