Book Reviews:

CHUCK Petrie is editor of Ducks Unlimited magazine, and is an enthusiastic waterfowler and fly fisherman. He has twice received the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation's Conservation Communicator of the Year Award and is also a past recipient of the Gordon MacQuarrie science award for his contribution to conservation communications.

Just Retrievers is a coffee table edition that could be called a salute to the amazing dogs who love to fetch. It contains 200 colour illustrations that serve to familiarise the reader with the style and motivation of retriever type dogs, and what drives them to such lengths to retrieve a dead duck.

This book captures the character of retrievers - it captures their moments of triumph and surprise, pride and exhaustion, excitement and boredom. Chuck Petrie's retrievers hunt in the snow and in the water, in the scrub or forest, in hot or cold temperatures. They can be seen keeping watch from under a field of straw; getting a damaged paw bandaged; making use of the perfect camouflage - a plastic Canadian goose; sharing a cup of tea between retrieves; holding the fishing rod; and trying to catch the snow thrown out by a snow shovel.

Throughout the book are some really skilled water and air photographs - especially mid-air, skimming, or water entry shots with splashes, 'the shake' or mid-air retrieves - these have to be taken at split-second speeds.

If you want puppies and plenty of them then look to the first section. Chuck Petrie says "physically, pups are helpless but mentally they are planning a list of activities to grow into".