Good Dog: True Stories of Love, Loss, and Loyalty (Garden & Gun Books, 2) Paperback – October 6, 2015

I am a dog lover. I always have been. The earliest photos of me are of our dog Cookie and me in my playpen or sitting in the sand at the beach or on our motor boat. I usually had my three year old arm around him. Dogs are the best Christians( and I imagine the best Jews). They love you no matter what you do or don't do. They forgive you if you cause them some type of trouble like taking them to the vet for shots. Now I will tell the story of Cookie 111. She was a British black lab and was smallish in size. When Cookie was about three years old, she seemed despondent. So we got her a puppy....a sort of back up dog. They instantly bonded and our second dog, Gidgit ( the children named her) never cried. Cookie was happy and they played together gleefully. My husband had bought Cookie a station wagon and then decided she needed water to swim. So we bought a cabin on the Lynnhaven river. Both dogs loved it and spent many hours fetching a stick (we threw two but Gidgit always helped Cookie in with her stick). We noticed a strange behavior that Cookie was exhibiting. At high tide, she would swim out a way and then she would be upside down in the water with just her tail and back legs sticking up. We couldn't figure out what she was doing until we told the story to a man who said she was probably eating oysters. At high tide oysters open up to feed. It turned out to be what she was doing. We also noticed a pile of oyster shells under a tree. she was getting them at low tide and bringing them up the hill to eat. She lived 15 years and had no front teeth left. Of course I loved Good Dog.

As a writer of stories I am always on the look out for good stories. I found it with this book. The stories range from simple to no so simple in the wonderful world of dogs. The stories touch all the emotions as a good story will do. With the world a train wreck during these hard times, the dog always seems to continue to offer a safe and wonderful place to hide from this world we live in. It seems to me that you could easily find some more of these great stories to make a Good Dog part 2. Thanks to the author for bringing these stories together in this book!!!!!

I enjoyed this book, as I am confident that any dog lover would. Each short segment or chapter is written by a different author, who shares their own individual experiences with various dogs they have adopted. Most of these contributions include humor, all of them reflect respect and appreciation for the dogs they've befriended. Some of the associations and reflections are touching, but this is far from being a "sad" or melancholy read....that it definately is not. The chapters are short, each easily readable in 10 or 15 minutes.Anyone who appreciates the special relationship between humans and dogs will enjoy this book. Readers will see many of their own feelings and experiences as they read "Good Dog".

A good read, short stories, very heart-felt, another good book from G &G.

I'm a dog guy. I have a German Shepherd, English Shepherd, and Ridgeback something or other all sleeping with a few feet of me as I write this. A good woman, a good dog, and a good truck make for a good life. Some of these writers understand that, some don't. There is one great joke in this book, some great stories. Worth reading. And no, you will not learn anything new about dogs in this book, just maybe understand your place in dog world a little better.

Purchased for a young grandchild who pick it out. I did not realize it's an adult book which most readers likely already know since it has Garden & Gun in large letters at the bottom of the cover. An adult would have been explaining many terms if I hadn't hidden it after I read it. But I'm thankful grandchild did pick it out and fortunate I read it first. Incredibly moving stories.

I love dogs. I love stories about dogs. I love people who tell stories about their dogs. And sometimes I buy books simply because there is a good-looking dog on the cover. That was what happened with this book. Mistake. These stories lack two things: passion (it might be love or disgust, but some strong feeling about the subject of their tales) and development. Even a kitchen-table story teller has to keep his listener with him, has to make her wonder about the outcome, has to pull her and her heart into his story. He has to create some domestic suspense and then present an ending consistent with his theme. That just doesn't happen in these stories. This book is for people who want to read about writers' commonplace lives and who also like dogs. But don't look for the story that surprises you, makes you weep or exult, that reminds you of a poignant event in your own life with dogs. In nearly every story, the writer stands at an odd emotional distance from his pup. Writers in general are a self-absorbed lot, and a lot of southern writers who make their living on being from the South and giving workshops and talking about writing in front of college students or little old ladies often forget the only thing that matters is whether they tell a really absorbing, good story that makes the reader. This book doesn't contain stories like that. It's the only dog book I've ever truly, deeply regretted buying.

More essays than stories, these short pieces are mostly taken from a column in the magazine Garden and Gun. Of course, some are better than others, but all are interesting and are many are quite amusing. There is an emphasis on the South, hunting, and hounds; some of these hounds can actually hunt as the authors explain. Being from the North and a large city, I found something new in this aspect of dogs. I also especially enjoyed the stories of beloved mixed-breed dogs, including pit bulls. A book by dog lovers for dog lovers!