BENGALURU: I was not a pet person until I became a pet parent some months ago. It was a well-thought-out decision and we were fully aware of the lifestyle adjustments we would have to make (especially when travelling) to bring in our new family member. We had been looking for a service dog for my son with special needs. We finally got home a four-monthold English retriever ‘Coco’ and our lives have never been the same again!
Once I entered canine territory, many questions occupied my mind. Are dog people more likely to be extroverts than introverts? Can dogs talk? Why is calling a person a “dog” an insult in almost every language? Why do we say “The world has gone to the dogs”? So I started reading books with dogs as the subject. Here are some that are meant not just for those who love dogs but those who intend to adopt them.
Classic Dog Stories edited by Nancy Butler is a collection of 18 enduring tales by an impressive array of authors – from Mark Twain to Rudyard Kipling to Jack London. The Book of Dog edited by Himali Sodhi is a recent collection of 45 original pieces by some of India’s leading writers, outstanding new voices, and individuals who have dedicated their lives to animal welfare. I loved every essay but my favourite was by Sri Lankan author Ashok Ferry.
Many parents get a dog primarily for their children, and Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion is without doubt one of the most beloved children’s books. The YouTube video of actor Betty White reading the book garnered more than 8 million views! Lessons from Lucy is a laugh riot – you can expect nothing less from Dave Barry – but it is also insightful and touching.
A must-read before becoming a dog parent is Wag: The Science of Making your Dog Happy by dog trainer and social psychologist Zazie Todd whose dos and don’ts of raising a dog I found extremely useful. When it came to scientific books, I absolutely loved Alexandra Horowitz’s Being a Dog: Following the Dog in the World of Smell. Readers will feel that they have broken free from human constraints and understood smell as never before; that they have, however fleetingly, been a dog!
I was immediately drawn to How Stella Learnt to Talk by speech-language pathologist Christina Hunger. Since we use Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) to communicate with our non-verbal son, I was curious to know whether the same techniques could be used for dogs.The author shares how she taught her dog to push buttons on a custom soundboard to form phrases up to five words in length – the same method she uses to teach children to speak and read. Finally, a less known but one of my favourites is Thurber’s Dogs by James Thurber – a collection of short stories, articles and drawings on the subject.
When it came to fiction I watched movie adaptations of books instead of reading them. (However, The Friend by Sigrid Nunez is on my to-read list.) The Dogs Purpose, The Art of Racing in the Rain, Marley & Me and 101 Dalmatians are all wonderful adaptations of bestsellers.
The biggest lesson I have learnt from Coco so far is that dogs overflow with gratitude and never take us for granted. Every time I see her, however brief my absence has been, she greets me with quivering, unbounded joy! It’s a wonder how a relationship between two species that began as entirely based on utility was transformed into something based on love. And maybe it’s time we rethink the usage of ‘going to the dogs’!