16 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE June

books

A good book on dogs, but not on Louganis

For the Life of Your Dog by Greg Louganis

and Betsy Sikora Siino Pocket Books

Reviewed by Eric Resnick

Anyone who believes in reincarnation would love to come back as one of Greg Louganis' dogs. Our favorite Olympic gold medalist and gay heartthrob is an avid dog lover-almost to the point of obsession.

If you are looking to learn more about Louganis as an individual or as an out gay

athlete, this is not the book. Rather, For the Life of Your Dog is a how-to manual on raising dogs. Period.

Louganis does not use this book as an opportunity to show his personality or humanity-except what one gets through reading about the interaction between him and his many dogs. There is no indication of how the relationship between Louganis and the dogs got him through his triumphs or his tragedies.

Instead, he goes into great detail on how his dogs affect things like which vehicles he purchases, how he plans earthquake escape

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routes, and arranges his book tours. But he left out things like how the dogs affect boyfriends.

He also does not address how the dogs affect his personal health since he tested positive for the HIV virus. We all know HIV-positive people who have had to give up their pets for health reasons. Louganis missed opportunities to talk about that possibility from his perspective.

Louganis also missed opportunities to expand on the feelings of isolation he felt as a child, which are described in his first book Breaking the Surface, and how his attachment to dogs likely developed during that time. Most of us have noticed that pets tend to be important to gay people.

This book is a good book on dogs. Louganis clearly understands and builds much of his life around canine behavior. And the advice he gives on the subject is probably very sound. For instance, Louganis' advice on nail clipping: "In addition to treat bribes, distractions can also help a puppy get through a nailclipping session. I sometimes

FOR THE LIFE OF YOUR DOG

complete truite to wing a Dog in Your Life, om Adoption and Birth Through Sickness and Health

here's GREG LOUGANIS and BETSY SIKORA SIINO

put a dab of peanut butter on the roof of a dog's mouth to help keep her mind off what I'm doing to her paws. Do whatever you have to do to keep it all as pleasant as possible. You want nail clipping to be a positive experience, not a battle.”

For the Life of Your Dog is proof that gay icons can write books that are appropriate for families to read before adding a four-legged creature to their household. But if you are looking for more than that from this book, you will be disappointed.

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