“Dog Breath” by Dav Pilkey is about a dog named Hally Tosis who you guessed it, has bad breath.
In the book Hally’s breath smells so bad that the Tosis family has decided to get rid of Hally. They enjoy his company, but his breath smells so bad that he can no longer stay with them. The children in the family love Hally and want to keep him around so they try to get rid of Hally’s bad breath. They take him to the top of a mountain hoping for a “breathtaking view” and take him to a movie hoping that all the excitement would leave Hally “breathless” none of which cure Hally’s bad breath problem.
The entire book is full of jokes almost as cheesy a Hally Tosis’s name.
In the end Hally Tosis manages to make two burglars who have broken into the Tosis house pass out with the smell of his breath. After capturing the burglars Hally is no longer “the dog with bad breath” in people’s eyes, he has been promoted to “the crime fighting dog”. The Tosis family decides that they should keep Hally after all because “life without Hally Tosis just wouldn’t make any scents!”
I thought this book although cheesy was hilarious. At no point during the story does anyone consider giving good old Hally a Greenie, or even slipping him an Altoid. If they did I guess there wouldn’t be much of a story. I did think it was a bit peculiar that they went to all these extreme measures to deal with what was apparently actually deadly bad breath, but never purchased the dog some mints. My dog’s breath isn’t that bad but he always get a little tin of doggie mints every time I go to the pet store just in case.
If you like dogs, you’ll probably get a kick out of this one. Most of the jokes are a bit too adult for younger readers to understand, but will be hysterical for parents.
“Dog Breath” is available at most bookstores as well as online at Amazon.com