Book-A Good Dog

I am so conflicted about this book. There is much to like about it, especially the first half, that it is hard to reconcile it with the events of the second half.

A Good Dog, by Jon Katz, is a book that leaves me conflicted because the author himself has so many unresolved and inconsistent feelings in the book, that it feels bi-polar. Chronicling the true story of his relationship with an off-kilter border collie, Orson, Katz tells how he tries everything to keep Orson in line. Orson goes after school buses, even holding on to tires in his mouth as they keep turning, thumping him on the ground.

This is only one of Orson's behavioral problems, he has many, but Katz loves this dog so much, he tries almost anything, he says, to make it work. He buys a big farmhouse in the country, he takes Orson to New Age vets and shamans. But he can't buy a security screen that locks and has metal in it to keep Orson inside? WTF? He can't get a "Beware of Dog" sign and warn people to not reach out to Orson? That somehow seems beyond him.

I will tell you the ending, and get it over with. Orson bites some people, one a young boy. Katz has him put down. I do not disagree with his decision at that point...my problem is, Katz should have done a LOT more to keep it from getting there.

This is a dog that transforms his life. A dog that he says is his once in a lifetime dog. And he can't do more to help Orson keep from getting into messes?

I was disappointed in the book, in the true story. This man who says he understands dogs, just does not seem to. Hell, he does not even understand himself very well, as is evidenced too much in the book. Orson was good dog, and he should have had a better owner.