Bad Dog

Starred review from April 4, 2011
Kihn, a television writer turned management consultant, recovering alcoholic, and dog lover, shows how healing can come from the most unlikely of sources. He introduces us to the overzealous and energetic Hola, his five-year-old Bernese mountain dog who greets friends and strangers alike with full-body slams, chases buses, terrifies her family, and has the distinction of being expelled from two obedience schools. When we meet Kihn, he's doing no better. An out-of-shape, deeply in debt alcoholic, Kihn is on the verge of separating from his wife. He trades his need for booze for a need for Hola to win a Canine Good Citizen rating in the hopes of convincing his wife that both master and pooch are deserving of forgiveness and another chance. As Kihn struggles to stay sober, Hola's training becomes a lifelineâand a clue to his recovery: he comes to realize his wayward dog is actually very intelligent; he's been her greatest obstacle all along as his anxiety has been causing her to act out. This wry memoir of the human-dog bond is one that eschews the usual treacly sentimentality in favor of a raw, deeply sincere, and self-aware homage to this powerful bond.

January 15, 2011

A recovering alcoholic finds redemption in the training of his 90-pound mountain dog.

Kihn (A$$hole: How I Got Rich and Happy By Not Giving a Damn About Anyone, 2008, etc.) recalls hazily "swimming in moonshine" when his wife Gloria announced she wanted a puppy. His incremental descent into alcoholism, intensified by volatile behavior and frequent absences from their Manhattan home, spurred Gloria to seek a "a friend in the house for a change." So she bought Hola, an expensive female Bernese mountain dog from a nearby breeder. What was initially a squirming, adorably fuzzy ball of tri-colored fur grew into a muscular, lumbering animal "bred to pull carts up steep Swiss mountains." Hola's aggressive shredding of paperback books and bed-hogging would become the least of Kihn's problems, however. The author painfully describes life at the bottom of his downward spiral in striking detail: desperately chugging whole bottles of mouthwash while hiding in sidewalk telephone booths, sneaking shots of vodka in the bathroom at the break of dawn and passing out on the floor while Hola tried to rouse him with her paws. Yet his love for both Gloria and Hola was enough incentive to galvanize him to attend early-morning Alcoholic Anonymous meetings. Gloria, he writes, grew to become the family enemy. Exasperated with Hola's threatening attacks and Kihn's erratic, irresponsible behavior, she retreated to their vacation house in the Catskills. The author's solution involved obedience training for unmanageable Hola and the inspired, passive-dominance process toward achieving a Canine Good Citizen certification from the American Kennel Club. That, alongside reconcilement with Gloria and an honest, clean and sober life made him whole. Memories of the writer's upbringing and photographs of Hola further leaven this bittersweet tale of renewal.

An endearing read full of hope, humor and humility.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

November 15, 2010

Marley has nothing on Hola, possibly a Bernese Mountain dog but definitely out of control. After all, overdrinker Kihn was himself out of control when he got her, failing to train her not to chase Volvos and drug dealers in his Washington Heights, NY, neighborhood. But then his wife left, and Kihn decided to straighten himself out--by getting involved in competitive dog training. A story about recovery (and about a dog who loves cheesecake), this reportedly sharp and acidulous mix of Cesar Millan and Augusten Burroughs should have an audience beyond dog folks.

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2011
Hola is a Bernese mountain dog, the George Clooney of dogs, according to Kihns sister-in-law. Kihns wife, Gloria, had always wanted a dog and talked him into getting a puppy during the period that he was, as he so poetically says, swimming in moonshine. When the breeder didnt show them the puppys temperament test, they should have seen a red flag, but Hola came home to New York and an alcoholic. Just after he sobered up, Kihn discovered Gloria pinned to the wall by the dog theyd got to be her friend. Then she left. Shocked into a new kind of sobriety, Kihn decided to work Hola into shape to pass the AKCs Canine Good Citizen test and, in the process, win Gloria back. In wonderfully acerbic style, Kihn takes us through recovering from alcoholism and training for the CGC test. The awkwardness of phone calls to Gloria, holed up in the Catskills, dovetails with the awkwardness of teaching himself to train Hola. Before the end, readers will be rooting for him and Hola.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)