EverythingDogBlog #57: New Book, New Sport for Dogs
Wallace: The Underdog Who Conquered a Sport, Saved a Marriage, and Championed Pit Bulls – One Flying Disc at a Time, by Jim Gorant (Gotham Books, 256 pages, 2012, $26)
Nothing left to prove. . . .
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Jim Gorant is the author of one of the best books I have read in recent years – Lost Dogs* - about the Michael Vick case and its aftermath, full of hope and success for the dogs. So, I jumped at the chance to read anything else by Gorant, but somehow, the magic isn’t there in Wallace. Both Wallace and Lost Dogs are nonfiction: both, about pit bulls. But the magic isn’t there in Wallace. The story is outstanding but it took me a long time to get through the book (perhaps the book is too long?).
Wallace did, however, start the world (and me) on a pit bull reading frenzy, a total love affair. Pit bull types (PBTs) have always been tied for my second most favorite dogs along with rottweilers (first come golden retrievers and labs), but, somehow the magic isn’t there in Wallace. I didn’t feel as if I was in the story, not a part of the book, but outside looking in – it just wasn’t happening to me, not pulling me in. Gorant was telling us about how we should feel rather than telling the story so well that we could only feel what he wanted us to feel - too many adjectives and not enough verbs or perhaps too much detail – one competition after another, for years, until they all ran together for me, as did the different aspects of the sport of discs for dogs and the intricate, creative jumps and throws. I just couldn’t picture them.
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On the other hand, there are many excellent quotables (p. 166, 203, 210, e.g.) about the injustices of breed-specific legislation (BSL), the lesson Gorant wants us to take home. How a dog that nobody wanted became a champion almost by chance in the beginning and then by a lot of determination, love and hard work.
Wallace the book starts off with a couple of fellows sailing when a storm blows up. After two pages, we never meet these fellows again. Gorant jumps to a puppy and his littermates, then the book jumps to a guy and a girl in college and we follow them for a few years. How all these disparate threads fit together is truly a work of art.
Who is Wallace? The Disc Dog champion and the dog nobody wanted. The PBT (actually an American Pit Bull Terrier, an APBT) who showed the world that a dog 25 pounds heavier, slower and less agile than the canine body made for disc (like a border collie’s) could overcome it all with practice and determination and love.
The main character is Andrew - Roo for short but I wanted the main character to be Wallace. (I kept getting Roo the person and Wallace the dog mixed up.) Roo and his wife fall in love with a young pit bull shelter dog with an uncertain future until they adopt this high-energy dog and try weight-pulling (at which Wallace also excelled) and Disc Dog. Disc Dog came to be their mainstay and kept the marriage together.
Disc Dog is a new sport where one or two people throw discs (Frisbees) for a dog to catch but they can throw backwards and under their legs and while running. Points are awarded for catching on the fly, for creativity, for difficulty.
Wallace learned to read Roo’s body language and to anticipate where he was going to toss the disc, when, and how fast and high.
Many competitor teams (human and canine) memorize an intricate set of maneuvers (rather like the sport of freestyle – dancing a musical routine with your dog) but Roo kept Wallace guessing. Both were flexible enough to learn each other’s body language - that may be what clinched so many championships, starting in 2005, in Minnesota.
Wallace turned out to be a natural at Disc Dog with high energy and a love for the sport. The bond between Roo and Wallace increased with each competition and each win, and with each fight to garner public acceptance of this breed across the county.
The best way to help demolish the pit bull stereotype may be to become a champion at a sport that pit bulls aren’t best suited for. So, that is what Roo and Wallace do. They learn how to tug, attend a seminar called Coaching The Canine Athlete (by our local Dr. Chris Zink) and help develop the new sport of Disc Dog by becoming a champion several times, appearing on TV and in the press as well.
To see Wallace and read more about this remarkable dog, check out www.WallaceThePitBull.com. You will be astounded!
Clearly Wallace has nothing left to prove - he has done it all!
*Roo also adopted one of Michael Vick’s dogs, Hector, who became a therapy dog. To learn more about Hector, see Jim Gorant’s book, Lost Dogs.
