This book is intended to serve the average pet owner as a practical guide to dog health. Long experience in the practice of veterinary medicine has given me an understanding of the mind of the dog owner and an appreciation both of the kind of information he requires from such a book and of how he wants it expressed.

The average dog owner does not want to be told too much or too little. Too much information often includes highly technical terminology and operative procedures that are rightly within the exclusive province of the veterinarian. While this information may be very interesting, it usually confuses the general reader and tends to obscure the information that he is really seeking and needs to know. Books with too little in­formation are often so superficial that, beyond recording un­related facts and amusing anecdotes, they serve no useful purpose.

The average dog owner wants information he can use quickly and easily. He usually wants the specific answer to a specific question. For him, a book on the general care of the dog is a reference manual to which he turns whenever the need arises. If his animal itches, he wants to know why it is scratching itself and what he can do about it. If his animal has worms, he wants to know what worms are and what he can do about them. And he wants this information at once. He wants to be able to turn directly to the pages which give him the plain facts that he is looking for and not to have to plow through fifty pages of material before he can finally extract what he wants to know.

Most dog owners object to wasting too much space on the breeds of dogs because, even though this information is very interesting, it does not assist the owner in any practical way in the general care of his particular animal. He feels that, if he wants to know about breeds, there are plenty of fine and specialized books on the subject.

Since the owner's first concern is his pet's health, there is a good deal of data on disease that the dog owner has a right to expect from such a book. And more should be said about the veterinarian. While the owner recognizes that there are certain chores that he must leave strictly to the veterinarian, he wants at the same time to be given at least some idea of what the veterinarian is trying to do. In other words, the reader of a book on dog care wants to have some appreciation of the veterinarian's job.

This book has been written to meet these requirements. Each section was tested upon hundreds of dog owners and gradually refined until it satisfied the overwhelming majority. So many persons have lent their assistance in this regard that they are too numerous to acknowledge separately. In any case, no effort has been spared to produce a book which would reflect the requirements of the average dog owner. It is hoped that the book has realized its objectives.

Dr. A. Barton

Veterinary Surgeon Greenwich Village New York City

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