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| Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog | 
 enlarge | Author: John Grogan
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
Buy Used: $4.25
You Save: $9.70 (70%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  1364 reviews
Sales Rank: 1716
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1 Reprint
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.4 x 0.9
ISBN: 0060817097
Dewey Decimal Number: 636.7527092
EAN: 9780060817091
ASIN: 0060817097
Publication Date: March 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 A disappointment January 13, 2006
68 out of 116 found this review helpful
I received this book as a Christmas gift from my wife (as I expect many dog lovers did this year); we have a yellow Lab who resembles Marley. I was looking forward to reading it, and was quite disappointed to find that it was unbearably cloying and sentimental. The book is only partly about Marley the dog; much of it focuses on Grogan and his wife, who come off as being hopelessly self-absorbed and materialistic.
The dog stuff is amusing, but just barely. Far from being "the world's worst dog," Marley is just a typical Lab who is spoiled by his owners' self-indulgence and poor decisions. At times Grogan acts as if he's the only person who has ever owned a dog; most of one chapter deals with a game of fetch with Marley, including Grogan's astounding discovery that he can fool the dog into thinking he's thrown the stick when he really hasn't! Yeah, that's hilarious.
How this book became a bestseller is a mystery to me. I much prefer Dave Barry's essays about his dogs Ernest and Zippy; now that's good dog writing!
Disappointing for Serious Dog Lovers July 11, 2006
65 out of 94 found this review helpful
My sister bought the book for me knowing that I love dogs. I have two of my own and love them to death. I'm not a professional dog trainer or anything like that, but do know a lot about dogs through my own study and experiences. I was very excited to start reading it - but not for long.
This book was a real disappointment. In fact, parts of it made me very angry. The author is clearly ignorant about dogs and caring for them. His "training" methods are atrocious. He didn't need to use a choke collar on this dog. He failed the dog. Don't get me started on "kneeing" the dog at the door.
He talks about how Marley's teeth have become "nubs" in old age. There is absolutely no excuse for Marley's teeth to get into this condition except that the owner didn't do his job. My 15 year old black lab had beautiful teeth up until the day she died - and she never once had a professional cleaning. We knew what to feed her (good food - not the cheap crap you buy at department stores or big pet chain stores), what good chew toys to give her and never fed her people food.
I kenneled my dog once and vowed never again after she returned home soiled with feces and urine. And I kept my promise - if it meant putting off some travel then that's what I did. Or I found a reputable pet sitter to come stay at my home while I was away. Otherwise, when I went on vacation, my dog came with me. I cannot believe that the author kenneled Marley a second time after the dismal first experience - the dog was giving you signs that it was stressed!!! Why do it again?! In his condition?!
There's more I could write, but I'm done venting. I cannot recommend this book.
Typical.... July 4, 2006
54 out of 77 found this review helpful
As someone who has been involved with animal rescue for 16 years and has
heard it all from the general public, the one thought that came to mind
over and over again while reading this book was "typical". The Grogans
impulsive, thoughtless approach to acquiring a dog, their naive attitude
towards Marley's perceived "bad" behavior, and their reactionary, rather
than thoughtful, responses to that behavior are a perfect reflection of
what is wrong with the relationship between a lot of pet owners and their
dogs (and cats).
Examples:
~ Instead of really thinking about what their lifestyle would allow, the
Grogan's barged on ahead and decided that not only would they get a
puppy, but a LAB puppy. There's nothing sadder than a puppy, who,
upon waking up in the morning, is whisked outside for a brief walk,
then shoved in a small "bunker" or crate all day while his guardians
go off on their merry way. Meanwhile, the puppy, who just woke up and
his rarin' to go, finds himself alone for the next 8 hours with
nothing to do. What do these people expect? That the dog will be
cool, calm and collected when they arrive home again? And Labs belong
in active households where they have something to do most of the day.
Being the dual-working professional couple that they were, they
couldn't have made a more inappropriate choice.
Had they gone to their local animal shelter instead of a backyard
breeder who didn't care if the pups she was selling just to make a
buck were entering into a totally mismatched lifestyle for them, they
could have been matched up with the perfect dog for them--maybe a
quiet, young adult dog out of the puppy phase who would have been
happy to have a real home and who would tolerate being left alone most
of the day. Had they done this we wouldn't be having these
discussions about Marley and Me. Marley was not "the world's worst
dog". He was a very normal Labrador Retriever who got hooked up to
thoughtless owners whose lifestyle was exactly the opposite of what
his breed's needs were.
