MEET THE TEAM
We started off by writing a single book about how owners could help their dogs cope with the very real terrors and distress
caused by fireworks every year. We both know just how horrible it can be - for owners as well as for pets - having owned dogs ourselves who were severely afflicted with fear of fireworks. Happily we were able to help them overcome their fears,
but we wanted to do more, and to share all the things we had learned ourselves with other animal guardians.
Although magazines print articles on the subject every year, there is never enough space allotted to cover all the information
and different approaches that may be able to help - and of course, the very nature of periodicals means that they aren't permanently available. We came up with the idea of writing a mini-book which would be both comprehensive, and available
all the year round: and that is how and why HELP! My Dog is Scared of Fireworks came into being!
After we had finished writing it, we realised there were many other issues which would benefit from the same approach,
and currently have six titles available, with more planned for the future.
TONI SHELBOURNE
Animal Behaviourist, Tellington TTouch Instructor, Real Dog Yoga Instructor & Author
Toni has worked with domesticated and wild canids since 1989.
After a long and successful career with the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association, she started her own business as a Tellington TTouch Companion Animal Practitioner. She is now one of the highest qualified Practitioners in the UK.
In 2001 her skills in TTouch took Toni to the UK Wolf Conservation Trust where she met a pack of socialised wolves. She went on to work with them for over a decade as a Senior Wolf Handler and Education Officer for the organisation.
In more recent years, Toni has gone on to become a Real Dog Yoga Instructor, and updated her qualifications in behaviour with the International School of Psychology and Behaviour, for which she is also an affiliate. She is now a full member of The Association of INTO Dogs as a certified canine behaviourist and the International Companion Animal Network as a certified Animal Behaviourist. She teaches all over the UK and abroad, gives webinars, works with clients on a one-to-one basis, and writes articles for Your Dog and Your Cat magazine as well as the HELP! My Dog... book series.
Toni lives in Oxfordshire, England.
KAREN BUSH
Riding instructor and author
1959 -2023
Karen combined working with horses with writing about them and her other great love, dogs. She has written hundreds of features which have appeared in leading national publications including Horse & Rider, Your Horse, Pony, Horse & Pony, Horse and Your Dog (plus the occasional feature for Your Cat magazine!)
She is the author of over twenty books including the best-selling The Dog Expert.
Karen shared her home with a number of rescue whippets over the years, Archie and Angel (pictured with Karen, and yes, those are real Blue Peter badges!) and Dulcie.
Karen sadly died after a short illness and is missed by Toni and all her friends and family
Why Skinny Dog Books?
It seemed the obvious name as we both lived with 'skinny dogs' - Toni shared her life with a lurcher called Mr P and Karen was always a servant to her beloved whippets. The size of the books was also a deciding factor in the choice of names: because they concentrate on specific issues rather than being fatter but generalised volumes, they could be said to be skinny books - although you will find there is plenty of information in them. We have also tried to keep the prices as streamlined as possible!