Llew's Reviews

After finding myself telling the new puppy, “Just wait until the pack leader gets home!” I decided I needed to study up on The Dog Whisperer’s method rather than just relying on Ben to know what to do. This book is fantastic, and about 75% of it I would have never gotten on my own. It’s just not intuitive to me as a human. I have decided to ignore all the conflicting instructions from the other dog training books, and to just follow Cesar Millan’s method of being a calm assertive pack leader.

The first half is Cesar’s own story which is part inspiring and part heartbreaking. Although I’ve watched his show for a few months now, I didn’t know he had illegally crossed the border and was homeless when he first arrived here in America. Nor did I know that this great insightful man’s wife left him because he was a complete ass to be married to. Here I had been thinking that he must be a dream husband with all of his knowledge and inherent gift to relate to and deal with others. (Evidently, after his wife set “rules, boundaries, and limitations” – just how an owner is supposed to do with their dog – he was able to fix his problems and they have a very good marriage currently.)

The last part of the book is what I really needed to know which is about the actual dog psychology. Unfortunately, I needed to know it a week ago. Who knew I wasn’t supposed to show ANY affection toward the new puppy until he lived with me for a couple of weeks? Whoops. Also, I realize now that I introduced the new puppy into the house the wrong way, and all sorts of other blunders. Thankfully, I can still correct it and at least know what to do from now on. Whew.

Soon it will be me you’ll see careening down the street on rollerblades while being pulled by a pack of my dogs. Awesome.

Guess who got a new puppy? Guess whose new puppy is not housetrained?

As far as how correct the information found in this work is, I guess I won’t really form my opinion about it until about a week from now. I can tell you now that for a “classic” on the subject this is a rather poorly written book. The entire guide is basically the same two paragraphs repeated incessantly. Sometimes, it’s rewritten so it says the same thing in a different way but frequently there’s the same exact set of sentences written over and over. Plus, the style leaves much to be desired. I’m not expecting Proust when it comes to how to housebreak a dog but the tales of how Miffy “stunk to high heaven” were too much like being pinned against my front door as my neighbor corners me about her own tales of woe about housebreaking her little Miff-Miff. By the end, I was just surprised that the phrase “bless her heart” wasn’t tacked on the end of these little “examples”.

Yeah, I read it two years after everyone else but as this novel teaches: Time is completely irrelevant. Unless you’re popping into a place where hunters like to go.

Then … Well, you’re in some trouble boy.

First, I would like to say that if my husband made me type up the manuscript of his novel about how he had an affair with a much younger woman, I would freaking bludgeon him with the typewriter.

Second, Mishima certainly was much better at the HOT Japanese lesbian action. The lesbian happenings in this novel were kind of creepy. And by kind of, I mean if I lived in Japan I’d never leave my house.

Third, I was detailing the plot to Ben and I realized that this story is one big Japanese soap opera. Seriously, it’s crazy!