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| The Dog Lover's Companion to California: The Inside Scoop on Where to Take Your Dog (Dog Lover's Companion Guides) | 
 enlarge | Author: Maria Goodavage
Creator: Phil Frank
Publisher: Avalon Travel Publishing
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $11.94
You Save: $13.01 (52%)
New (18) Used (13) from $3.30
Avg. Customer Rating:  28 reviews
Sales Rank: 82483
Media: Paperback
Edition: Fifth edition
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 1032
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.2 x 1.6
ISBN: 1566916968
Dewey Decimal Number: 917.9404
EAN: 9781566916967
ASIN: 1566916968
Publication Date: April 10, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Ships immediately! Perfect and New! Fifth edition. 2005 Paperback.
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Product Description
The Dog Lover's Companion to California has the inside scoop on the best parks, dog runs, beaches, forest preserves, ski areas, pet-friendly businesses, and much more. Local author Maria Goodavage and her trusty companion Jake have dug up many surprising resources available to dogs in the Golden State, such as baseball games, summer camps, ski areas, and pet parades. For the less outdoorsy dog, there are doggy spas, art openings, and even drive-ins! Packed with illustrations by celebrated cartoonist Phil Frank, as well as helpful maps, up-to-date leash laws, and a useful "paw" ranking system for all locations in the book, The Dog Lover's Companion to California is a pet's best friend.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 23 more reviews...
 Decent book, but not a comprehensive guide September 8, 2007
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
When I read all the stellar reviews for this book, I thought it was the perfect book for me. We have had our dog for two months, and are now venturing out to different places with her. We bought this book last night (and paid full price for it--fancy THAT) in anticipation of a free-roaming day trip today.
First, I do have to say that creating a comprehensive guide is exceedingly difficult. The number of hotels, restaurants and attractions you'd have to visit...well, it's mind-boggling. However, there are both good and bad points to this book, depending on what you're looking for.
Good Points:
1. Very detailed information about the parks, beaches and recreations areas, complete with an easy-to-read rating system (1 to 4 paws) and a clear indicator of off-leash venues (running dog icon). She also includes parking and entrance tips, park amenities that would appeal to your dog, what trails or areas are dog-accessible, etc. Very good listings. This is the main reason you'd want to buy this book.
2. Detailed information on SOME restaurants and hotels and basic information on others. Just thumbing through the book, it's clear that Maria's favorites get lots of detail. For instance, I was thumbing through the book and Roses's Cafe (page 486) in San Francisco gets a full 2/3 of a page. Of course, there was a story attached to that listing of how Maria was introduced to the place, and her experience with it. Other places just list that there is outdoor seating, dogs are allowed, etc. Your mileage may vary.
3. Coverage of the entire state. More breadth, less depth. However, you would think that the local area editions are more comprehensive. Nope. The Bay Area edition seems to have the same information contained in the California edition.
4. Doggie Diversions. Maria lists some great things to do with your dog aside from parks. Shopping, attractions, fun stuff to do. These are sometimes surprising.
5. Other information. I never knew that you could take a dog onto a San Francisco Muni bus or a Cable Car. Maria includes the requirements (muzzle, non-commute hours for Muni) and costs. I also never knew that Nordstrom's welcomes dogs. Dogs and shopping...oh boy!
Bad Points:
1. Only the parks are on the area map. Okay, so let's say you're in San Jose and need a place to stay, a place to eat, and a place to run your dog. You can look at the map and see where to run your dog, but how so you know where the restaurants are in conjunction to your dog park? Hm. GPS, I guess.
2. Could use more listings for hotels and restaurants. For instance, dogfriendly.com has 22 listings for restaurants in San Jose; the book has TWO. San Jose is a pretty big city, and the inclusion of only two restaurants is pitiful.
3. Place you can't take your dog. In some instances, Maria includes this info. For instance, you can't take your dog to California State beaches. Rats. However, I was thinking of going to Muir Woods yesterday, and the book didn't say whether dogs were allowed or not. This is a major attraction in Marin County. Perhaps Maria should consider a list of major attractions in tourist areas where dogs ARE and ARE NOT allowed. For instance, are dogs allowed on Pier 39 and Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco? Hm. I had to sleuth a bit and read the info on Aquatic Park and the RESTAURANT section...the info was there (the answer is yes).
4. Small nit pick: Listings should include name, address, phone number and THEN the info on why it's good. Sometimes the address info is buried within the text. Most times, it's at the end. A good editor would've made this a bit friendlier. It's a bit of a nit-pick, but it's annoying.
All in all, it's a decent book, but it has its flaws. I think it is better than many of the other books out there (better detailed info than dogfriendly.com's book, and rates each of the parks), but has fewer listings than others. I think it's worth your going to a store to check it out. Even with the good reviews here, I was a bit skeptical, and I needed to compare and contrast the book with others in person to make a final buying decision.
 If you have a dog and live in California, you need this book! August 11, 2007
My dog loves to go places with me. A walk is his all time favorite, and he's always ready to jump in the car and just go -- I swear he knows the new from the old and always gets excited no matter what. Well, I had just about run out of new places to go with him and was starting to get a little bored when I heard about this book. It has opened up our world even more, and in doing so gave me the confidence to explore more with my best friend.
Great book August 10, 2007
This is definately a book for the car or in my case, my dog's luggage!!! I found a bunch of parks in my area alone I didn't even know were there! I bought this because we take my dog everywhere and I wanted new places to go. This also covers areas where the Bay Area book stops. I even ended up sharing some parks with my friends who have dogs.
For those who can't bear to be away from their dog February 18, 2007
Bought this for myself, unfortunately just weeks before deciding to leave California and move to the East! Gave it as a gift to a close dog-lover friend who loved it. I think it is a great guide for finding out where all the dog-friendly places are. It would otherwise take years to figure all these things out on your own by simple trial-and-error and networking with dog people. Also great for socializing a new puppy (which is what I bought it for).
I'm sure it used to be great. August 12, 2006
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Swell book but WAY out of date. This is the 5th printing but I've been unable to verify that there is any new information since 1993. We used it on a trip last week and most of the places we checked out had changed their policy or had gone out of business.
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