Dog’s Best Friend: Annals of the Dog-Human Relationship

In Dog's Best Friend, Mark Derr conducts a stylish, humane, often bemused, and highly personal tour of the world of dogs and humans. A sharp-eyed journalist and keen historian with a poet's ear for language, Derr mixes anecdote, solid research, and reportage to produce a work that spans time and cultures, revealing the complexities of our unique bond with canines. Dog's Best Friend first takes us back to prehistoric days when, around the world, small numbers of tamed wolves became dogs, joining their human companions in a new way of life. Derr then introduces us to an astonishing array of talented dogs: squirrel-treeing feists and feral, cattle-hunting curs; retrieves and herders; fleet, tough Alaskan huskies and Navajo sheepdogs who prefer their four-legged charges to people. We also meet dogs trained to locate and rescue victims of disaster, fly after Frisbees, detect everything from contraband mangoes to plastic explosives, stop crime, and guide the blind. Along the way, Derr delivers a hard-hitting analysis of current issues, including the horror of overbreeding dogs for show and profit. Derr's subject, as much as dogs, is people, especially those with the remarkable ability to "get inside the minds of their dogs, " to understand their needs and talents. These exemplars never ask a dog to perform against its nature or to undertake a task at which it will fail, yet they unfailingly raise dogs distinguished for their brains, temperaments, and accomplishments.