Hi, Debra here again -  Many of you know that I do love dogs. 

You can often hear my #1 office assistant bark occasionally in my training videos.  Try as I may, I haven’t yet been able to teach him to read the ‘Quiet – Recording Session’ sign that flashes in my mind when I’m doing a video.  LOL

But still, he’s right beside me, standing guard, while I’m out on the patio writing or making videos for you.  When my mind suddenly draws a blank while writing about something, he’s always my best solution. A quick canine  conversation or a little ear-scratch, and I find he’s the perfect medicine to relax my brain muscles and get them working again.

Well, this public domain book ideas article is about dogs, so I thought I’d kick it off with a short trio of my favorite dog quotes –

“Whoever said you can’t buy happiness forgot about little puppies!”  ~ Gene Hill

“Money will buy you a pretty good dog, but it won’t buy the wag of his tail.” ~ Henry Wheeler Shaw, and

“The dog is a gentleman; I hope to go to his heaven, not man’s.”  ~ Mark Twain, in his Letter to W D Howells, 4/2/1899

Now, I know dogs aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but just think, for a minute, of how many people ARE involved with dogs in our society today.  There are people who own dogs, work with dogs, treat dogs, groom dogs, photograph dogs, rescue dogs, foster dogs, paint dogs, train dogs, transport dogs, show dogs, breed dogs, train emergency rescue dogs, own therapy dogs, have medical alert dogs, train police dogs, handle military dogs, use livestock dogs . . . see what I mean?

I could go on but I’m sure you get the picture.  Needless to say, DOGS have a HUGE impact on our modern-day society and play a BIG role in our lives in general – regardless of our age or society level. Everyone appreciates a beautiful loving dog in one way or other, even if it’s just looking at those cute puppy videos on YouTube when you’ve had a stressful day!  LOL

But I wonder if you’ve ever given any serious thought about the monetary impact of canines in our world.

Just think for a minute – according to The Humane Society of the United States, 2011-2012 estimates indicate:

Approximately 72.8 million dogs are officially ‘owned’ in the world,  (not counting strays or those in shelters awaiting adoptions… hopefully)

• 39% of the US households have at least one dog,
• 60% of US owners own one dog,
• 28% of US owners own two dogs, and
• 12% of US owners own three or more dogs.

If you have any doubt at all, think what a gigantic market has been built around pet supplies and pet-related products!!!  There are now even multiple of those ‘big-box’ stores all focused on the buying power of animal lovers.

So you see – not to be materialistic about this but just honest…

DOGS = CONSUMERS = MONEY!

. . . simply because there are so many dog lovers in our world, and of course, what little puppy can’t melt even the hardest of hearts?

***

So – with all of that said, today’s post is about the public domain book, Care Of  The Dog, which we presented a few months back, all perfectly wrapped in a neat ‘ready-to-go’ package for you.

It was written by Charles Leedham and published by Charles Scribner’s Sons Press in 1961, but you’ll see it is still definitely relevant today.

If you didn’t take a good look at it when I first made it available for you, you really should give it a second consideration for another reason – not just because it’s excellent information.

It’s actually quite long – 262 pages in all!  It covers all areas of dog ownership and care – breeding, weaning and raising pups, training of both young and adult dogs, nutrition and feeding, first aid and home nursing, overall health, puppy care, care of an adult dog, special care of an senior dog and the nature of dogs and understanding them psychologically.   (In other words – what’s really going on behind those beautiful eyes!)

But what intrigues me most is that the chapters are also quite long . . . and very appealing!

I think the shortest chapter is 16 pages, but the majority of them run around 30 pages (give or take a few).  Now THAT is a hefty enough chapter to make a book out of, just by itself, add some nice color images, maybe sprinkle in a good dog quote at the beginning of each chapter, and maybe add a few paragraphs yourself to freshen it up a bit and make it your own.

Once you’ve done that, you might consider other dog-related products that you could sell as a package deal with the book.  Make each book available along with a ‘free’ dog comb or a photo key chain for the buyer to insert a photo of their pet. What other products can you think of to combine with each book (chapter) to create your own line of products to sell on Amazon or eBay?

The main product would be your book (made from each chapter).  Be sure to price your book package high enough to cover the additional item you plan to include.

I suggest scrolling through the dog products on Amazon to see what items are offered in quantity that would be easy to ship with your book.  A nylon leash or metal dog comb would be fairly flat and lightweight.  You could market the leash as an ‘emergency leash’ to tuck into the glove box of their car.

Personally, I always have a spare leash in my car in case I run across a dog that needs a friendly rescue.  I even gave a leash away one time to a man traveling through our state.  In the haste of loading his belongings and his two beautiful black Labradors, he had misplaced the leashes.  It was raining hard and naturally his dogs ‘were inspired’ by the rain.  But those elusive leashes were no where in site among the boxes, bags, suitcases and 2 giant dogs in a compact car.  Giving away my emergency leash was a simple gesture but one he (and his dogs) appreciated greatly at the time.  It probably cost me a ‘whopping’ $1 but being able to help them out by giving it away right then – well, it made me feel like a million bucks!

So stop dawdling, grab this book and you can quickly turn out a whole line of dog-related books packaged with something else for your own product line.  If it comes down to your book or someone else’s, an inexpensive 2^nd product (“FREE GIFT”) tucked inside will give you (pardon the pun) a ‘leg-up’ on your competition!

Remember, I’m here whenever you need me,

p.s. Remember you can purchase Care of the Dog and any of my other 280 Public Domain books on Best Public Domain Books.