Dogged Pursuit: My Year of Competing Dusty, the World's Least Likely Agility Dog by Robert Rodi


Posted on Jul 7, 2009
By Tanya Turgeon

REVIEW by Tanya Turgeon

Hudson Street Press, 2009
273 pages
$24.95

What Bill Bryson has done for travel writing and Mary Roach for science, Robert Rodi has done for dog books.  A writer by trade, he brings humor, wit, and colorful analogy to his story of Dusty, his adopted sheltie, and their year of agility competition.  Even if you have no interest in agility training, or dogs for that matter (how did you find this site, again?), this is a must-read.

Amazingly you will pick up the agility terminology, rules, and apparatuses much more quickly from reading this than from reading a traditional cut and dry "how to" book; mainly because any technical details are surrounded with such unforgettable sentences as: "We finished out yesterday with more refusals than a Catholic girls' school on prom night.  Dusty bailed on the teeter, balked at the tire, shirked the A-frame, ducked the jumps, fled the weave poles, snubbed the table, and dodged the dog walk." My own past includes thirteen years as a Catholic school girl, so I personally guarantee that this statement is hilarious.

Dusty, as you can see from the last quote, seems an unlikely competitor.  Yet Rodi, driven by initial successes of his first sheltie who was forced into early retirement due to canine hip dysplasia, is determined to achieve glory.  He pushes himself to the max by spending weekends away from the warmth and comfort of his Chicago home, braving the Illinois countryside and mingling with people who wear dog-printed clothing, drive vans plastered in dog bumper stickers, and, even more horrifically, eat sloppy joes.  Rodi, in a few words, drives a Saab 9-3 with leather interior, listens to orchestral music on the way to trials, and prefers tortellini al pesto for lunch.

Eventually Rodi turns to alternative means to improve Dusty's performance, including consulting a dog whisperer.  Acupuncture and herbal extracts follow (the latter are meant for Dusty but Rodi helps himself to a doses as well) to little avail.  He notes on page 123 - on a day he's been feeling nauseous and then Dusty vomits right before entering the ring- "It's empirically proven: I am absolutely projecting my own infirmities onto my dog.  And pretty goddam specifically too."  If he had read Dogology he'd have been able to self-diagnosis this as "Mutthausen by Proxy" right then and there.  Yet the symptons persist for at least another 60 pages before he realizes for the second time, "Suddenly it occurs to me: Snarky?  Unsettled?  Misanthorpic?  I'm describing Dusty!  How many times do I have to learn this lesson?  My dogs pathologies are of my own making."

The dust jacket of "Dogged Pursuit" bears compliments from some notable authors, including Augusten Burroughs and Greg Kincaid.  I'd like to add my own.  Rodi is not a dog expert, but a writer entering a dog's world, which is why once you start reading you won't be able to put it down.  Dusty is simply a good dog along for the bumpy ride of Rodi's own self-discovery.  Together they provide enough comic to give Grogan and Marley a serious run for their money.

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