Top 3 sales for H&H December 2011

Here's the rundown of the top three Hubble & Hattie books from last month!

1. Walking the Dog: Motorway Walks for Drivers and Dogs (RAC) - Lezli Rees

2. You and Your Cockapoo: The Essential Guide - David Alderton

3. The Complete Dog Massage Manual: Gentle Dog Care - Julia Robertson

Well done Walking the Dog! You can find out a bit more about the book, and the great new app, Motorway Walks & Breaks,
over at the Hubble & Hattie website!

Let's be friends!

How many of you lovely folk have a Facebook account? We do too! And we've got a page catered for everyone, with more to come!

Hubble & Hattie

For general Hubble & Hattie book news, updates, photos, links and more, check out the H&H page! You'll find lots of animal news, photos of our own Hubbles and Hatties, plus up-to-date offers on our great range of H&H books!

Find us at www.facebook.com/hubbleandhattie 

Motorway Walks & Breaks

For those of us who love to travel, and who want to take their pets

along for the ride, we've just released a great app, based on our fantastic book Walking the Dog: Motorway Walks for Drivers and Dogs. Head over the app's Facebook page for app info and reviews. Plus, we want to hear from you! What's your favourite place to go for a dog walk? Got a photo of your dog enjoying a romp outside? We'd love to see it! Upload your photos to our wall and share them with the world!

Find us at www.facebook.com/motorwaywalks

Fun and Games for Cats!

Like cats? Like our page for the great H&H book, Fun and Games for Cats! Cats and the internet go together like bread and butter, and we just can't get enough of them!

Check out this page for cat videos, cats in the news, and photos of the daily happenings of the H&H crew's own kitties.

Like the Motorway Walks & Breaks page, we want to hear from you! Got a fantastic picture of your cat having the time of her life? Upload it to our wall and share it will other cat fans. Better still, do you have a copy of Fun and Games For Cats? Why not write us a review, or send us photos of your cats testing out some of the great games in the book!

You can also find news here of upcoming cat - related H&H books, such as Cat Speak, due this March!

We've got even more great Facebook pages lined up, so keep checking back for more info We can't wait to hear from you!

Motorway Walks and Breaks App

How many of you, like us here at H&H headquarters, went halfway across the country to visit friends and family this festive season?

It's great to get away, but getting there is often such a chore. That's why we've released our great new app, Motorway Walks and Breaks for the lucky people that had an iPod Touch, iPad or iPhone waiting for them under the tree.

Use this app to get more fun for your fuel, see more of the countryside, take a healthy break, or enjoy a relaxing pub lunch. 

 

Each page features a 30 to 45 minute walk, with a selected pub or café along the way. Activities for children are included, from bouncy castles to nature trails. 

 

All of the walks are suitable for dogs, and those with assistance dogs will find details of accessible paths and disabled facilities – for example, RADAR, a key that is made available to registered disabled people, which enables them to access locked disabled WCs and facilities. 

 

The listed pubs all welcome well-behaved canines.  

Most of the pubs are traditional inns, serving high quality food at realistic prices. Landlords, chefs and opening times can change quickly, and phone numbers are given for you to check in advance to avoid disappointment.

Motorway Walks and Breaks review from www.lostandfond.co.uk:

"If you are going to be driving around the UK visiting family and friends for Christmas and New Year – and taking your dog – then a new phone app could be just what you need.

"Lezli and David Rees – who run the Driving with Dogs website – have created the content for a phone app called Motorway Walks and Breaks.

"It has to be the easiest way to find great pub food, safe places for your kids to play, somewhere nice to walk the dog, or park a camper van, all within five miles of an English, Scottish or Welsh motorway exit. I predict it could save a lot of petrol and a few frayed tempers as holiday travellers search for a much-needed break from their journey.

"Along with their rescue Collie, Jem, the couple have trekked more than 1,000 miles creating walks, tracking down traditional inns and checking out other facilities for drivers, families and dogs to enjoy on their journey.

"All the pubs featured say they accept well-behaved dogs. Phone numbers are provided so you can check opening times and food serving times over the festive period."

Motorway Walks and Breaks is available now on the App Store, along with our other great apps!

