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What the Dog Did: Tales from a Formerly Reluctant Dog Owner
 
 
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What the Dog Did: Tales from a Formerly Reluctant Dog Owner (Paperback)

~ (Author) "The lowest point in my transformation into a dog person came one drizzly night at eleven P.M., three months after we got our beagle, Sasha..." (more)
Key Phrases: dog ownership, West Virginia, Beagle Brigade, Los Angeles (more...)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (53 customer reviews)
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Frequently Bought Together

What the Dog Did: Tales from a Formerly Reluctant Dog Owner + Woman's Best Friend: Women Writers on the Dogs in Their Lives + The Dogs Who Found Me: What I've Learned from Pets Who Were Left Behind
Price For All Three: $30.70

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  • This item: What the Dog Did: Tales from a Formerly Reluctant Dog Owner by Emily Yoffe

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Journalist Yoffe recalls her entry into urban dog ownership—a life experience this former "cat person" thought she could avoid—in this witty memoir. Yielding to immense pressure from her husband and young daughter, Yoffe finds herself the main caretaker of a rather high-maintenance, rescued beagle, Sasha. Like most books in the pet genre, this one is cute; unlike many, it's not precious. Yoffe relates amusing tales of bodily functions gone awry and house-training incidents (beagles are notorious for having difficulty in this area), as well as vivid recollections of Sasha's behavioral training. She also includes tidbits from people she's met at dog classes and competitions. "[A]lmost everyone I knew with a dog had a story. Maybe companionship and someone to lick your feet isn't what really motivates people to have dogs. Maybe being able to tell dog stories is." Yoffe fleshes out her anecdotes with fun facts about canines, on such things as the evolution from wolf to dog and the fatality of a dog bite. Not surprisingly, Yoffe eventually becomes a true dog lover, and Sasha becomes just the first in a series of beagle orphans to traipse through the author's home.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.


Review

“Laugh-out-loud funny.”—O: The Oprah Magazine

“Yoffe chronicles her gradual conversion to full-blown dog lover with amusing and frustrating episodes of doggie care.”—Washington Post

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Product Details

  • Paperback: 258 pages
  • Publisher: Bloomsbury USA (June 13, 2006)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1582345651
  • ISBN-13: 978-1582345659
  • Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (53 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #341,221 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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More About the Author

Emily Yoffe
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› Visit Amazon's Emily Yoffe Page
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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First Sentence:
The lowest point in my transformation into a dog person came one drizzly night at eleven P.M., three months after we got our beagle, Sasha. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
dog ownership
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
West Virginia, Beagle Brigade, Los Angeles, United States, Here's Annie, Homeland Security, Loire Valley, The International Encyclopedia of Dogs
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Customer Reviews

53 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (53 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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39 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Review from an enthusiastic dog owner, January 29, 2006
By J. Lewis "ratdoc001" (Sunnyvale, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: What the Dog Did: Tales from a Formerly Reluctant Dog Owner (Hardcover)
Emily Yoffe is an incredibly funny writer. Her tales of adventure/misadventure with her beagle had me laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes and had to clutch my belly in pain. I read this book on a plane flight and the person in the next seat surely thought I was out of my mind. It's not solely the hijinx of the beagle that are funny but the writer's thoughts and her descriptions of her life and actions that remind me of what it was like to be a new dog owner. Some of the other reviews that rated the book poorly picked out certain anecdotes in the book that the reviewers didn't find funny but I think if you read it with a light heart and memories of your first dog, anyone else will find it incredibly entertaining and hysterically funny too.
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22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Jeez, get a sense of humor, April 14, 2006
This review is from: What the Dog Did: Tales from a Formerly Reluctant Dog Owner (Hardcover)
This was by no means a perfect book. Ms. Yoffe's writing pace drags at times through tedious mawkishness over this or that adorable or precious thing that her perpetually incontinent dog has done. The book reads as I'm sure it was intended to - as a coffee table discussion among friends trading anecdotes over the things our pets do that are perplexing, hilarious, strangely human. For me, as a recent first time dog owner the story hits more often than misses. There are dozens of 'drop the book laughing' moments where I either see myself as the same sort of clueless pet owner as she or thank God above I don't have as high maintenance an animal as a beagle in my care. We're all human. We don't have it all figured out. As American humans, we most often don't even care to figure it all out before leaping into life changing situations much to our personal detriment. C'est la vie. Somehow, both we and our pets mostly find a way to soldier on despite our utter lack of competence at living life perfectly. This book's best quality is to show us our own ridiculous behavior in the context of funny dog stories and then smile at it. It's not War and Peace, folks. Just a funny book about being a dog owner. Take a breath and don't flame the funny dog story telling lady.
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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A hilarious and touching read for dog lovers, October 2, 2005
By loves2read (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
This review is from: What the Dog Did: Tales from a Formerly Reluctant Dog Owner (Hardcover)
I absolutely loved this book! Anyone who has gone through the trials and tribulations of of dog ownership (espcially when cats are part of the family) will truly appreciate Yoffe's sense of humor. If you own, or are planning on owing, a dog you must read this book.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars What the Dog Did, Tales From a Formerly Reluctant Dog Owner
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