This is a short collection of cute stories about dogs that Brian Kilcommons and Sarah Wilson have worked with over the years. For those hoping for insights into training and caring for their own dogs, there's really not much here.

The most significant bits for me was Kilcommons' story about his childhood dog, Irish, and his relationship with his father, and then story about working with another famous dog trainer, Barbara Woodhouse. I met Kilcommons several years ago, when I attended one of his seminars with my dog, Addy. I found him to be incredibly good with the dogs, but his people skills were not so much awful as simply non-existent. It turns out he knows this about himself. His father was so routinely physically and verbally abusive, with son Brian as his favored target, that as an adult, if he wasn't using mean words, he didn't think he was being mean no matter what his tone and body language was. One of the things that helped him realize there was a problem was working as an assistant to Woodhouse--another trainer famous for great dog skills and lousy people skills--when she was touring the US, acting as the buffer for her. Those two sections are well worth reading, or listening to.

Overall, it's pleasant light read, the literary equivalent of empty calories.

I borrowed this book from a friend. ( )

A collection of brief stories from the lives of two renowned dog trainers. Mostly about experiences in training dogs and teaching people how to properly handle their dogs. These are wealthy clientele, as the authors lived and worked in New York. They also had a training center or kennel in a rural area of New York state, and there are a few stories from early days in vet school as well. (The stories are not arranged chronologically and sometimes I was left confused at the setting or context- a bit more could have been explained). In spite of their brevity, the anecdotes were all fairly interesting and informative. Some funny, others sad. Most of all what shines through these stories is the authors' skill in working with dogs, and their patience with foolish, ignorant or cruel owners- they always try to help and educate people when it would often be easy to express anger or ridicule.

These authors have worked with Roger Caras (they named one of their dogs after him) an animal expert and author I read widely in my teen years. Caras is just mentioned briefly here (perhaps he didn't want stories about himself in someone else's book.) They have also worked with Barbara Woodhouse while using dogs in films for television- and it was really interesting to see through someone else's eyes this woman's methods and personality.

from the Dogear Diary ( )