Rating: 
Summary: Pretty, Not Practical.
Review: Animal House Style is one beautiful coffee table book. But truely, it is only a coffee table book. It has beautiful pictures of pets on beautiful designer furniture. But not the greatest advice for caring for a home with pets. Let's get real here, I have a yellow lab that loves to lounge on my dark gray couch. The advice the author gives for removing pet hair from your couch is to get a strong vacuum cleaner! Um yeah, I would have never thought of that without reading this book! Or you can use a roll of tape to remove pet hair from your clothes! Hmmm, that is truely a new idea! You can tell that Julia Szabo is a true animal lover, and she does have an amazing sense of style. But most of the home decor is way over my price range, like the Gucci bet she got her pit bull. It probebly cost more than my bed! Animal House Style does make you more aware of animal sensativity to house cleaning chemicals and what are good alternatives to your Clorox cleaners. But that is about the only practical advice this book has to offer. If you are looking for a book with some really cute dog picks Animal House Style is a great pick. But if you are looking for viable solutions to living with pets, don't get this book.
Rating: 
Summary: THIS IS A WONDERFUL BOOK!
Review: Animal House Style proves that, more than orchids or chintz, what really gives a home style is a handsome dog. (Something new I learned is that even cats and birds can add great zip to the furnishings!) It has practical tips for making a home comfortable and aesthetically pleasing for your pet, such as attractive leash displays and smaller-sized beds. Best of all though, there are loads of adorable pictures of animals in beautiful homes. I love this book.
Rating:
Summary: Here kitty kitty
Review: Caring for your dog and/or cat just became a whole lot easier and more enjoyable, thanks to this well-written and beautifully illustrated book that is a must read for anyone who loves animals. Obviously the writer puts pets before possessions and offers loads of useful advice on how to keep them happy while living beautifully.
Rating:
Summary: haute decor for your home zoo!
Review: Designing a home to share with your pets. The flyleaf says: Journalist Julia Szabo is the "Pets" columnist for the Sunday NEW YORK POST & wrote the "Truth in Decorating" column for ELLE DECOR. She is also a frequent contributor to HOUSE BEAUTIFUL, the NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE & TRAVEL & LEISURE. She has written a fresh & witty encyclopedia of every chic option for housing your pets in the style to which they will become accostomed. Julia Szabo has a lot to say about decorating & keeping pets & homes clean; feed & bath times & clean up materials; toys & dignity. ANIMAL HOUSE STYLE is a stylish book - begging to be set on a coffee table. Julia Szabo's breathless prose, stories & gossip compliment the glossy photos of perfectly clean & visitor-ready rooms in various well-known people's homes where dogs, cats, ponies, ferrets & birds tidily hang out with a palpable air of culture, on color-coordinated, sometimes whimsical furniture. A decadent use of your money & an invaluable book if living with your critters in a stylish, colorful & pleasing manner is a must!
Rating:
Summary: It's About Time
Review: Here's my take on some of the negitive comments made about this book - it may seem idealistic, but to me it's about raising the rep of "pet owner" to a new level, a higher standard. Working in an animal shelter as I do, I have seen what the author describes about abandoned animals and how easily they are discarded for frivolous reasons. I think a book like this is very needed not only to prove to people that owning a pet doen't mean being a dirty slob but it also reminds pet owners that they need to work out problems and try to think of creative solutions to issues they may encounter with their pets before they give up on a very special member of the family or resort to mutilating their animal (cat declawing).
Not all of us can afford designer furniture, that's true, but I have enjoyed seeing the photos of these animals and their loving owners who are showing the world that Fluffy or Spot have just as much right to sit on that million dollar couch as they do. I have seen sloppy pet owners and I think we all need to be reminded that we have a responibility to keep things on a higher level for the health of the animal as well as the impression we give to others.
Any book like this that promotes adoptiong animals from shelters and giving them good, loving, healthy and above all PERMANENT homes is truly invaluble.
