Bad Dog: (A Love Story) [Paperback]

Meet Hola—the only dog ever to be expelled from puppy school twice. Now her supposed master—a TV writer turned management consultant and high-functioning alcoholic—is about to lose his job, and his wife, too, if he can't get his life—and his dog—under control.

Hola may be the most beautiful Bernese mountain dog in the world, but she's never been trained, so it's not her fault if she tackles strangers, chews on furniture, and runs after buses. That honor falls to Marty, Hola's supposed master, a high-functioning alcoholic who’s so in debt, out of shape, and desperate to save his marriage that he throws himself headlong into the world of competitive dog training. Unfortunately, he knows even less than Hola.

Martin Kihn is just too talented—I still don’t know how a writer can be that laugh-out-loud funny while chronicling a major life crisis—and his story is just too good to miss. (And of course the soulful pictures of Hola, his lovely Bernese mountain dog, don’t hurt either.)
—Christian Science Monitor

It’s the special relationship between man and animal that form the heart of the memoir. . . Any dog lover is bound to tear up over the love and trust that can exist between a person and their dog, which Kihn captures perfectly with a blend of earnest emotional catharsis and wry humor.
—The Daily Texan

Not a cozy Marley and Me duplicate or Cesar Millan–type training book (though readers will learn a lot about the value of appropriate training from someone who’s been there), this sharply written, darkly funny memoir–cum–dog story–cum–recovery tale is a quick, absorbing read that will serve a wide audience well. &l&