Customer Reviews

Dog World: And the Humans Who Live There

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4 star:		(1)
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Alfred Gingold's book is a must read for anyone who has a dog, lives near a dog or encounters a dog from time to time. Dog World weighs the joys of owning a dog with the cold hard facts one never shares in polite company - ie, the bigger the dog, the bigger the pile. (The etiquette lesson on bags is worth it alone!) Gingold shares with the reader everything about life with a dog that he / she may have suspected or experienced and then, through what clearly was a copious amount of research, boils it down into amusing bits and helpful bits. It is a rare treat to read a book about a dog and his owner which is not the usual treacly fare. Instead, as a recent dog convert, Gingold answers all those questions that people have wondered (who are those people at the Westminster Dog Show wearing the camo-Dachsund sweatshirts?) Though set in NYC, the fact remains that dogs and their owners are the same everywhere, and Dog World is a fabulous and funny way to find out what they (dogs and their owners) actually do all day.

Alfred Gingold's great gift -- on vivid display here -- is to find the exact mix of the serious and the funny. Dogs mean a lot to people and yet there's something goofy about otherwise rational adults devoting enormous amounts of time and energy to the welfare of their four-legged little friends. This book is an attempt to figure out just why that should be so, and also why the author is so thoroughly smitten with George, the Norfolk terrier he and his family live with. To read this book is to watch an inquiring mind try to figure out small questions that become larger existential ones -- and all with the humor he's well known for. I have the good luck to know the author and also the pleasure of knowing George. Anyone who reads this book will come to know them both and a good deal more -- about dogs and the world.

David Freeman

Hair or fur? Lead or leash? Labrahuahua! - what and why? These are just some of the topics covered in this enchanting book, in which the author invites us to accompany him and his family in their big new adventure - becoming dog owners. With erudition, wit, good humor and affection, Alfred Gingold explores the hitherto unknown world of dogs and the people who own and love them.

This book will appeal to dog owners and non-owners alike. It is funny, knowledgable, occasionally controversial and a delight to browse through or devour at a single sitting. Having been a cat person all my life, I just might have to reconsider!

Alfred Gingold's Dog World is not only for dog lovers--though they will surely love the insights, descriptions, and stories in this book. But while writing so wittily and warmly about the dogs he comes across in his daily walkies and poop scooping, Gingold manages also to make this a book about people--family, friends, artists, breeders, trainers, dog owners, and the long-suffering UPS man.

This book actually makes me want to own a dog--a dog who likes to shower? a dog who looks like a teddy bear--how bad can that be? But I may have to settle for looking longingly and with newly-educated eyes at the dogs patrolling my neighborhood. Anyway, it's a warm, charming, witty, AND informative book. Just right to curl up with on a cold winter evening.

Being a cat person, I was doubly embarrassed to find myself laughing aloud on public transport (that's one part of "doubly")while holding a book that featured on its cover the enlarged face of a winsome sausage dog(that's the other). Mr. Gingold, a professional humorist but until recently an amateur when it comes to dog-ownership, invites readers to share his first canine acquisition, his introduction to the world of Brooklyn dog owners and the wide world of all things doggish--toys, food, breeding and destruction of personal property. He offers a winning mix of ignorance, curiosity and silliness, teaching the reader as he learns and delighting in many an entertaining digression. It's like walkies for the skull and the funny bone without the pee or steaming piles. Unlike many humorists who wallow in schtick and facetiousness, Mr. Gingold brings wit and schtick into fine balance with info and esoterica, maintaining a light touch even with statistical drivel--by which you may assume that I regard all statistics as drivel, not that I feel Mr. Gingold reduces, or raises, statistics to drivel. My favorite factoid: how useful for poop containment is the blue plastic bag in which the New York Times is delivered (and for those drawn to analogies, honi soit qui mal y pense). But I was sorry the author failed to explain why dogs aren't trained to poop directly into plastic bags, or into small portable toilets that could, without much adjustment, double as headgear for their owners during walkies. Altogether, "Dog World" is a delight, and I wish the author much success.