Rating: 
Summary: Very disappointing
Review: Here's my take on some of the negitive comments made about this book - it may seem idealistic, but to me it's about raising the rep of "pet owner" to a new level, a higher standard. Working in an animal shelter as I do, I have seen what the author describes about abandoned animals and how easily they are discarded for frivolous reasons. I think a book like this is very needed not only to prove to people that owning a pet doen't mean being a dirty slob but it also reminds pet owners that they need to work out problems and try to think of creative solutions to issues they may encounter with their pets before they give up on a very special member of the family or resort to mutilating their animal (cat declawing).
Not all of us can afford designer furniture, that's true, but I have enjoyed seeing the photos of these animals and their loving owners who are showing the world that Fluffy or Spot have just as much right to sit on that million dollar couch as they do. I have seen sloppy pet owners and I think we all need to be reminded that we have a responibility to keep things on a higher level for the health of the animal as well as the impression we give to others.
Any book like this that promotes adoptiong animals from shelters and giving them good, loving, healthy and above all PERMANENT homes is truly invaluble.
Rating:
Summary: Not a Practical Guide for pet-proofing
Review: I found the title of this book to be misleading, as prior to purchase I believed it to be a guide to designing a home to better accommodate some of the unique challenges of living with animals. This is certainly not a guide; the writing is conversational and contains an abundance of pictures of well-known people, their pets and expensive, famous furniture. There is a resource section in the back of the book, but it is organized by chapter and page, not subject or solution. Specific information (product lines, etc.) is given, which is good (if you want to buy exactly that) and bad (information will become outdated). The most practical use I found were suggestions on fabric choices; I ended up buying an ultrasuede sofa in part because this book suggested it could withstand animals in good shape (it does). I believe that the book is meant to show that living with animals in an accommodating way can be fashionable, and that the author had good intentions when writing the book. However, it seems dangerous to link animals to fashion, for what is fashionable can always become unfashionable. There are several instances in the book which discuss how well an animal is coordinated with a piece of furniture - that seems wrong to me. The photography is very good and the layout attractive; if you like pets and fashion, the book may be a good match. If you are looking for a guide to pet proofing your home, you will be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Stylish Read for fashion followers
Review: I should imagine this book is a great hit with the NYC apartment upper income bracket, who have pets as fashion accessories and treat them like animated teddy bears. (Most of the resource references are also in NY). Not that it's not a pleasant read, it's a stylish and entertaining book. It made me feel better about having slip covers on my furniture. The author got of the point at times and did the usual mini-lectures on pets put in shelters and toxic cleaners like the rest of us don't get it, but being politically correct is not the same undertanding the needs of real animals or the people living with them on a daily basis. The author may do work in "rescue" as she claims, but so can anyone. I don't think she understand the needs of real pets living real lives and probably none of the people who love this book do either. The author didn't offer anything I didn't know or hadn't tried (and didn't work). And some of the materials she raves about as coverings, were trashed by my two dogs in one afternoon. White slip covers ("you can wash them") Yeah, about 3 times a day to keep them white if you have a pet who gets on the sofa. Nice glossy coffee table book though.
Rating:
Summary: FOUR-PAWS UP!!!!!!
Review: MEOW! The only decorating book I've ever read that treats animals as companions worthy of consideration when making design decisions. If you live with a couple of cool cats and want to recover your sofa, Szabo let's you in on some trade secrets. (Ultrasuede, for instance, is a sure way to discourage scratching.) Beautifully illustrated and intelligently written and reported, the book is filled with tons of useful tips and entertaining anecdotes. Thankfully, the writer always puts pets before possessions but teaches us how to create beautiful living spaces without sacrificing style. Truly enlightened perspective makes this a must read for any animal owner who cares about design and decoration.
Rating:
Summary: Pra-cat-ical and terrier-ific advice
Review: The perfect gift book, for wedding, housewarming or any occasion, so long as the recipient is a pet owner. They will thank you profusely, for helping them decorate with their kitty or pup in mind. After reading this terrier-ific book, I realized my home is definitely decorated in a style I think of as classically Boston Terrier black and white. The hair blends in perfectly, so who cares? Arlene Millman, author of BOOMERANG - A MIRACLE TRILOGY (The tale of a remarkable Boston Terrier).
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