Book Review: How to Have a Very Bad Dog

This book was given to me as a gift and I imagine that's how most people acquire their copy of How to Have a Very Bad Dog: 8 Proven Methods To Help You Raise and Ruin Your Pooch Deliberately and With Skill. Knock Knock is a publisher of witty books on various subjects and that is how I would describe this book's intention; witty.

You'd expect this book to be filled with humorous cartoons, funny stories and crazy lists for how to have a very bad dog. A fun read to pass the time over a few lazy hours perhaps? However...

The book is very light on cartoons, limiting them to chapter beginning splash pages, drawn in a fairly static style, suited more to subject matter of a more serious nature.

There is the occasional funny anecdote and witty one liner on dog behaviour from well known celebrities but these are so sparse they become a welcome break from the instructional tone of the majority of the content.

How to Have a Very Bad Dog reads exactly like an instructional manual for how to have a very bad dog. If you actually tried the methods described you would indeed end up with a dog with very poor behaviour.

For example, the book helps you choose the right breed of dog to ensure you elicit bad behaviour. If you have a small apartment buy a big dog that requires plenty of exercise. It's funny because it's true doesn't exactly apply. It's just true. You would be off to a good start if you followed that advice.

Much of this book is like that. Real advice that would actually work. So much so that, what I took away from reading it, was recognizing things that I might be doing that are causing my own dogs to behave in less desirable ways.

You could easily retitle the book to something like Why Your Dog is Behaving Badly and sell it as a self help guide to correcting bad behaviour in dogs. A book that shows you what not to do if you don't want a living nightmare for a dog.

As a gift, I enjoyed receiving this book. The title promises a humorous read and I'm sure any dog lover would get a laugh from the title alone. I certainly did.

Once you start reading though, it really is a manual on how to have a very bad dog. The methods don't come across as particularly humorous. You may even recognize some of the techniques as things you're actually doing yourself, not realizing it's encouraging bad behaviour.

It's a book that's trying to be funny because it's true. As I said earlier, it doesn't really succeed because it comes across as just true. There's nothing outlandishly funny or so crazily extreme that you would never consider trying it, and no parody that is rediculously, laugh out loud silly. It's all practical advice that would probably work.

On that level, you'd only buy How to Have a Very Bad Dog as a gift for the comedy value of the title alone. It's not the type of book that I can see anyone re-reading to revist some great, slap stick, dog humor. Seems a bit of a missed opportunity in that regard.

How to Transfer Any Line Art to Your Griptape - Easy Skateboard Griptape Art Tutorial

Dog Star Griptape Art by TET Griptape art is once again gaining popularity amongst modern skateboarders. For those of us who have tried to create our own griptape art, using paint pens, you'll know reproducing your design onto the grip, without making any mistakes is incredibly challenging. Mostly because you just have to go for it and draw the design freehand, with paint pens, directly onto the griptape. You can make the odd mistake here or there but if you get the proportions of the design completely wrong, it can be very difficult to fix. Often you just have to live with the mistake. To address the problem I've come up with an easy way anyone can transfer a line art design to their griptape, removing almost all the anxiety of getting the proportions wrong. In fact, you could do this with any line art design, even if you have no drawing skill at all. Watch the video below to see my technique in action and/or skip past the video where I highlight the basic steps to get your de

Skateboard Trick Tips: Two Ways to Ollie North (Ollie One foot)

You have to be quick to see my Ollie Norths! Ollie One Foots, otherwise known as the Ollie North, is one of those skateboard tricks you learn and then tend not to do very much as more interesting trick challenges grab your attention. However it does look really cool if you learn how to kick your front foot well past the nose of your skateboard. Still shot from Braille Skateboarding's Ollie North tutorial. I was inspired to make my video below, showing two different techniques to achieve a successful Ollie One Foot, when I not only saw that Braille Skateboarding's Tutorial used a different method to the one I had learned but also, when I looked at various other video tutorials, I discovered yet another technique, with no one using the method I had originally learned. Braille's method is to simply Ollie and drag your front foot past the front of your board. The second method I came across in several video tutorials is to Ollie, drag your front foot and tap your

