I am back after a couple of very  busy months: I was busy writing for “real” magazines, freelancing as a translator and editor and… studying for my last veterinary school exam. Now that all veterinary schools exams are over, internships aside, I need to start researching more for my dissertation which is going to be on Gundog Welfare (check the link for more information).  Right before starting to dig into scientific journals, I decided explore the books and ebooks I have at home and I wish to share something with you. First of all, if you have not done it yet, take some time and explore the works of Temple Grandin. Yes, she focuses on livestock mainly, but her stuff is great.

As a second step I suggest you two books I am going through. One is titled In Defence of Dogs by John Bradshaw. This is one of my favourite books ever:  it is pleasurable to read and yet extremely accurate. Every dog lover should own a copy, especially if he or she plans to train his dog. The other book is titled The Domestic  Dog. Its Evolution,  Behavior and Interactions  with People and it is edited by  James Serpell. The book is indeed a collection of chapters by different scholars such as Raymond Coppinger,  M.B. Willis,  Benjamin and Lynette Hart and  Valerie O’ Farrel. I currently have the first edition, published in 1995 but I know there is an updated 2nd edition published in 2016.

One more valuable resource on Animal Behavior and Welfare is the online course by the University of Edinburgh available online through the Coursera.org educational platform. It can be taken for free and subtitles are available in different languages.

I will try to be back soon with more articles!

Italiano in basso

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

2017 has been an interesting but very busy here: there were (are) many articles for you in my mind  but almost no time to write them down. but I promise I’ll keep trying to publish interesting contents on the blog. The Gundog Research Project (click to check) is still in progress, waiting for me to pass my last (yahoo) veterinary medicine exam.  I also set up an Instagram account to keep in touch with readers more easily… but I will keep writing and we also have a Facebook page.

I also want to thank two unexpected contributors who gave a lot to Dogs and Country last year. One is Tok Mostert, from South Africa, who wrote training related articles in English and Flavia Bullo who keeps sharing her wonderful dessert recipes in Italian.

So… well thank you for following us in 2017 and hope you will be still browsing these pages in 2018. Have a Merry Christmas (I ordered myself a tweed fox that is still traveling on Santa sled) and Happy New Year!

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Buon Natale e felice anno nuovo. Il 2017 è stato un anno interessante ma anche piuttosto intenso. C’erano (ci sono) molti articoli in testa ma non abbastanza tempo per metterli per iscritto ma prometto che continuerò a fare del mio meglio per condividere dei contenuti interessanti. Il Gundog Research Project (cliccate qui per saperne di più) continua, in attesa che io passi l’ultimo esame che mi separa dalla laurea in medicina veterinaria.  Ho collegato al blog un account Instagram per rimanere in contatto con i lettori con più facilità,  e abbiamo anche una pagina Facebook.

Vorrei inoltre ringraziare due collaboratori apparsi all’improvviso: Tok Mostert, sudafricano, che ha scritto articoli di addestramento in inglese e Flavia Bullo con le sue ricette dei dolci.

Per cui… grazie per averci seguito nel 2017 e speriamo che restiate con noi nel 2017. Buon Natale… mi sono comprata un volpacchiotto in tweed che è ancora in viaggio… e  felice anno nuovo!