A Good Dog

June 26, 2006
Barking, lunging and nipping at visitors, terrorizing school buses and crashing through a window screen to pursue a cat in a neighbor's house, the hero of this absorbing, if melodramatic, memoir hardly seems a good dog. But Orson's fangs are firmly set in the heart of dog journalist Katz (The Dogs of Bedlam Farm
), who tries everything to soothe his frenzy—acupuncture, chiropractic, "Shen calming herbs from China," sessions with a "shamanic soul retriever"—then moves to a farm where the border collie's native sheep-herding instincts might flourish. Ultimately, the therapeutic benefit accrues to the author, who finds in Orson a "soul mate" who saved him from mid-life crisis in the New Jersey suburbs and brought him to an ecstatic communion with nature. Katz's flagrant anthropomorphizing and his intense emotional involvement ("I was nearly crying with frustration, torn by my growing love for this dog") and heart-to-hearts with Orson ("e can't go on this way," he sobs after a school-bus incident) will resonate with dog lovers, while perhaps puzzling others. When he Katz gets some psychological distance, though, his subtle, evocative descriptions of the beasts around him—including Rose, another border collie whose brilliant herding steals the show—vividly capture the fascinating, enigmatic lives of animals. Photos.

September 1, 2006
Readers of Katz's "A Dog Year" and "The Dogs of Bedlam Farm" will already be familiar with the lovable, lunatic border collie named Orson. Katz buys a farm in upstate New York and acquires a flock of sheep, hoping to calm Orson and redirect his energies by training him in sheep herding. But Orson doesn't perform well at his task and instead becomes Katz's protector, occasionally nipping at farm visitors. -Alternative - methods of domestication -e.g., acupuncture, chiropractics, herbs, and sessions with a shamanic soul retriever -aren't enough to prevent Orson's biting, and ultimately, Katz is forced to make a heart-wrenching decision. His devotion to Orson shines throughout; in turn, Orson helps Katz appreciate sunsets and star gazing. Not as humorous as John Grogan's "Marley and Me", this loving tribute to that once-in-a-lifetime dog, with reflections also on the other animal residents of Bedlam Farm, is highly recommended for dog lovers. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 6/1/06.]" -Eva Lautemann, Georgia Perimeter Coll. Lib., Clarkston "

Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2006
Katz's previous books have detailed his life with dogs (" A Dog Year, " 2002, and" The Dogs of Bedlam Farm" , 2004), the place of dogs in modern society (" The New Work of Dogs" , 2003), and what dogs have taught him (" Katz on Dogs, " 2005). When he first laid eyes on highly intelligent but anxious Orson the border collie, he watched as the dog streaked through the Newark airport upon being released from his shipping crate. Under Orson's influence, the author moved from suburban New Jersey to a farm in New York and began a new life of dog training, sheepherding, and writing. Orson was Katz's "lifetime dog," the one he felt a powerful, life-changing connection with--but Orson was a difficult dog. In a lyrical series of vignettes, the author writes of his working border collie, Rose (the personality opposite of Orson); the rooster, Winston; sheep; donkeys; and the impossible Orson, whom Katz thought was destined to work sheep but whose work became the author. This is a lovely memoir. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)