39 Ways To Not Kill Your Best Friend

Disclosure: I received this book for free from the publisher, Smith Publicity Inc., through NetGalley.com in exchange for this review. I was not financially compensated in any way. The opinions stated below are my own and are based on my observations while reading this book.

 

 

My Opinion Of 39 Ways To Not Kill Your Best Friend

I chose to read (Affiliate Link) 39 Ways To Not Kill Your Best Friend: Tales of Caution For Dog Lovers by Dr. Judith Samson-French because it sounded like your typical “how-to” book. Or maybe I didn’t pay nearly enough attention to the title. Let’s just say I was surprised by this book starting from the very first sentence: “It is with great love that I perform the act of killing.” Uh… what did I just get myself into?

This isn’t a biography of a serial killer, so don’t worry. Though the author has done her fair share. Dr. Judith Samson-French is a veterinarian with over 20 years of experience. Her book is a collection of dogs she has come across in her work that have died or almost died because of the actions of their owners. 39 Ways To Not Kill Your Best Friend is an emotional book that hits you in your heart right where the love of your dog sits. It’s that emotional connection that make the lessons stick. This book should be mandatory for all first time dog owners. It should be handed out with every dog adoption at animal shelters and given away with every puppy from the pet shop. Many deaths could be prevented if every dog owner read this book.

Some of the 39 ways you could kill your dog are relatively common knowledge, like don’t feed your dog chocolate, but there are even things for an experienced dog owner to learn. My favorite parts of the book were the science behind why certain things are so deadly to dogs. Dr. Judith Samson-French doesn’t just tell you not to do something (like feeding chocolate to dogs) she tells you why you shouldn’t do it. I don’t know about you, but no one shows me the evidence when telling me not to do something. They just expect me to listen blindly. Dr. Judith Samson-French’s 20 years of experience meant little to me, but her faith in the reader’s ability to understand and the belief the reader would be interested in knowing why gained my trust. This was important because she tackled many controversial topics.

When it comes to any type of parent, telling them how to raise their babies hardly ever makes you friends. This is true of dog babies, too. Dr. Samson-French tackled some of the most controversial topics headlong with anecdotal evidence and some scientific facts. A few of these topics, like the raw food diet for dogs and whether Fido should chew on bones or not, have been all over the internet recently. She also tackles subjects like dog breeding and doggy cosmetic surgery. Whether you’re for these or not, the facts she provides are something every dog owner should consider. The book would be worth buying if it just included these chapters and nothing else.

All in all, I'd give (affiliate) 39 Ways To Not Kill Your Best Friend: Tales of Caution For Dog Lovers by Dr. Judith Samson-French a 7.5/10. It was a great book and extremely useful but Chapter 10 was a little hard to read after eating. Plus, my dog babies were annoyed because I wouldn't leave them alone for a week in fear I'd accidentally kill them. I should probably bump this up to an 8.5 because for every book sale, dog food will be donated to dogs with no names on First Nations lands in Canada (where the author is from) but that has little to do with the quality of the book itself.