Reviews for Dog's Best Friend: Annals of the Dog-Human Relationship

The average rating for Dog's Best Friend: Annals of the Dog-Human Relationship based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-05-06 00:00:00 Patricia Elerick Mark Derr's book looks at dogs throughout history: their evolution from the wolf, the divide between small and large dogs, dogs and scent, fighting, work dogs, show dogs, sled dogs, hunting/retrieving, training and service dogs -- even animal rights. Along the way he bursts a lot of bubbles, particularly when it comes to breeding and showing dogs. His take is that inbreeding has weakened almost all "pure" dog varieties, and that the standards used by show-dog and field-dog organizations are a matter of taste and opinion that say something about humans, not canines. Derr's writing is entertaining and informative. He's opinionated and doesn't mind sharing. He doesn't hold people who use choke or electric collars or who resort to physical punishment (instead of consistent training and positive reinforcement) in any sort of regard. This is not a how-to book, though parts of it are how-not-to. I learned a lot about two-legged and four-legged animal behavior. He sort of pooh-poohs the Freudian theories of Boris Levinson, but still includes this pearl, maybe to bait me and my kind: "Levinson also argued that dogs embodied the id and anal fantasies. 'Dreams and fantasies involving horses and dogs reveal penis envy in women,' he said. 'Men, on the other hand, while they have a lot to do with dogs, rarely imbue their pets with phallic significance.' " I beg to differ. Actually, I demand it. Fellas, it's not always about your penises. The universe doesn't revolve around them, and I live a pretty content life, with a dog, giving penises little or no thought. (I can't say the same for my dog, who likes to sniff dog and human parts, though without any detectable envy. It's her way of getting to know you.) Sometimes a dog is just a dog. But, what is dog fighting or a man boasting about his expensive, big, scary, rare breed if not blatant pecker-checking? And, isn't that insecurity a close cousin to envy? That's my only quibble with Derr's book, that he perpetuated Levinson's steaming turd of a theory in an otherwise good book. If you have a mutt, you'll like this book. If you paid a lot of money for a dog with a piece of paper, you probably won't. (The hardcover edition I read dates to 1997.)

Review # 2 was written on 2011-09-10 00:00:00 Erin Murphy An academic view of the relationship between dogs and humans. Mark Derr is particularly scathing toward the AKC and the American mania for purebreds, which destroys dogs genetically, physically, and intellectually. He is especially fond of unregistered breeds like curs, feists, and Catahoula leopard dogs, of which he owns two. I agreed with most of his conclusions, but felt like the work as a whole was a bit wandering.