If Only They Could Speak : Stories about Pets and Their People

by Dodman, Nicholas H.

• ISBN13: 9780393051001
• ISBN10: 0393051005
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-06-01
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc

Summary

A veterinary behaviorist evokes James Herriot with these remarkable stories of distressed pets and their equally troubled owners. 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, Nicholas Dodman, a renowned animal behaviorist, 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.

Author Biography

Dr. Nicholas H. Dodman is a graduate of Glasgow University Veterinary School in Scotland and practices at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine. He is the author of five books and appears regularly on national television and radio shows

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	3	(8)
The Two Dogs of Mrs. Spinelli	11	(14)
Biting the Hand That Feeds	25	(20)
Poltergeist in a Fog	45	(18)
A Second Chance	63	(16)
The Dog Who Hated Men	79	(14)
Midlife Crisis	93	(16)
Menage a Trois	109	(20)
The Pit Bull From Hell	129	(16)
Somerset Farm	145	(16)
Romeo and Julie	161	(14)
For the Love of Seth	175	(16)
Life with Lenny	191	(14)
The Willing Prisoner	205	(22)
Sam's Story	227	(14)
Epilogue	241