Responsible Dog Ownership

It's hard to imagine an audience for this joyless treatise on the duties implicit in having Fido as a member of the family. Davis ( Therapy Dogs ), whose experience working with dogs appears to be limited to training her own, stitches together common sense and well-known veterinary lore (e.g., the medical benefits of neutering/spaying) with personal opinions and a trace of righteous indignation (``Some dog-food manufacturers should go to jail for what they do to dogs with their cheap products,'' she expostulates, without further comment). Her concern that dogs receive adequate care and supervision, while commendable, is hardly newsworthy, and is in fact treated more comprehensively and creatively by trainers and veterinarians in any number of behavior manuals and health guides (see The Natural Dog , reviewed above). She outdoes the trainers, however, in her preoccupation with the neighbors of dog owners: ``If you live in an apartment with a barking dog, my suggestion is to try to move to a free-standing house.'' A better suggestion might be, try another book. Photographs not seen by PW. (Jan.)