76 replies to this topic

[MrSnappy]

There are no words to describe how much I dislike this man.

Katz, who else?

[Kat's Dogs]

no no no no no. I just hate him, and what he has done (so far) to his dogs, border collies, and all dogs in general. ick. It just leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

This was the worst for me:

I had four choices.

I could build a more secure kennel for Orson behind the house, away from traffic and visitors.

I could find a more isolated and peaceful home for him, where fewer people visited to alarm him.

I could take Orson to a veterinary school like Cornell's for more sophisticated testing?MRIs, brain scans, further blood work?to make certain that no medical issue (a tumor, for example) was causing his violent behavior.

I could take him to my vet and have him killed.

I didn't the see the most OBVIOUS option on that list: go to a dog behaviorist.
jeeze, going to a trainer/behaviorist would be my first choice - but he didn't even put it on the list!

arg, just don't even get me started with Katz. :mad:

[SoloRiver]

Well, there was really only one more way to milk Orson's story for more fame and money, wasn't there?

[smileyzookie]

What a complete moron. :mad: :mad:

[BayouBC]

Sometimes I wonder if Orson's breeder realizes that the greatest disservice she ever did Orson, or even the BC breed as a whole, was to send him to this man who never had ANY business owning a border collie. Poor Orson.

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

Just when I thought the world couldn't get more evil. Please somebody go up and kidnap all the critters under this guy's care.

The worst thing is, he's probably mostly right. I have no doubt this dog is now so screwed up he'd be out of place just about anywhere.

[D'Elle]

I hate that guy. He has done nothing but exploit his dogs for profit from the start, and he obviously never should have had a BC in the first damn place. And now he is exploiting his murder of a dog who trusted him. I never like to think that I would wish ill upon anyone, but it is very hard for me not to wish that bad things would happen to that disgusting individual.

[AK dog doc]

Oh, for Ch***t's sake. What a complete ba***rd. Not content to tell the world that dogs only live 8 years, so an 8-year-old dog is too old to be helped by medicine or training, and so... (he trails off, leaving the obvious implication that you should just put the animal down), he is now suggesting that an animal with a behavioral problem has no options but to become a sort of expensively tortured quinea pig, to be imprisoned or to be destroyed. Oh, how I curse the day he ever crossed trails with the Border collie. And worse, the day he started to profit from his complacent and self-congratulatory ignorance.

Well. Maybe this will undermine his enormous and extremely misguided fan club. I personally think he's not just milking the story; I think he didn't want to put in the effort and the money to get the dog worked up medically and then worked up and treated by a behaviorist. Isn't that more or less typical of his usual tricks? He delvelops an enthusiasm and is all gung-ho about it until it becomes inconvenient or starts to either bore him or challenge him more than he feels up to. The mark of a basically lazy and shallow person, IMO.

Of course, these are just my opinions. But now I get to brace myself (professionally speaking) yet again against the results of his public idiocy.

GRRR! (Sorry, guys. I'll try to control myself now. Or at least stop swearing.)

[bailey44]

I agree with Kat's Dogs, the passage doesn't explore working with Orson to improve his behavior. I've read Katz's books and as he has written one after another, he has become more whiney and self-absorbed with each one. I became disgusted with his "choices" when he gave Homer away. Katz indicated that Homer was too timid and now he saying that Orson was too aggressive. Katz needs to look in a mirror and see the REAL reason that he has problems with his dogs. I first read his books becauses I was considering a bc and I was hoping he would give me some insight into what it's like to live with a border. I find Katz to be disingenuous in his presentation while giving dangerous information and advice about this truly remarkable breed of dog. By the time I read Dogs of Bedlam Farm, I was convinced that he had suffered some sort of breakdown and had no business writing about border collies. He is a selfish, selfish man with a massive ego. Charlene

[Geoffrey]

Ugh. I really don't like him...

