Weimaraner (Pet Love)
Click on the cover above to go to this book at Amazon.co.uk
Lavonia Harper is obviously a great devotee of the Weimaraner and from this book; I would guess that she particularly specialises in the fields of showing and obedience.
Being a weimaraner owner myself, I enjoyed reading about the history of the breed and found myself smiling and nodding in recognition throughout the ‘characteristics of the weimaraner’ chapter. The weimaraner certainly has a very strong personality, and not a breed to be considered unless you can appreciate their strong hunting and tracking instinct, and that your weimar will more than likely catch, kill and eat rabbits and possibly squirrels, foxes, deer and fowl. You will need to work very hard to ensure that they don’t chase cats, horses, sheep and other farm animals too.
“Weimaraner” covers all aspects of living with a weimaraner as a pet and show dog. It is beautifully illustrated with photographs of both the long and shorthair weimaraner, and gives good basic coverage of everything from finding a good breeder and choosing a puppy; basic puppy training; grooming and general health care, basic training, parasites (some of the pictures here are quite alarming and maybe not for the squeamish); disease in the Weimaraner; old age and then on to hobbies and sports that you might like to participate in.
Although this book looks at training with sympathy for a deeply sensitive yet wilful and sometimes quite independent breed, I would recommend that for a new puppy owner you also look to a book that specialises in motivation and reward training, which given their intelligence, the weimaraner takes to particularly well.
As a first introduction to the breed, I would suggest that this book is more likely to make you want a weimaraner than to fully appreciate how difficult they can be but given that most breed books tend to be very biased towards the breed of their author’s choice, I felt that it covered the character and hunting instinct quite honestly.
From a personal point of view, although I appreciate that the majority of breeders are strongly in favour of traditional tail docking and this book seems to be of no exception, it is illegal in much of Europe and may well soon be over here too so I would have liked to have seen a few pictures of full tail dogs. There are good breeders who do not tail dock.
For a greater understanding on what the more challenging aspects of actually living with a weimaraner mean in everyday life, I would urge anyone considering this breed to join the weimaranerUK Facebook forum If you are more interested in field sports and working with your Weimar as a gundog, this book might not be your first choice but if you are a fan of the breed and enjoy reading about them, you will love this book.
Review by Diana Attwood.