Swim to Recovery now available

Available now is our fantastic new book, Swim to Recovery: Canine Hydrotherapy Healing by Emily Wong

This unique book explores canine hydrotherapy, rehabilitation and weight management, and how these can improve your dog’s well-being.

A type of aquatic exercise, hydrotherapy can help prevent and treat medical problems and pre-/post-operative conditions in dogs, and can also be used for rehabilitation and maintaining health and fitness in your dog.

Obesity is one of the most common issues that domestic dogs face today, and this book brings awareness to the matter, suggesting preventative measures and simple husbandry tips that the owner can use to safeguard their dog’s welfare.

Supplemented by illustrations and colour photographs of patients undergoing rehabilitation, this book is ideal for all dog owners.

Lots of people are talking about Swim to Recovery, including The Veterinary Record's Donna Carver! Check out her fantastic review below:

"This eye-catching book includes plenty of colour photographs from hydrotherapy case studies. In the introduction, the author outlines hydrotherapy as a complementary therapy that aims to improve pets’ quality of life. Chapters 1 to 6 may be most beneficial to owners to help them understand the benefits of hydrotherapy for their pet and how hydrotherapy fits into a rehabilitation programme.

"Chapter 6 focuses on obesity and related osteoarthritis, and explains why the progressive loss of articular cartilage and inflammation of the synovial membrane leads to pain and discomfort for the patient and is common in obese patients. The chapter outlines the benefits of hydrotherapyfor obese animals with osteoarthritis; swimming is a non-weight-bearing activity that can strengthen the muscles around joints while avoiding load on the joints. Advice is given on the advantages of underwater treadmill hydrotherapy units and their use, including the control of water height, temperature, belt speed and all-round view of the patient. However, this section of the book is short. Given the growing popularity of underwater treadmills in veterinary practice, and the links with functional rehabilitation of patients, I would have liked this section to be more detailed and use of these units incorporated into the case studies in Chapters 7 to 11.

"The pre-hydrotherapy assessment section covers the basic measurements of temperature, pulse and respiration, plus body measurements, weight, pace and gait to evaluate the treatment, and how to know when to move the patient’s treatment on. Guidance is given on the water level to target strengthening of specific joints, and on the ideal water level to provide buoyancy to reduce the percentage of bodyweight passing through the joints.

"Chapters 7 to 11 may be of most interest to veterinary nurses with little previous knowledge or experience of hydrotherapy. These chapters focus on its use in treating conditions such as hip and elbow dysplasia, cruciate injuries and spinal conditions. They are illustrated with clearly drawnillustrations and radiographs, while easy-to-read bullet points within the text are used to identify key clinical signs of commonly treated conditions. Each chapter starts with outlining the aim of the swim programme, the duration of the programme, tasks to be completed during sessions, advice on what to do at home, and how and when to progress the swim programme. In summary, this book would be useful to dog owners to improve their understanding of the benefits of hydrotherapy for their pet, and also as a starting point for veterinary nurses with an interest in hydrotherapy."

You can get your copy of Swim to Recovery over at the Hubble and Hattie website. Right now we're offering 40% off in our January Sale, plus free p+p within the UK, so head over and check it out!

The Hoglet Diaries part 2

Happy New Year everyone! We hope everyone had a great winter break and is as excited for 2012 as we are!

To celebrate the new year, we're still offering a whopping 40% off of our  books, with free p+p if you're in the UK! The offer ends at midnight on the 15th January, so get your orders in now! You can check out full details over at the Hubble & Hattie website.

You might remember last month H&H director Jude was looking after three baby hedgehogs, with the possibility of another one on the way! Catch up with the Hoglet Diaries and find out Jude's reaction to another hog lodger!

And then there were four!

'The call from the vet came out of the blue, as they always do, so some quick thinking was called for. Taking a small cardboard box from our stockroom at work, I popped into the vet's on the way home and picked up a healthy-looking hoglet who was simply too young to fend for himself. At home I weighed him – 207gms; not too bad at all. 

Here's looking at you!

'Making a bed in a smaller crate that I had, I settled him in and gave him food and water. As he was on his own, and I had the three earlier arrivals together in one crate, I debated whether or not to put one of these in with the newbie, but decided against this, at least until I'd been able to ascertain that he really was healthy. Hedgehogs are solitary creatures and, whilst they can live together quite harmoniously, don't usually actively seek to do so. 

