Book review: The Forever Dog Life

Ok, time to confess something. I would first finish my stack of ‘still to be read’ books before I could buy new books from myself, but I bought a book anyway. The book ‘The Forever Dog Life’ by Karen Becker and Rodney Habib was advertised quite a bit on social media, and to be honest, I am sensitive to that. So I pre-ordered this book, and it arrived in the mail at the beginning of June. It is currently only available in English.

First impression of ‘The Forever Dog Life’

My first impression when I got my hands on the book was: wow! It is a nice big book with lots of pages, and because it is a hardcover book it feels heavy and sturdy. It contains over 300 pages and almost all pages contain beautiful color photos. I think the cover alone is beautiful to look at!

Content

I started reading with enthusiasm. The first part of the book, the introduction, contains background information about why this book was written and what the underlying philosophy is. The authors name their ‘LIFE’ principle (Lifestyle, Ideal microbiome, Food, Environment & stress). They write that it is important to pay close attention to all aspects of the care of your pet. I can completely agree with this. Here and there, however, I think the tone of the text tends towards fearmongering and that does not make me happy. I personally think it’s nonsense that plastic food bowls are about the worst thing you can do to your dog. The part about tap water also does not apply to our Dutch tap water.

After the intro follows Part One, The Forever Kitchen. This contains useful lists of nutrients contained in certain foods, how much you can feed, and other useful tips.

What I find a shame about the subsequent recipes is that the authors mainly took their North American audience into account. All temperatures are only stated in °F, not in °C which is many times more commonly used worldwide. The same applies to weights and other measurements. Tip if, like me, you don’t feel like converting to American sizes: buy a set of measuring spoons for these sizes via Amazon. You can then easily measure the ingredients in the recipes in the same way as in the book.

I haven’t gotten around to testing out the many recipes in this book yet, but I certainly will! Fortunately, my ladies don’t mind testing my cooking and baking skills (which Lab does?).

The Forever Home

After the Forever Kitchen part, The Forever Home part follows, with, you probably guessed it, tips for in and around the house and for the care of our four-legged friends. Here too there are some texts that, in my opinion, tend towards fearmongering. But if you can read in between, there are some real gems of tips in there. For example, many people do not know that the cleaning products we use in our homes can cause serious skin irritations and other annoying health problems for our animals. I will leave it open whether they are really as ‘deadly’ as the authors suggest. The fact is that the chemicals in many cleaning products can cause reactions in many dogs. There are a number of recipes for cleaning products based on non-toxic ingredients, which I will definitely try out. Another tip from me (which is not mentioned in the book): buy a steam cleaner! I love that thing at keeping my house clean, and you don’t need any chemicals anymore.

Back to the book. The book ends with a word of thanks and a collection of photos of pets of people who contributed to the book. Very nice to see!

Final verdict ‘The Forever Dog Life’

I am very positive about this book! It doesn’t get a 10 from me, I think the tone is too American and tends too much towards fearmongering, but the recipes are really cool and definitely worth trying. Much of the advice and tips are also very useful, and although the authors get lost in the use of jargon here and there, the text is generally very readable.

The photography is really beautiful, as a photographer it makes me very happy! Nice clear photos that clearly show what is talked about in the text.

I can absolutely recommend this book! Choose the things that are useful and applicable to you, and don’t get too carried away with the fear mongering. In my opinion, anyone who delves into what is best for his or her dog is already doing a great job, and we should stick to that!