Oogy: The Dog Only a Family Could Love Book

Sweet story, but not a great book.

Author spends way too much time in the first half of the book talking in far too great detail about things other than the dog on the cover. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind hearing about the author's children a bit, but it quickly got tedious and dull. I really don't read books about dogs to find out how you put a child's car-seat in your vehicle.
Also, I get what the author was going for with the first chapter, showing his morning routine with Oogy and his family, but it suffered from far too much detail. Overall, I found the writing to be pretty sub-par. I had the urge to skim the text frequently.

Most of the book does concentrate on the story of Oogy, which was interesting enough, though little of the author's thoughts seemed all that new to me. And it was very frustrating to read about the author making so many mistakes raising his dog...without every acknowledging most of them. He came off as a complete canine newbie (who is barely any more educated by the end of the book.)
But it all turned out okay, so I'm not pulling my hair out TOO much.

Still, I cannot stand the idea that the author seems to be operating under: that there is no other way to raise a dog besides either with "fear, pain, and deprivation" (which he equates with the concept of "discipline," showing his unnuanced and wrong-headed education on the subject) or, as the author does, to give the dog no discipline, no boundaries, and pretty much let the dog run roughshod over the house and almost constantly dictate the behavior of the human part of the family.

I also found it utterly frustrating that after Oogy "slips his collar" and runs off the author apparently doesn't ever change to one of the styles of collar a dog can't slip free from, because a few chapters later the dog has slipped free again! This seems utterly stupid to me. And it isn't so small a thing: unless your dog is trained to without fail freeze on command, slipping loose can be very dangerous in a city full of cars, people who steal dogs, and people who fear any "pit bull looking" dog and can't read canine body language, and might (esp. without the dog's owner present) misinterpret an overexcited friendly dog as an aggressive one. --A type, sadly, that so many people the author talks about throughout the book seem to be. Thankfully, they also happened to be the unarmed type.

It was, however, very cool to read about a breed I had never heard of before, and Oogy does seem like a very cool dog.
There are also parts of this book, where the author talks about public life with a dog perceived to be a pit bull, that I found affecting. I'm not new to the level of prejudice and ignorance that people have about this breed, but this was a fairly depressing reminder.

So if you like this sort of book it's worth a read...if you've already read the other, better books (for one amazing book, I recommend Last Dog on the Hill: The Extraordinary Life of Lou by Steve Duno) in the "dog story" genre. I'm glad I checked this out from the library; it isn't a one to buy.