'For a few days I monitored his progress and decided at the weekend that he would be better off outside in the garden, though still contained within a run until he'd reached an adequate weight to be released.

'My original three spikey residents continued to thrive and, as it was summer and the weather not too bad (considering!) at weekends and some evenings I would put them outside in a large run on the grass, so that they could have a snuffle and poke about, and get used to the idea of being outside. Every time, as usual, Immie would be fascinated by the little creatures, and watch, enthralled, as they bustled and busied about inside the run.

Immie inspects the guests

'Each evening when we got home from work, Imms and I would attend to our guests. First, the indoors bunch would be transferred one at a time to a 'holding box' lined with a towel so that I could clean out and wash their crate and remake it. Usually, when moved, the three would stay as I'd put them initially, wondering what was going on, but then would gradually begin to investigate where they were, holding their twitching, questing snouts up in the air, and very often coming nose-to-nose with the ever-present Immie. The hogs were not the least bit perturbed by her, and she has never made a threatening move toward any that she's come into contact with, which reinforces my view that the only animal that is instinctively feared is man, often with good reason. 

'Next, was outside hog, and this entailed taking from the run soiled straw/hay, complete with hog poo (very smelly!), and replacing it with clean. Although quite messy creatures in some ways, in common with most animals, hogs keep one area for their toilet, leaving most of their accommodation clean and fresh. All of the food and water dishes were washed in hot soapy water and preparation of supper begun – chopping up banana, little pieces of grape, cat food, scrambled egg – usually some or all of these foods. It was all very well received and apparently enjoyed as there was never any left the next morning. Hedgehogs seem to relish their food as, very often at night, when all was quiet and we'd gone to bed, I could hear the three indoor hogs getting stuck in to supper!'

Next month: Weigh-ins and a new des-res for the Weymouth Three!

Problem-solving animals use their heads to get food!

We as humans are adept at solving problems. We use tools to aid us in day-to-day life, and we're aware that some animals are capable of doing the same.

It turns out, however, that there are a lot more problem-solvers out there than we thought!

Over at the Melbourne Dingo Discovery and Research Centre, Sterling the Dingo proves that you don't need thumbs to get what you want!
The staff were baffled when the name tag on Sterling's enclosure kept disappearing, despite being out of the dingo's reach.
Keen to solve the mystery, they set up a video camera outside the fence and hung a food package up by the name tag.

The results were amazing...


You can read Sterling's full story over at the Animal Wise website.

Sterling isn't the only animal using his noggin, take a look at this video of an elephant using a box in a similar way to reach some high-up branches!

It's hard to argue that animals do not possess intelligence when faced with evidence like this - and domestic pets are no exception. They need stimulation and mental exercise just as much as these clever animals, and the best way for them to learn is through play!

 Our great books, Fun and Games for Cats and Dog Games contain lots of games that will test your pet's brain power. Most importantly though, they're fun for you and your pet!

You can find out more about both books at the Hubble & Hattie website. And don't forget, you can still get 40% off and free postage within the UK!

The World's oldest living dog dies in Japan

On the 5th December, the worlds oldest living dog, Pusuke passed away in Sakura, Japan, aged 26 years and 9 months. According to his owner, Yumiko Shinohara, Pusuke slipped away peacefully at home.

You can read more about Pusuke here.


Most dogs live longer these days, thanks to a greater understanding of what they need in terms of food, exercise, health monitoring, and medical care.

Our title, Living with an Older Dog describes how to recognise and understand the changes – both mental and physical – that occur as your dog grows older. It explains – with the help of unique and specially-commissioned photography – how to manage these changes successfully, and thus how to make the senior canine years more enjoyable and fulfilling for both you and your dog. 

Exercise, diet, grooming, sharing the house with a younger dog, travel and holiday arrangements – all this and much more is covered in detail. There is also advice on how to work closely with your vet in order to manage your dog’s senior years, as well as sympathetic advice for when the time comes to say goodbye.

Living with an Older Dog is available to buy from our website. We're still offering our fantastic 40% off on all of our titles, so there's never been a better time to get your copy! Plus, if you're within the UK, you can also get FREE P+P!

Don't forget to take a look at our other great books and Apps over at the H+H website!