"What is the Perfect Pong?" by Hoover the Dog, is the story about one dog's pursuit of the world's best smell, and features. Hoover, an eight year old terrier crossbreed. It's aimed at pre-readers to five-year-olds. 'We spent a day in London literally following Hoover's nose, photographing as we went. If something interested him, we used it in the book, so although he didn't write the words, it's very much his story', said Hoover's co-author and owner, Martin Gurdon. The pictures were taken by photographer Eleanor Bentall, whose work appears regularly in the "Daily" and "Sunday Telegraph". Martin, a motoring journalist who contributes to titles including the "Evening Standard", "Daily Telegraph" and "She" magazine, also wrote New Holland's "Hen and the Art of Chicken Maintenance", an unlikely best seller about sex, death and domestic fowl. He confessed that if something pictorially strong didn't grab Hoover's olfactory attention, the dog's interest was helped with the contents of a Tesco ham sandwich. "Dogs Today" magazine was involved with "Pong"s' launch, running a reader promotion, and Dogs Trust has allowed its logo to be used on the book. It will receive 25p from every copy sold. 'When Hoover was a puppy my wife and I found him abandoned and close to death by the roadside', said Martin. 'Dogs Trust is exactly the sort of charity that would have taken care of him if we hadn't been able to. With its 300gsm, lacquered Gloss Art cover and 170gsm Gloss Art pages (24 pages in all), the book has a quality feel, and its 198x198mm size makes it easy to store and display. In a crowded market, "Pong"s' mix of artwork and photography is distinctive-but-familiar, the dog-as-author and charitable donation are also strong selling points - helped by the 'Dogs Trust' logos displayed on the cover and back page. The donation itself is built into the wholesale price and is supplied on a monthly basis by the publishers directly to 'Dogs Trust', so stocking "What is the Perfect Pong?" won't involve you with any additional work. When Martin was promoting "Hen and the Art of Chicken Maintenance", he ran bookshop events from Kings Lynn to Edinburgh, accompanied by members of his flock, and he's happy to discuss shop visits, readings, etc, for "Pong", and is working on child-friendly activities to make these fun and interesting. If you'd like to see Hoover in the fur, visit his website video blog. You can also view pages of the book on this site.