The History of Electric Cars and How Car Manufacturers and Oil Companies Have Manipulated You Against Them

The 1990 GM Impact electric concept car Image source - Wikipedia: Fair use , Link For as long as I can remember maintaining a car is more of an inconvenience and unexpectedly expensive. Particularly keeping the engine maintained. Not to mention having to actually drive to a service station to make sure you have enough fuel to go to wherever you're going. How many of us wait until the fuel gauge is showing nearly empty before filling up? If you could have a car that is extremely low maintenance, low cost to run, and you could fuel up at home whenever you wanted, you would right? That's pretty much what an electric vehicle offers but so many people are strongly against these vehicles? Did you know that electric vehicles (EVs) have been around since 1884? Not only that but also EVs dominated the roads over gasoline powered cars before said cars became quieter and easier to operate? Did you also know that there was an EV revolution (almost) in the mid 1990s with GM releasing the E

Is AI Art 'Art'? The Say NO to AI Art Movement, and Why Human Artists Will Adapt

AI Art No T-Shirt by TET Also available on other items . Right now there is a big debate over not just whether AI art is 'art' but whether AI's are actually ripping off the work of actual human artists, without their consent, to create their images - particularly images 'in the style of' specific artists. From my own observations this debate started to get more traction when artist's signatures began appearing in the output of AI Art image generators. Is It Art? Cool Froyd the Cat Sketch by TET. My style is very much influenced by classic Disney and WB character styles. To get some clarity on how real human artists work (of which I am one)... we, that is all of us... take influences from the art that has come before. i.e. whatever artists we like, have studied, seen etc. we are influenced by. It shows up in our work, intentionally or not. If you really study my own cartoony art style you'll see I'm heavily influenced by early Disney and Warner Bros cart

Movie Review: Avatar 2 - The Way of Water (2022) Spoiler Free

To be honest I didn't think, after so many years, a second Avatar movie would have anywhere near the success of the first film. However, at the time of writing this review, Avatar 2 - The Way of Water had already made a billion dollars at the box office in just 12 days. As much as the first film has become a little bit of a joke - mostly just for how long it has taken to get a sequel - people did enjoy that movie and Avatar 2, I feel, is a better experience. It's easily of the same quality visually but also, there's more story and characters to invest in. Not to mention the additional world building. Avatar 2 picks up several years after the first movie. Jake Sully now has a young family on Pandora who he is forced to protect when a familiar threat returns to the extrasolar moon. While the broad themes and plot are not that different from the first movie, within that there are interesting sub stories of family, fathers, being different, and revenge. All of which is balance

Review: FP Footwear FINO Skate Shoes

FP Footwear FINO Skate Shoes I first saw FP's FINO skate shoes in a video by YouTube channel, Braille Skateboarding, titled, THE FIRST EVER NON NEWTONIAN FLUID SKATE SHOES!? As someone whose feet hurt and bruise relatively easily just from the basic tricks of skateboarding (Ollies, Pop Shuv-its etc.) the 90% absorption of impact energy selling point seemed like an ideal solution for minimizing my injuries. A day later I placed an order through FP's website . Ordinarily I wouldn't mention Customer Service but I can't let the lack of communication on my order slide. FP's website says to expect delivery within 7-14 days of your order. After close to two weeks, my order was still marked as being processed. I sent an email asking for any kind of update, to no response. A day or two later my order was marked as completed but still no signs of shoes in my mail? About two weeks later (just over a full month of placing my order) the shoes arrived. I'm sur

One Week on Light n' Easy #lightneasy

My partner, Enigma, and I recently decided to try Light n' Easy to replace all our daily meals in an effort to eat healthier (and not have to think at all about cooking evening meals). Enigma is about to embark on her third week of their full menu but I caved after one and opted just to get the dinners.

TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

Search This Blog