The inspiration for book topics can come in surprising ways. When U.S. Navy Seals Team Six killed El Quida leader Osama bin Laden, the crew included a military working dog. When people learned a dog was involved in the raid, they wanted to learn everything about it–what breed, gender, and what work such dogs do.
“The Right Dog for the Job” follows Irah, a wonderful golden retriever who started out as a service dog in training and ended up as a Guide Dog for the Blind. I made many new friends, both canine and human, while working on this project.
Dogs and people work together to achieve many different goals using the dog’s amazing sense of smell. They find trapped earthquake and avalanche victims, stashes of dangerous drugs, nasty invasive weeds, and more.
Learn how humans developed different kinds of dogs for different jobs, how dog and human brains and hormones work together to bond us, and how new helpful jobs for dogs have come about.
I recently made an appearance at the beautiful new Billings, Montana, public library to talk about the dog books I’ve written for children. The first, “Maggie: A Sheep Dog,” about a sheep guard dog, came out in 1986, and my next book, “Dog on Board: The True Story of Eclipse …
The American Kennel Club website can be a great resource for dog lovers. If you’re like me, you mainly think of the club in terms of dog shows and breed requirements, but the site offers so much more than information about shows and pedigree registration. Here’s a sample of the …
