A compassionate, brief-interval method for training dogs.
Mitchell draws on his decades of experience as a dog trainer to simplify the process in this guide.
The author distills his dog-training program down to a handful of basics: sit, stay, and come. In his years of doing one-on-one, in-home dog training, Mitchell frequently heard from clients that they hadn’t done the “homework” he’d assigned them because they didn’t have the time. He then developed a process in which basic dog-training could be done in very short sessions (the author’s idea of “micro sessions” amounts to an incremental training program). In brief, colorfully illustrated chapters full of engaging graphics and bulleted text, Mitchell takes the reader through his program. He broadens his advice to include many training-adjacent subjects, like dog cognition, leash training, nipping and biting, and even the nuances of picking the right food. The book is full of color photos illustrating the positions—dog’s and human’s—that Mitchell has found to generate the best results when teaching dogs skills like waiting unrestrained to go outside (or leave the car) and remaining composed instead of jumping up on strangers. Mitchell writes with energy and a good deal of empathy. The foremost strength of the book lies in the inherent compassion underlying all of these micro sessions of training—the assumption (running throughout the book) that dogs are separate, complex beings, far more intelligent and intuitive than most humans give them credit for being (“Like us, each dog has a one-of-a-kind personality. And with it comes a unique way of understanding the world”). Most of the training advice is the kind of self-evident counsel included in many dog-training books: pay attention to your tone of voice; don’t overload your dog; offer frequent, step-by-step small food rewards. But even basic reminders, when made by a smart and caring guide, can be very helpful.
A compassionate, brief-interval method for training dogs.Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2023
ISBN: 978-1733164535
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
Sedaris at his darkest—and his best.
In which the veteran humorist enters middle age with fine snark but some trepidation as well.
Mortality is weighing on Sedaris (Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002, 2017, etc.), much of it his own, professional narcissist that he is. Watching an elderly man have a bowel accident on a plane, he dreaded the day when he would be the target of teenagers’ jokes “as they raise their phones to take my picture from behind.” A skin tumor troubled him, but so did the doctor who told him he couldn’t keep it once it was removed. “But it’s my tumor,” he insisted. “I made it.” (Eventually, he found a semitrained doctor to remove and give him the lipoma, which he proceeded to feed to a turtle.) The deaths of others are much on the author’s mind as well: He contemplates the suicide of his sister Tiffany, his alcoholic mother’s death, and his cantankerous father’s erratic behavior. His contemplation of his mother’s drinking—and his family’s denial of it—makes for some of the most poignant writing in the book: The sound of her putting ice in a rocks glass increasingly sounded “like a trigger being cocked.” Despite the gloom, however, frivolity still abides in the Sedaris clan. His summer home on the Carolina coast, which he dubbed the Sea Section, overspills with irreverent bantering between him and his siblings as his long-suffering partner, Hugh, looks on. Sedaris hasn’t lost his capacity for bemused observations of the people he encounters. For example, cashiers who say “have a blessed day” make him feel “like you’ve been sprayed against your will with God cologne.” But bad news has sharpened the author’s humor, and this book is defined by a persistent, engaging bafflement over how seriously or unseriously to take life when it’s increasingly filled with Trump and funerals.
Sedaris at his darkest—and his best.Pub Date: May 29, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-39238-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
PROFILES
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