~ It is so typical of so many pet owners to let their puppy jump on
people (or other similar bad habits) for the first few years of its
life thinking it's "cute", just as Grogan and his wife did. Then, lo
and behold, when the dog is an adult and 100 pounds, it it is no
longer cute--it's annoying and dangerous. So Grogan THEN decides to
"do something about it"--that is, to shockingly (to the dog of course)
and viciously knee the dog in the chest one random day, then watch
smugly as the dog slinks to the floor in pain and confusion. I won! I
won! I won the battle of the wills! Hooray for me! Then when the dog
continues to jump on OTHER people, why, get your friend to come over
and knee the dog in an even more vicious manner so he'll learn not to
jump on strangers! What a brilliant strategy! Why not train the dog
logically and with positive training methods, FROM THE BEGINNING, and
not let him jump on people in the first place???
~ Then there is the choker collar thing and how Grogan practically
boasts about how he won the leash-pulling war too. He describes,
without batting an eye, how Marley needed to be choked so hard with a
chain choker collar he gasped for breath. Yes, strangulation does have
an impact! Obviously, no one told Grogan, or rather, he didn't bother
to look for more sane lead equipment like the Gentle Leader or Halti,
which work beautifully (I know, I have a champion leash pulling
Australian Shepherd who would drag me to China if I let him).
~ And if there was one thing that was the clincher, the thing that just
screamed just how naive and irresponsible Grogan was, was his
resistance to getting his pet fixed. He questioned why his dog
shouldn't be allowed to experience mating at least once. Gotta protect
and cherish those jewels you know! ARGGGHHHH!!!!!! Grogan, like so
many other people, just didn't get it. He had to be convinced by his
vet; it had to be EXPLAINED to him. These are the people who become
sub-backyard breeders; these are the people who are the cause of
MILLIONS of animals having to be euthanized every year. One word:
unbelievable!!!
What is really outrageous is that Grogan made a fortune off Marley--a
"beloved" dog he couldn't even bother to be with at the end of his life.
The family vacation at Disney World was far more important. What a shallow
opportunist. Maybe Grogan could consider donating some of the money he
earned from his life with Marley to Labrador Retriever rescue groups. No
doubt they would use the funds to help re-home all the abandoned Marleys of
the world and make sure the second time around for these poor dogs would be
better than their first Grogan-like experience.
This book wasn't "cute", it truy made me CRINGE! It was just a sad mirror
on everything that is wrong with our society and pets.
 Not a friend of the working class man. . . November 30, 2005
50 out of 88 found this review helpful
I enjoy this book, and could really identify with the author's struggles, since I own a lab myself.
But Grogan manages to alienate me with his mean-spirited comments about. . . people different from him.
Here's what he says about the neighborhood he lived in in FL:
"It began to take on a gritty edge as the original homeowners died off and were replaced by a motley group of renters and working class families."
Mr. Grogan--what is "motley" and "gritty" about working class families? Or people that rent? Not everyone can be a young professional like you.
He spends several pages ridiculing the people of Boca Raton, although he ends up moving there himself.
So I guess I liked the book but did not like the author.
Life and Love With the World's Worst Dog Owner March 13, 2006
48 out of 74 found this review helpful
I picked up this book at my public library because Jon Katz, an author whom I admire, had written a good recommendation for it. Shame on you, Jon Katz! I'm glad I didn't waste my money buying it. The entire book is a harrowing testament on what NOT to do with a canine companion. In the first chapters, the novice owners puchase a large-breed, high-energy puppy from a backyard breeder in order to test whether or not they are ready to bear and raise young of their own. I know this is widely done, but I find the theory repugnant. If you want to know if you're ready to raise children, there's plenty of volunteer work available with human children. As the puppy grows increasingly out of control, randomized attempts follow at obedience training with a non-paid volunteer trainer (snidely referred to as Miss Dominatrix) in a parking lot and hit-or-miss tactics by the unskilled author and his wife. Marley and Grogan become the nightmare pair that responsible dog owners avoid at all costs. The chapter on how Marley was freely introduced to a 2 day old infant (and then allowed to spend time alone with a small child) made me shudder; all I can say is that angels must surely watch over the idiots of this world. Perhaps the saddest part of this book is the ending, wherein the author and his wife are contemplating `rescuing' an out-of-control Labrador advertised in a newspaper. Over Marley's long life, his owner has only a few insights, most valuable of which is the following: "He [Marley] was the undisciplined, recalcitrant, nonconformist, politically incorrect free spirit I had always wanted to be, had I been brave enough, and I took vicarious joy in his unbridled verve. No matter how complicated life became, he reminded me of its simple joys. No matter how many demands were placed on me, he never let me forget that willful disobedience is sometimes worth the price." We owe more to our dogs than that we require them to be our alter egos. The only good that may come from this book is that people may think twice before choosing to share their home with a Labrador Retriever. Despite their tremendous popularity and reputation as being a dog-breed-for-all, Labs increasingly exhibit many of the characteristics of Marley (who is blithely labeled a `defective' dog by his irresponsible owner).
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