[bc friend]

I had placed a request w/my library for a copy of this book when it becomes available. Mainly because I knew this book would be discussed on the Board and I wanted to be a reasonable person who had read the book before I started trashing Katz (ok, my mind was already closed but I was going to give him a chance to change it). After reading this thread, I've canceled the library request. I just can't stand to read about euth'ing an 8 yo bc w/o trying everything possible to save him. Poor Orson. At least Homer got a new home hopefully with a better owner.

[Sue R]

Perhaps one reason for his popularity is that his ignorance, selfishness, and whininess are satisfying and justifying to legions of readers who possess the same attributes when it comes to their relations with their companion animals...

[sandra s.]

Yuck, what a pretentious pile of horseshit :mad: .

If keeping his dog alive is a selfish act to him, then what, exactly, is that dog to him? Surely not an INDIVIDUAL to whom he owes a lot, but rather some bragworthy extension of himself?

Okay, there's a lot of people who believe in "humans come first" and I respect that, even though I do not believe in it, but the way he talks about his dogs sometimes...could have fooled me if it wasn't for the whiney tone.

Where was the balance between the care and money I lavished on Orson and the needs of human beings?

I wonder if he ever gave the money he saved on vet bills by killing Orson to his poor neighbours after all?

[kelpiegirl]

Melanie and Ak Doc:
You both hit the nail on the head. One, he is looking to sell books, and two, he thinks it is worse to try and fix the problem than kill the dog.
You know, I never really was affronted by him before. Now, however, I see the true man. A man who's entire life is based around writing "books" by a vanity press; books who appeal to those of us who long to have a farm. He has subverted all that is solemn and sacred about farming and sheepdogs.
Julie

[bailey44]

Hey! Sue, I'm in Bridgeport, WV, so we're only about a half hour away from one another! Hi neighbor! One of the first things that impressed me about Katz was his observation that we need to be flexible with our dogs and be willing to address problems that we have with dog behavior by changing OUR behavior. I am a firm believer in that philosophy. He went against that by his melodramatic keening about what to do about Orson. He would wax on in his books about his loyalty to his dogs..bah! I had a biter--this was when she was almost 13 years old, arthritic, with bad hips and a cranky attitude. The last three years of her life were exhausting for my family as we went to extensive lengths to keep her away from situations that might trigger a bite. (This seemed to be when she was lying asleep and someone stepped near her and she would leap up growling and snapping.) We had to sometimes sequester her from the chaos of the family. You know something? She had had it! She had earned her peace and it was our responsibility to serve her and make her a life of good quality and peace in her golden years. Having her put down would have been the easy way out, instead, we adjusted our lives to her, and I would not have given up the last few years of her life for anything. Each family's situation is different, but Katz's "flexibility" seems to grow thin when HE is uncomfortable. Charlene

[FlyByNight]

Has the man had a single dog past the age of 8? He can't seem to make it into the senior years with any of them!

I mean for crying out loud, you'd think they were cars the way he talks about them.

[Pippin's person]

He put Orson down for aggression in the summer of 2005 and then wrote a book about him called "A Good Dog".

In the Slate post yesterday, he asks in the subtitle "What should I do", suggesting he hadn't already done what he was going to do. He is also careful not to say what he did.

I guess he didn't want to spoil the ending of the book.

I wonder if this part of Orson's story will make it into the film version of "A Dog's Year"

[r b m]

Call me green, but besides being an author who writes about his experiences with dogs, primarially bc's, I don't know much about Katz. What is everyone's big beef with him? Can someone provide some sort of foundation or background of why this man is "bad for the breed?" Just curious....

[KrisK]

Hi r b m,

I think if you do a 'search' on the forum, you will have your questions answered about Katz.

[heartdog]

I skimmed through a copy of this book at Borders today and I could not believe he had done it..... Sorry for the spoiler...
Soul dog? THis is how you treat your soul dog? I am very disturbed by this.... :confused: I don't understand it. He did not go the extra mile for a dog that changed his life for the better......there is a quote by Charles Doran-" A man's soul can be judged by the way he treats his dog"....'nough said.....

Deborah

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