For all you Jon Katz fans (not!)

[juliepoudrier]

I just heard that Katz will be on the Diane Rehm show on NPR tomorrow at 11, promoting his new book about why he had to make the "difficult decision" to kill the dog that changed his life. The Diane Rehm show is out of Washington, DC, and may not be available to all NPR listeners, but in case you want to hear his story or perhaps call in and pin him down, here's your chance.

 

http://www.wamu.org/programs/dr/

(See the topics listing in the column on the left.)

 

I guess the e-mails sent complaining about Katz the last time she had him on had no effect.

J.

[Sue R]

Well, I guess if he's good for her ratings, he's good for her show, and any amount of emails won't change things. I expect it's all about the money...

 

I did do the email thing last time and it was an effort when you consider my slow dial-up, that's for sure. Maybe I won't bother this time.

 

What's that about fooling some of the people all of the time, or whatever?

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

You know, I thought the NPR deal was that they didn't really have to buy in to the whole ratings concept (beyond a certain minimal bow, of course)? So there's supposed to be higher standard, or something . . .

 

I expect we'll hear him all over the place again - pushing books has gotten to be a huge cottage industry. Lucky us.

[Black Watch Debatable]

He has a website.

 

Take some anti-nausea meds and read the "Praise" section:

"Jon Katz understands dogs as few others do, intuitively and unburdened by sentimentality..."

-- John Grogan, author of Marley & Me

This from the chucklehead who parlayed his dog troubles --- with, as far as I can tell, the only dog he'd ever raised --- into a bestseller... God makes them, they get themselves together

"[Katz's]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."

?Publishers Weekly

About the Author:

Jon Katz writes about dogs, farm animals and rural life. ?I had dogs for much of my life,? he says of his writing career, ?but until a troubled border collie landed in my life in New Jersey in 2001, I never gave them much thought. Since then, much of my life has changed, and radically.? In fact, Katz has, since that time, written five books about dogs, farm animals and rural life, becoming one of the country's most respected and quoted writers about dogs and companion animals.

One of many, many things I hate about this guy is his reliance on generalizations --- broad, sweeping, interminable generalizations:

?There are times we lose sight of the fact that these creatures are wonderful animals, not little people."

"We lose sight..."?! You and who else, Jon? Yep, he totally makes me want to barf :mad:

[Debbie Crowder-BaaramuLuke]

Stop, I'm getting queasy. Let me off...

[Debbie Crowder-BaaramuLuke]

From Julie P.--"I just heard that Katz will be on the Diane Rehm show on NPR tomorrow at 11, promoting his new book about why he had to make the "difficult decision" to kill the dog that changed his life."

p.s.

Does this mean Orson'dead?

[Allie+Tess&Kipp]

Yes, Orson is dead. He killed him because he didn't want to pay a behaviorist $300...

 

http://www.bordercollie.org/cgi-bin/ultima...ic;f=1;t=012339

 

Allie + Tess & Kipp

http://weebordercollie.com

[Bill Fosher]

I listen to NPR while on my rounds from about 9 a.m. until about noon or 1 p.m. almost every day. The 11 o clock hour of the Diane Rhem show is almost always an author with a new book out. It's usually a pretty good show.

 

I assume they make some of their decisions about who to have back based on audience response. Piles of e-mails saying what an idiot the guy is would count as response.

 

Diane Rhem has some sort of pocket dog and loves to talk to people about it. She had Caesar Milan (? -- the dog whisperer) on a while ago and based on her questions about her own dog I could tell she was pretty clueless about dogs. She is also very adamant about keeping the discourse on her show civil (to her credit) and politely cuts off callers who cross what she considers a line into argumentive tones. Katz's ideal interviewer: someone who does't know enough to see what an idiot he is and who will not allow callers to challenge him too directly.

[juliepoudrier]

Bill,

I listen to NPR all day at work (well half listen since I *am* working, LOL!) and I agree that Diane has some great shows. And Jon Katz is very popular. It's just a shame that she has to keep having him on. I suppose I'll send in an e-mail complaint this time--like voting, if you don't do it, then you can't really whine about the outcome can you? Maybe I'll suggest that she interview someone who *does* know something about working dogs, even if they haven't written a book. If Tommy W. is good enough to go on David Letterman, then he's good enough for NPR!

 

Anyway, since I'm a long-time contributor to NPR (and to WAMU specifically for all the years I lived in VA) they will just have to hear me out....

 

J.

[Barb Scott]

If you want to listen to Jon Katz explain his LIFETIME RELATIONSHIP with Orson, you can hear a replay online by looking up NPR.5 minutes into the program, and all he can say is what a wonderful dog Orson was...a transformation in his life...I don't think I can listen to much more about Orson's gift of healing without screaming; what was his gift to Orson?

Barb S

[Shetlander]

Originally posted by Barb Scott:

I don't think I can listen to much more about Orson's gift of healing without screaming; what was his gift to Orson?

He stated in today's interview and in one I read that he feels he did everything he could for Orson. He even claims to have moved to the farm for Orson because living in a suburb was no life for a Border Collie. Gee, tell that to my BC. And it seemed pretty clear to me in The Dogs of Bedlam Farm that he moved there largely for himself.

 

Today he said that he spent 10-15 thousand dollars on Orson. Not sure what accounts for the wide range in that figure. He states that he believes he did well by Orson, though he also says he wishes he could have been more successful.

 

I read the entire book, not wanting to base judgment on one excerpt. I'm not convinced that he needed to put Orson down but I also believe that unless you are personally dealing with the situation, it is very difficult to know all the factors. Several years ago I put down an animal aggressive dog that I'm sure some (many?)here would condemn me for. Other than breaking my heart, it was a very straightforward decision for me.

