Good Read

Marley & Me: Love and Life with the World's Worst Dog by John Grogan

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
As the proud owner of 2 of the best labs ever I could really relate to this book as far as the process of getting them to be great dogs goes. We got bone 9 years ago and Barkley shortly after. When we first got Bone, who is a yellow lab like Marley, he was about as wild as a dog can get! In fact, he was 9 months old when he came to live with us after first being owned be my sister. She had 2 babies at the time and he would run them over in excitement any time they attempted to enter the back yard. So, we inherited him. This was before we had kids, so we had the patience to deal with his exuberance. I could completely remember all the walks, trips to ponds for swim time, and endless ball throwing, In fact, we had a path of bare grass in our yard that stretch into the neighbor's from all the games of fetch. He was never really a chewer, but he LOVED to dig. Dig under the fences or just dig for the pleasure of it he didn't care. He is also extremely neurotic. When we first got him he was terrified of our wood floors. We had to put down towels for him to walk on just to get him to his food. He is also very claustrophobic. We invested in an igloo shaped dog house that he never entered even when bribed with steak scraps. To this day he wont even walk between the vacuum cleaner and say a chair for instance. Of the 3 times he has ever ridden in the back of my husband's truck he jumped out all 3 times. He also has seizures when he gets scared. And Marley's thunderstorm phobia is also familiar territory for us. One year we went to a Labor Day fireworks show and as we were looking for a spot to spread out our blanket the first ones popped off. Bone literally dragged me into a crowd of seated onlookers!



Contrast all that with Barkley who is the mellowist dog ever made. I don't even remember having to house break her, she just knew not to go inside. She has never torn anything up, and the only holes she has ever dug were to stay cool in the summer. By the time she was just a few months old we didn't even have to put a leash on her. Bone's "choker" had dull spikes all the way around it that would press into his flesh when he strained the leash. Did that stop him? No way! Now, I will say Barkley's one flaw is her incredible stench. That dog can clear a room with one fart!



So, I am grateful to this book for reminding me of how much I love my dogs. We are now busy with 3 kids(who the dogs are beyond gentle and forgiving with), and since the dogs are old and content now it's easy to just leave them hanging out in the back yard during the day. I am now determined to show them how much I love them. Thank you Mr. Grogan! Can't wait to see the movie!


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