Welcome to the virtual book tour for Jojo Debrazza's new children's book, Dog Eared!
Follow the tour to read reviews, excerpts, and book spotlights:
Exclusive Expert:
Mr Barkalot marched his collie up and down the middle of the room. “Pull your dog back to heel like this,” he said, jerking so hard on the lead that his collie’s head bashed into his knee.
Sophie gave a gentle tug on Lector’s lead. She didn’t want to pull too hard and risk hurting him.
“Come on now,” said Mr Barkalot. “That’s not going to teach him. You need to pull your dog into position firmly.” He demonstrated on his dog again.
Sophie noticed most of the other owners were gently tugging their dogs rather than using the force advised by the trainer. The skinny man, however, seemed to be enjoying pulling his dog back. His skinny dog stumbled as it was pulled into a position it wasn’t ready to be in.
“That’s it. Well done!” yelled Mr Barkalot.
The skinny man looked like the type of person who had been pushed and pulled about his whole life. Sophie wondered if he’d got a dog just so he could be the boss for a change.
Lector had stopped walking, deciding a piece of the skirting board smelled very interesting.
“Come on,Lector,” Sophie said. She instantly regretted speaking. Mr Barkalot’s attention had been attracted. He strode over. “Pull that dog into place now.”
Mr Barkalot’s collie kept its head right by Mr Barkalot’s knee in fear of being yanked again. Mr Barkalot gestured a sharp pulling movement with his free hand.
Sophie didn’t want to pull Lector that sharply so just gave him a modest tug to pull him away from the enticing smell.
“Do it properly.” Mr Barkalot moved closer. His collie moved with him remaining right by his side, its eyes wide with fear. “You need to let your dog know who is boss.” He switched the collie’s lead into his other hand and reached out his bandaged hand to take Lector’s lead.
Sophie held the lead away from Mr Barkalot. “Isn’t that a bit old school?” she said.
“Old school?” Mr Barkalot’s face reddened.
Lily jumped in. “Should we try rewarding him when he walks at her side? So he wants to do it again?”
Mr Barkalot looked down at Lily with disgust. “Oh, we have an expert here,do we? There’s always one that thinks they know it all.”
The rest of the dog owners had stopped walking now. Even the dogs seemed to be paying attention to the exchange.
“I’m not an expert, or trying to be rude,” said Lily. “But I thought positive rewards were the way forward these days.”
“These days?Way forward?” Mr Barkalot repeated. “Looked it up on Watch Tube, or whatever it’s called, have you? Seen a three-minute video and now you know it all.” He looked around the room.
Sophie wondered whether he expected people to laugh or to back him up, but nothing came.
“Who are you to tell me how to train dogs?” Mr Barkalot seemed to be winding himself up. “As I said at the start, that namby-pamby biscuit pushing approach does not work. You have proved this point perfectly because it’s clearly not working for you. If you want your dog to behave I suggest you listen to what I have to say. I’ve been doing this for 30 years and it has always worked for me. Look how obedient my dog is.”
Sophie looked at the trembling collie. “He’s terrified of you.”
The other dog owners shuffled awkwardly.
Mr Barkalot turned purple and looked like he was about to explode.
Sophie thought she may have gone too far but luckily Lector created a distraction by peeing up against the radiator.
A couple of the other dog owners, probably relieved that their dogs hadn’t been the first to disgrace themselves, saw the funny side and tried to make light of the situation.
“That’s the warmest that radiator has been in years,” said the spaniel owner.
Publication Date: April 10, 2018
ASIN: B07C47Z4V4
Length: 140 pages
Genres: Children's Fiction
About Dog Eared:
Dogs can’t read. Right?
When Sophie’s grandfather moves in to a retirement home, Sophie is delighted to take over responsibility for his super obedient dog, Lector. Her grandfather also gives her two journals for Lector and tells her how important they are. But listening isn’t one of Sophie’s strong points.
Sophie’s dream-come-true turns into a nightmare when the usually well behaved Lector turns super-bad overnight. After midnight on his first night with Sophie, Lector gets himself into all kinds of trouble and leads Sophie into a run-in with the local bully. Dogs in the town have been going missing too. Could there be a dog snatcher on the loose?
Sophie desperately needs Lector to return to his former obedient self, especially when her dad and step-mum-to-be announce, to Sophie’s horror, that they are having a baby. Lector’s future with the family is in danger. If Sophie can’t retrain Lector before Sophie’s new half sibling is born, he’ll have to be rehomed.
Can Sophie discover the magical secret to training Lector, and keep him away from the dog snatcher, before it’s too late?
Read an Excerpt:
“I don’t think any of us were expecting this.” Sophie’s dad nodded toward Lector who was now trying to chew the bottom of a kitchen cupboard door.
“He’s not normally like this,” she said hoping her dad wasn’t regretting his decision to let her have Lector. “He’s a good dog really. Maybe he’s missing Grandpops?”
“Possibly,” said Sophie’s dad. “But he’d better get over it soon or else we’ll have no house left. You should’ve seen the state of the front room this morning. Emma was not pleased.”
Sophie was careful not to let her dad see her rolling her eyes. Emma had been nice as pie earlier. She should have said if she was upset. “I saw the sofa, I’m really sorry about that,” Sophie said.
“It wasn’t just the sofa,” Sophie’s dad pulled Lector away from the cupboard. “He ripped up all the magazines and papers that were on the coffee table to shreds too. With all the tiny bits of paper and foam from the sofa, it looked like it had snowed in the front room last night.”
Sophie pulled Lector away from the cupboard again. “No Lector.” She turned to her dad. “Strange. He never chewed anything at Grandpops’ place and he had the run of the whole bungalow.”
Sophie’s dad finished buttering a slice of toast and slid the plate towards Sophie. “Well, it’s all new for him, living here and being without Grandpops, so we can’t be too hard on him. We’ll have to keep him in the kitchen tonight though. He can only destroy so much in here and these units are falling apart anyway.”
Sophie ran her fingers over the rough wood where the laminate was missing on the corner of one of the cupboard doors. She’d peeled it away as a small child. “Okay,” she said. Sophie wasn’t keen on confining Lector, but her dad had let her keep him rather than rehoming him to a stranger and she needed to make sure he didn’t regret his decision.
Spotting an opportunity, Lector jumped up at the worktop in the direction of Sophie’s toast.
“No,” said Sophie. “Off.”
Lector’s front paws were on the edge of the worktop. He stretched his neck towards the toast.
Sophie lunged towards him and reached for his collar, but it was too late. Lector had the toast in his mouth. He jumped down and danced around the kitchen as if the toast between his teeth was a fantastic prize. His tail swiped against the washing machine painting it muddy brown. Sophie’s dad grabbed Lector by the shoulders.
Lector dropped the toast onto the kitchen floor.
Meet the Author:
Jojo is a writer from St Neots in Cambridgeshire, England—although she mostly lives in her head, a carefree happy place where everything is bright and fluffy.
Her debut novella, The Charm, was published in 2014 and the sequel, Mind Games, in 2016.
Jojo likes to take photos of her dog and post them to Instagram and Twitter @jojodebrazza
More Jojo Debrazza stuff can be found on her facebook page, and her blog: https://jojodebrazza.com
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