Walking Ollie: Or, Winning the Love of a Difficult Dog Book

This promised to be a nice read: the story of man who rescues a dog from an animal shelter and the subsequent bonding and working through of the dog's issues. Unfortunately, it wasn't. There were so many moments in this book where I smacked my head (figuratively speaking) and wanted to scream at the guy. The problems I had with the book are as follows:

1. He barely knows this dog and the first thing he does is let it off leash. A surefire way to watch your dog either disappear into the sunset or get killed. Amazingly he doesn't get killed though he does get a nasty leg break at one point when he, as is no surprise, runs out into traffic and gets hit by a car. Does he learn his lesson? No. After keeping him on leash as he works up the dogs muscle tone and as the bone heals, as soon as the doctor says he's heeled, he lets him off leash again.

2. The dog is a lurcher, which is a dog that is part greyhound (in this case, greyhound and saluki). These are dogs that can see something a mile in the distance and are off like a shot, faster than any human being can run. One thing rescues for greyhounds require is that you never EVER let your dog off leash. It is the ultimate in stupidity to do so.

3. He says, over and over and over again throughout this book that rescue dogs are, basically, bundles of nerves and behavioral problems. He doesn't even mention that not all, that some are well-behaved dogs who just need a second chance. It was no surprise that in the end, he got his next dog (a purebred saluki) from a breeder. I guess he doesn't want one of those horrible rescue dogs.

4. He insults a lot of people in the book. No one specifically, but at varying turns he insults people who walk their dog on leash (because they're not FREEEEE), people who get annoyed when his loose dog rudely barrels into theirs and starts jumping on the dog and biting his neck (but he just wants to play!), people with labradors and border collie mixes (yes...he insulted BC mixes...wtf?) because apparently we're stiffs.

5. His dog is afraid of him. I don't think he started out that way, but he became nervous around him. And instead of trying to bond with him, he just kept carrying on the way he was somehow expecting the dog to change. You know when he did start to bond with him? When he was forced, due to Ollie's being hit, to walk him on leash for 3 months. Gee what a surprise.

So all together, this was NOT an enjoyable book.