PORTRAITS OF A POTTY PET (101 Uses for a Lab - Dale C Spartas)

Member Name: stuleg

Product:	101 Uses for a Lab - Dale C Spartas
Date:	26/09/09 (74 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lovely pictures of Labrador Retrievers

Disadvantages: Pictures a little small

Being the proud owner of three Black Labradors - quite possibly the most gorgeous examples of the breed around, definitely the most pampered and loved - I get given all manner of Labrador related items for birthdays/Christmas or any other day for that matter. The festive season wouldn't feel the same without that pair of socks/gloves/bookmark replete with one or more Labradors smiling back. Last Christmas I delved into my stocking and retrieved a compact little tome bearing the legend "101 uses for a Lab" by Dale C. Spartas. Not being sure if this was some sort of complex manual to train and turn my Labrador into a Guide dog, or a sniffer and retriever of illegal drugs, I turned the pages with trepidation. After all, the only uses I ever stipulate on any canine crossing the threshold into my life is that they show the same amount of love and unquestioned loyalty that I lavish upon them.

In truth, my Labradors need not have worried. The book is little more than a whimsical look at Labradors in various positions and in various acts caught for posterity in pictorial form. It turns out Mr Spartas is a photographer of some repute - with four previous dog themed publications to his name - and it is his gloriously coloured and detailed pictures that form the mainstay of the book, with just a few descriptive words beneath should each depiction not be clear enough without them. We get treated to over a hundred black, brown and blonde canines of the Labrador persuasion doing what they do best - goofing around, being cute and enjoying life. A great many of the pictures seem to focus on Labradors looking daft with something clamped in their mouths. Not unusual for a dog that is bred for retrieving, though you have to wonder what the subject of number seventy-one was up to when caught for posterity with a bottle of "Black Dog Ale" clamped steadfastly in his maw. Now that's one training tip I wouldn't mind teaching my brood - providing they didn't drink the nectar on route from the fridge!

My personal favourite entries? Well there are a couple - Number forty one sees a Black Lab with the world's biggest bone clamped between its jaws, and the one word legend beneath - "Archaeologist". The other entry that amused me above others was number eighteen, in which we see a Labrador shaking after a dip in the river. The legend "Lawn sprinkler" can only truly be appreciated by those of us who have inadvertently stood too close to a Labrador as it shakes a seemingly impossibly amount of water every which way.

I do have a couple of gripes with the book - the first is only a minor one - it is that the photographs and captions have a distinctly American feel to them. But those of us who know what a Q tip or faucet are and can accept the seemingly large proportion of men in plaid shirts shouldn't struggle too much. And since the Author/photographer is American I'm not sure what I was expecting. Maybe they are paving the way for a second edition featuring international Labradors - who wouldn't want to see a Thai version of this magnificent breed causing mayhem and mirth in a Paddy field, or a German incarnation running wild and free in the Black Forrest - I'd pay to see that! Also, for a publication that is concentrating on photographs the book is a little on the small size - just 15cm squared. And the photographs don't even fill these small pages, so you are left looking at a picture roughly the length and width of a playing card. I feel the book would be far better if it were twice the size, allowing the rich and colourful photographs to be enjoyed in far more detail. This feels a little like gazing at a masterpiece the size of a postage stamp. And at the full price of a penny short of a tenner it is perhaps a little on the expensive side for what it is.

That said this is still a lovely book for Labrador lovers to enjoy and cherish. It has no real story, and only a smattering of words. But the characters within are ten times better than in any other book. Cuter, funnier, and much more loveable. Four stars out of five from me.

Summary: A lovely book probably best enjoyed by Labrador owners