Shaggy Dogs Story

By Ron Finley

Shaggy Dogs Story stops readers in their tracks. It's got daring and conflict, intrigue and New York, fine art . . . and dogs The book shares its send-up documentary style with that of the extremely... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0740761803
• ISBN13: 9780740761805
• Release Date: August 2006
• Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
• Length: 116 Pages
• Weight: 1.44 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 11.0" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Great photos!

I bought this because I am a Weimaraner lover and collector. The photos were fantastic. The story lacked. For the price I got it for, it was well worth it for the photos alone!

More fun than a dogpark full of weimanarers

Both verbally and visually, Finley's book is a delight, with sly fun hiding in both the pictures and text. No ordinary cutesy pet gift book, this one is actually worth the price of admission. The story is clever and witty and the photos will have you laughing out loud. I gave copies to friends and even the non-pet people thought it was a hoot. And some of them owned cats! And I'd tell you about the neat twist at the end, but you should find out for yourself.

AMAZING!!!

I enjoyed the amazing photos - they have so much detail. I keep finding more to laugh at each time I look at them. The story is funny on so many levels. It's about dogs and art and history and it has a good twist at the end. I highly recommend this to dog lovers!!

appealingly strange & high-larious doggishness

The obvious comparison here -- to William Wegman, who's made a cottage industry out of dressing up Weimaraners -- is probably the wrong one. Yes, there's a teasing critique of Wegman implied throughout, but Finley's real models are more overtly comic (and, IMHO, more interesting) artists: Chuck Jones, Tex Avery, and Robert McKimson of Warner Bros. legend, as well as oddball illustrators & humorists from James Thurber to Ralph Steadman. As art, the images here are quite good. Finley's experience with commercial photography, portraiture, and Photoshop wizardry yields images that are crisp, beautifully laid out, and a riot of color. But that's not really the point -- the pictures are all in service of the story, which is both funny and deeply weird. Finley's got a knack for visual puns, for setting up gags and drawing them out. Hence the title -- a shaggy dog story is all about delaying punchlines. Handsome though it is, it's more like a comic novella than an Art Book. What comes through most here is a real love of dogs. The book's both zany and slick, but it's also full of tender humanity (if that's the right word). The protagonists undergo and then dish back out all sorts of esthetic humiliation without simply playing it deadpan; they're as expressive and noble as we should all try to be in a world full of opportunists and banana peels. This would be a pretty sweet gift for anyone interested in dogs or Photoshop. Or Leonardo da Vinci. (Disclosure: I know the author quite well -- but I wouldn't kvell thus if I didn't like the book so much. Nice work, Finley!)

Amusing, provocative, sui generis - a must buy

A carefully planned and executed picture book with amusing text using "dogs" as man in his (or their) endeavors. Takes you all over LA and Europe with one picture layout after another perfect in its conception and execution. The payoff is ironic. A hoot. A laugh a page, or many if you will. I have given copies to everyone I know who is savvy enough to enjoy it. I am over 13 and of sane mind and sound body. Don Fouser