Walking Ollie: Or, Winning the Love of a Difficult Dog

This is a lovely memoir. The author, Stephen Foster, a sports writer, is greatly challenged by Ollie. (The dog formerly known as Ernie.) The puppy in question is a rescued lurcher. A lurcher is a dog that is half greyhound and half something else. In Ollie’s case his non-greyhound half is saluki, also a sight hound. The lurcher breed was developed in Britain due to the fact that only the nobility were permitted to own greyhounds. Lurchers were and probably still are the poacher’s breed of choice. Ollie is adopted from the animal-welfare home at Snetterton in Norfolk.

Ollie proves to be a nervous pup who seemed to spend a great deal of time running around and looking worried. Walking him proves to be a major challenge as he wants only show more (naturally enough) to play with other dogs, to chase and be chased. And as is typical of his breed and sight hounds in general he does not come when he is called, very poor recall. The author calculates the time he spends walking Ollie, chasing Ollie, at about five hours a day. He had imagined that dog walking would be a contemplative activity that would allow him to think about his writing. Instead he must endure the scorn of other dog walkers (mostly Lab owners) who proclaim Ollie “out of control”.

The harrowing walks with Ollie are only half the problem; the dog is terrified of him. He cringes and runs from the room at the sight of his owner. He will not accept affection from him but he will take food bribes. A scene is described in which Ollie is finally apprehended after one of his “walks” because the other has laid a trail of cheese cubes. Out of control barely covers it. There is a heart stopping chase down a motorway at night which both dog and owner miraculously survive. But there is a break through that follows Ollie running amok in the midst of a fishing competition (you can imagine) that marks a turning point for both of them. Ollie actually begins to listen to his owner. “Patience is the only technique I can pass on, if you can call patience a technique-so far as rescue animal husbandry is concerned, I feel pretty certain that you can. Patience is an aspect of love. We started to love each other.”

Of course the road was not smooth nor the course straight. There were more struggles ahead but I won’t spoil the book by telling all. It is, as I said at the outset, a lovely memoir. Humorous, touching, and very frank this book is a testament of the dedication that one individual can have to one dog. show less

The British Marley. I didn't find this book as enchanting as Marley and Me, but that may have been partially because of the cultural divide between American and English dog owners (prior to reading this book I didn't realize there was one). Author Foster goes on and on about the importance of letting dogs off leash to play with other dogs and to run free, and then his frustration as he spends hours trying to catch the dog. Hours. Every time they walk. At least where I live, it's not legal to have your dog off leash unless you are on your own property or at a dog park, and the nearest dog park is a 2 hour round trip. Which might not matter to Foster, with the amount of time he's out with Ollie - luckily he writes from home, and it show more doesn't seem to bother him that he's not actually doing much work (at one point he admits to spending most of his daylight hours walking Ollie). So there might be a financial divide too. Still, the book did have some amusing parts, and Ollie does have his charm, particularly in his love of running and all other dogs, and readers will root for Ollie to come out of his shell. show less

his book documents the first couple of years of Stephen Foster's adoption of Ollie, who was a lurcher pup he and his partner picked up from The Dogs Trust.

What struck a chord with me, when reading, was that it was emphatically not all plain sailing for the Fosters - Ollie obviously had some real issues to deal with, and unfortunately Stephen Foster clearly seemed to remind the poor dog of some unpleasant incident with males early on in his life.

Having said that the book struck a chord with me, and pausing to applaud Foster's openly self-mocking wit, there are times when I don't necessarily agree with the author's philosophy on life/dogs and such. But for the most part this is an amazingly honest book, and his recounting of the dark, show more dark days when Ollie was at his most troublesome certainly rang true to me.

One point of note - the book is published by 'Short Books', and believe me, they're not kidding. It's less than 200 pages of medium type with generous margins - hey, sometimes less is, indeed, more, but for the asking price, it's kinda pushing it.

Rather oddly for a 'man meets dog' book, this doesn't chart the full history of Ollie's life - when the book's postscript update closes, Ollie's still there, and obviously much more adjusted to life chez Foster than he was at the start. show less

Stephen Foster and his partner adopt a rescue dog called Ernie (quickly renamed Ollie). This sweet book tells the story of how Stephen and Ollie got through their first difficult and frustrating times together. It's humourous and touching, and a must for all dog lovers!

Any dog owner who reads this will thank their lucky stars they dont own 'Ollie'!
Good fun read but slight and ends rather abruptly.

Dumb, loveable dog, stupid dog owner, boring book! Don't bother with it - there are too many good stories out there waiting to be read.

A beautiful story about a rescued puppy with a few little problems. Heartwarming and funny all the way through, not to mention that Ollie is absolutely beautiful.