 

I don't know how badly Orson bit, if there were puncture wounds, how deep, etc. That isn't clear which bothers me. The other aspect that troubles me is the three attacks all occurred when Orson was outside while Katz was in the house. I definitely wonder why he couldn't have managed his lifetime dog more carefully. Kept him crated when he couldn't be with the dog and never allow him outside unsupervised. I don't see how this is different from me crating my dog when I go to work. It seems a huge overstatement that Orson would need to live in a "prison." At least it does based on the information he presents in the book.

 

So, what bothers me the most is why did he keep letting Orson outside after the first bite? Or after the second attack where he didn't make contact with skin but tore a child's shirt? That would have scared me to the point of never letting my dog out alone. I don't let my sheltie out unsupervised any more because she's a nuisance barker, for Pete's sake.

 

You will probably be unhappy to hear that he just finished up another book on dogs (called Dog Days, I think) and is working on new one about whether dogs have souls. He said today that he is not convinced if they do or don't, yet in the book he seems to say that he thinks they do. One of the contradictions that he is fairly famous for. Like when he was looking at a high drive lab after Orson died, he writes that he preferred calm dogs. Then why would he have border collies????

 

And on that note, in addition to Rose, he has two other Border Collies that today he firmly said he knows he is going to do well with. On his web page it only mentioned Rose and Izzy, a BC described as a rescue from a farm where he ran fences for three years. So no idea about the third dog. Or how many labs he is up or down to.

[WyoBC]

That makes me really mad! That someone like that will just let a BC outside by him self and not think anything will happen, THEN when he bites something he does it again! Then he just kills him. From what I read, and what I saw of Orson he looked like a great dog. Some of us (like me) would love so much to have a dog like that. But someone like Jon gets him. It just doesn't seem fair to me. I bought one of Jon's books just to read some of it before I thought much of him. I quit reading it half way through. Anyway that's what I think.

[SoloRiver]

Basically he set poor Orson up.

 

When you have a dog like that, you protect your dog. In doing so, you protect the people around you. But if you love the dog, mostly you are protecting the dog.

 

Everyone makes mistakes, but there are mistakes and then there are stupid mistakes. That coupled with the fact that he basically didn't even try... I don't know what to say.

 

I'm going to go home from work and hug Solo now.

[Bill Fosher]

I didn't hear the whole show yesterday. I was driving from site to site during the first 20 minutes or so, when Katz and Rhem were talking -- before callers were added to the show.

 

I tried to listen to the interview as if I were someone hearing about a topic that I was interested in, but not passionate about. And from that perspective, Katz came off just about like every other memoirist that I hear. Seems Katz has gotten some lessons in how to fake humility from his publicist; he has that odd, smarmy combination of being simultaneously self serving and self effacing that seems to pervade the genre down pat.

 

I think he summed it up pretty well when he said something like, "Everyone has to decide what's right for himself. I'm comfortable with what I did." Thus evading any responsibility and hiding himself in a culture of assertion -- I believe this and it would be wrong of you to question my beliefs.

 

I have to say that he was probably a little more conscious of the fact that there was room for criticism of his behavior than most memoirists that I've heard interviewed lately. He dismissed any criticism by saying that only he knew what was best for his dog, and that he had tried "everything."

 

It was very hard to listen to Katz and Rhem fawn all over one another for the first few minutes of the interview. I was on the verge of calling in and suggesting that they get a room. But once that was out of the way, it was a pretty standard-issue memoir interview.

 

I'm not going to sit in judgment about what he decided to do with Orson, whom he described as "the gift that keeps on giving." He's right that I didn't know his dog and the circumstances. Like others, I have a hard time believing that he couldn't have managed his dog differently, but I wasn't there.

 

Orson had a raw deal, in my opinion, from the day that someone bred him for reasons other than to perpetuate the working breed. It was all downhill from there. The fact that Katz ended up with him and has made him a celebrity (and himself one in the bargain) for all the wrong reasons is just salt in the wound.

[Debbie Crowder-BaaramuLuke]

If you think this is bad for the general public to be educated by regarding our dogs, just wait til the movie, and all the PR that'll go into that.

I wish I had Luke with me for that one, a better PR man for Border Collies and being a capable working dog as well as an urban go-to-work with me, play-gently-with-toddlers dog you'll never meet. Proof that most of these dogs are not Orson, but a few are, and I've had one like him. Melanie is right, you protect your dog, thus protecting the people.

We ought to plan for our own civilized response to the information that will come of that movie's promotion. I have to wonder if Orson's eventual demise will be brought up then by Katz.

[Kyrasmom]

Not only did he set him up, he continues to profit ... because bottom line, profit is the only thing Katz is concerned with, be in monetary or ego driven.

 

What is terrifying are the people who buy his drivel, and not just his books.

 

He did nothing to protect Orson, he just used him for gain.Totally disgusted.

 

Maria

 

 

Originally posted by SoloRiver:

Basically he set poor Orson up.

 

When you have a dog like that, you protect your dog. In doing so, you protect the people around you. But if you love the dog, mostly you are protecting the dog.

 

Everyone makes mistakes, but there are mistakes and then there are stupid mistakes. That coupled with the fact that he basically didn't even try... I don't know what to say.

 

I'm going to go home from work and hug Solo now.

[borderbob]

i sent him a nasty e-mail and asked if he cut his dogs paws off if they were muddy and he told me about all his wonderful rescue animals.what an unbelievable moron