Book review: Woof! A Gay Man's Guide to Dogs

Because writing about gay male sex scenes on television does not actually pay all my bills, I have another job, and in that job I'm a contributing editor for a nationally syndicated pet column called Pet Connection. So I get sent review copies of basically every single book written in English about pets, in the hope that I'm going to review it. And that usually has no bearing on what I do here on AfterElton.com, but the other day, it did. Because I got sent Woof!: A Gay Man's Guide to Dogs.

And I asked my editor, hey, should I review this on the blog? Because you know, it's a gay book, and we write about gay books.

And he looked pained, well, I guess he did because this was in an email so I can only imagine how he looked, and said, "Okay. If you must." So I am. But first, a question.

Ever see the movie Best in Show?

Not only does it star the extremely fabulous and out Jane Lynch as a lesbian poodle owner, but it also had a strange little storyline about a Shih Tzu-owning gay dog handler who wore eye shadow in the show ring. So it's a very gay movie in a lot of ways.

Anyway, I saw that movie, and my dad said to me at the time, "So, Christie, did you like Best in Show?" And I said, "Well, it was okay, but I didn't think it was really all that funny."

And my dad was kind of nodding, and I said, "What?"

And he said, "Yes, the objects of a satire usually don't think it's funny." Implying that I'm so obsessed with dogs and the dog world that I don't understand how pathetically amusing I really am.

This book was kind of like that. Not to the same extent, as I did, in fact, find it quite funny, and it's also extremely useful for any dog owner, regardless of sexual orientation. But I kept looking at the very clever little drawings assigning different types of dogs to different types of gay men and going, "A cowboy wouldn't have a Jack Russel, he'd have a heeler," or, "A surfer wouldn't have a Newfie, he'd have a Lab," with that kind of totally NOT GETTING IT reaction typical of someone who is being made fun of but doesn't know it.

Where was I? Oh yes, this book.

I love this book. I hate most books about dogs because they irritate me, not being written by me and thus not getting in every single solitary thing I think it's essential to know about dogs, and putting in a number of things that I vehemently disagree with. And this book does both those things, too (not being, as I said, written by me), and yet I don't care, because of all the things it gets right. And as I have said now three times, it's quite, quite funny.

Whether what you're looking for is advice on which kind of dog to get, or if, indeed, you should get a dog at all (impressing your boyfriend not being a good reason), or suggestions on how to accessorize the dog you have (it's all about the bling), or coping with canine behavior problems, Woof has a lot of very sensible medicine mixed in with many heaping spoonfuls of sugar. Laugh and learn. Then go walk the dog.