Puppy Life: The First Eight Weeks of Bonding, Playing, and Growing by Traer Scott is a nonfiction book that follows the stages of development of six litters of puppies across breeds from birth through eight weeks. Featuring 120 full-color photographs from best-selling animal photographer Traer Scott, this book takes readers on a photographic journey through puppyhood with a visual diary of how dogs mature and grow, as well as information about each stage of puppy development leading up to the day each puppy goes to its forever home. Follow the stories of these litters across different ages, with informative text about each breed and developmental stage: English Setters, Great Pyrenees, Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, Labradors, and Mixed Breed.

Puppy Life offers readers exactly what the title and blurb promises. Detailed information on the first eight weeks of life, development, and growth for five litters of puppies. The photographs were very cute, and helped to show how fast puppies change and grow. I always new puppies grew up fast, but as someone that has only had cats in my adult life, and adopted full grown rescue dogs with my family when I was a kid, sometimes seeing that growth documented is much more real that the knowledge of the subject. I thought the text was accessible and did a nice job of talking about the breeds and the specific litters that are covered, without getting deep enough to become too much. I think this would be a great book for fans of shows like Too Cute, which does something similar, and as a discussion starter in families talking about getting a puppy.

I wanted ALLLLL of them. I’m not a huge animal person but seriously how could you look at all these little faces & not want at least one of each! This is perfect for the animal lover!

3.5/5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Puppy Life is such a cute read (and good coffee table book) for dog lovers and new puppy parents alike. I would also recommend it to children who are interested in dogs! Depending on their age, maybe with a parent present to help explain the text.

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Not only is it filled with cute puppy pictures (I can almost smell that sweet puppy smell again…), it also includes short explanations about the typical process of a puppy growing up. For many medium-sized dog breeds these milestones happen in the same way and around the same time, but for much larger or much smaller breeds, it can deviate. It was fun to learn the differences between all these different types of breeds.

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I would’ve given this a full 4 stars, but there’s something about the book that doesn’t feel entirely complete to me. Maybe I wanted more facts, or the photos felt like a big blob of puppy to me; none of the photos really spoke to me on their own.

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The mixed breed litter originally had 14 puppies. It was mentioned in the first bit of text that some of them didn’t make it (as often happens with such large litters), but after that we heard nothing more about it. I counted the pups in the group photo and came to the conclusion that 4 of them didn’t make it in the end but I don’t know if I’m correct, and I guess it would’ve been nice to know for sure. Maybe it was brushed over to make the book more kid-friendly, I don’t know.

Disclaimer: A digital copy of this book was provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Review to be posted on my blog/goodreads on November 3rd.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

Yes, it is time for puppies! For doggies! At the time of writing it is still one day before I can start my search for a doggo again, so I thought why not read something adorable and doggo related? In this case cute photographs of puppers throughout various stages in life! Eep!

I have to confess, I even read the introduction! Quite often I just hop right ahead to the book itself. The photographs. But this time I was curious and then I was absorbed. The introduction was really fun to read and I loved reading about the photographers passion for puppies and photography.

And then it was onwards to the puppies. In this adorable and fun book we get 6 kinds of puppies. Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, English Setters, Daniffs (which are new to me), Great Pyrenees, Labrador Retrievers, Mixed Breed. I know I shouldn't have favourites, but I was looking forward a lot to Spaniels and Labradors. I just cannot help it. They are all cute, but these two just take the cake. The book does list that it shows various stages of puppy life but I just didn't know what to expect. Well, I can explain it now to my readers. Each two pages is one week in the life of a puppy. From the very first week in which they are still so so tiny and fragile to the 8th week in which you can see more a dog. Each puppy kind gets information on the breed + puppy life in general, and what changes each week. Some dogs stay tiny and small for a long time and some just POOF are a dog very soon. XD I had expected just photography to show the process, instead I got a ton more and I absolutely loved it. I learned quite a lot of new things and am now recovering from a cuteness overload as DANG these doggos are just too cute. I also loved that we got some personal stories about the mom and dad or the puppies. That definitely made it, for me, even more fun to read (or sad in one case).

The photographs are just the cutest! The photographer really captures these puppies and I loved that they are allowed to move. That sounds weird, but I have seen some dog books in which pups/dogs were put in a pose. Here you can see that at times the pups were just done with the photographing or just wanted to play rather than sit. Which made me giggle.

All in all, I would HIGHLY recommend this superadorable book to everyone! I am sure it will be loved by many. I definitely would love to add this book to my shelves.

I’m a huge dog lover of all shapes and sizes but nothing gets me more than a cute puppy so this book was right up my alley!

Puppy Life by Traer Scott is a beautifully photographed book which follows six breeds of adorable pups in their first 8 weeks of life showing their development stages. With a wide range of breeds from King Charles Cavelier to Labradors, this would be a great present for new puppy parents or any dog lover like me!

Thanks to Netgalley and Princeton Architectural Press for sending this book for honest review. All opinions are my own.

Puppy Life gave an adorable view into the beginning of a puppy's life. I liked that this book highlighted several different breeds to give a comparison of how much they differ in size and development during those first few weeks. The pictures were beautiful and really added to the story. Dog lovers will love this book!

Puppy Life is such a fun and wholesome little book. I would say it's moderately educational, providing a fair amount of data about puppies that I feel is honestly ideal for family reading. Though it doesn't go super in-depth about anything, the book comes alongside a great deal of absolutely adorable puppy photos documenting the first 8 weeks of various puppies' lives.

Overall, it was a lot of fun moving from one litter to the next, seeing each of the various puppies in the beginning stages of their lives. I loved that this wasn't just a book of pictures, however, and included a lot of fun little factual pieces not only about the puppies themselves--Great Danes being larger and having a very different development than that of a toy breed--but about puppies in general as they go through each phase of their early development.

Though this likely isn't a book I'd pick up and read often, it's definitely one that I'd recommend for any family looking at learning about puppies.

What a great book for first time Dog parents. Also great for parents to use as a tool to teach kids the life and stages of their puppy.