Alfred Gingold's entry into the world of dogs and the people who serve them is hilarious. Even though his world is New York City(Brooklyn in particular), any dog owner can relate to the milieu that is the relationship that is uniquely defined by these pets and their people. Anyone who has had, or has, or wants a dog will be well served as well as amused by this delightful book.

This is one of the few books out there that can make me laugh out loud. Not only is this an amusing look at "doggie" folks (yes, I am one) it is also an insightful peek at human nature and how it tranforms for better or worse when we join a 4-legged pack. Enjoyable read for anyone who loves their dog as much or more than some 2-legged family members.

I suppose you should try reading this book, if you've had it with people and their dogs. Something like taking the allergy shots that your local MD tells you you need, maybe it'll work, maybe not. At least Mr. Gingold's services don't cost thousands and tens of thousands of dollars, with needles and dead-faced medical staff to boot.

As the professional review above states, wrongly: there are people who don't own dogs, and people who are citizens of "dog world"; in fact, all of us inhabit "Dog World", since dog people are frequently as considerate of people who aren't dog people as boomcar enthusiasts are of everybody else.

I'd have to remark, though, in re dog people plastic-bagging their pooch's offal: around here, with leash laws that are actually enforced, you'd need a third arm or a prehensile tail to do the job: how do you talk on a cell phone, hold the leash AND pick up dog---t? So, once again, better watch where you walk and hose off your shoes before you go indoors.

I breed, own, exhibit and am licensed to judge Norfolk Terriers. There are countless Norfolk-related knick-knacks and books strewn around my house. So when I heard that there was a new book about the "Dog World" with a Norfolk terrier as the protagonist, well, I made a beeline to the bookstore. Unfortunately my enthusiasm proved to be short-lived. Whereas I expected a Tom Wolfe with humor approach to things canine instead I was given a collection of fascicles that sound as if Woody Allen penned them. I checked with some of my fellow Norfolk terrier breeders for their reaction to the book. The consensus was that the book was a disappointment, boring. I agree but also found it irritating at times, particularly when Gingold infuses his political beliefs unnecessarily. For example, when describing his dog's breeder the author relates "She said we were the first liberals she'd ever sold a dog to .... I simply can't believe how a person of Kay's evident intelligence and integrity can believe some of the things she believes, much less support the pols she supports". Come again? If that's not enough Gingold is constantly reassuring the reader, and perhaps himself, that he is Bohemian. Possibly the author feels a bit of angst over owning a breed that the Centurian, a magazine that caters to American Express Black Card clientele, calls the most tony of them all.

There is no doubt that the author has done his homework. The book is filled with canine incunabula on a wide variety of topics. The author frequently cites statistics or information ostensibly obtained from reliable sources. Many times he's accurate (there were 293 Norfolk Terriers registered in the US in 2003) but sometimes he's not (the word "stout" in the breed description does not infer that dogs should be on the robust side). However there are no egregious errors. But Gingold's unseemly attention to the minutia of canine feces and testicles is neither interesting nor funny.

Gingold picks on soft targets such as the American Kennel Club and purebred dog breeders. Anyone can easily ridicule those entities but it is far more interesting not to mention honest to take full measure of both good and bad. For example, the author trivializes breed clubs' efforts to promote rescue of abused animals as "very nice but hardly urgent". When dogs of your particular breed start showing up in shelters it is indeed urgent.

The Dog World is a colorful tableau from which to draw. However Gingold doesn't even give us shades of grayscale. I would have at least settled for black & white. Until the final 30 pages all we get is a dark monochrome of almost ceaseless barbs. If one is interested in combing the essence of the Dog World I suggest they consider Living with Dogs by Laurence Sheehan instead. The book is more sumptuous, balanced, and practically devoid of material on dogs' testicles.