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A playful look at all things dog.

Emily Yoffe never thought she'd find herself extracting her bra strap from a dog's rear end; in fact, she never thought she'd have a dog at all. This cat devotee was in for some unexpected surprises when she took in a neurotic rescued beagle named Sasha to satisfy her daughter's desire for a dog.

What the Dog Did chronicles Yoffe's journey from cat person to dog lover. The transformation begins with consternation and culminates with real affection: she becomes a foster mother to a series of homeless beagles; she studies (without success) to be a pet psychic; she visits the Department of Homeland Security to watch sausage- and incendiary device-sniffing canines in action. Everyone who has ever owned a dog, has a story to tell and Emily unwittingly becomes the repository for modern-day dog lore. Filled with adventures of heroic dogs, lovable and lazy dogs, malodorous dogs, phlegmatic and incontinent dogs, What the Dog Did delivers some of the most outlandish and certainly the funniest dog stories on record. But at its heart, What the Dog Did tells the story of how Yoffe's family turned Sasha, the skittish stray, into a wonderful pet-and how Sasha transformed Yoffe into a dog-lover for life.
I LOVE DOGS!
Winner of the 2005 General Interest Dog Book of the Year from the Dog Writers' Association of America




Customer Review: Laughed, Thought. Cried.
First off, I'm not a dog person. I've enjoyed Emily's columns at Slate for years and finally decided to buy the book. Didn't realize the emotional roller coaster it would put me on. Haven't laughed, and cried, so hard in years. I guess I'm a dogist at heart.
Customer Review: Too frustrating to finish....
If you are a dog lover or involved in canine behavior, don't torture yourself with this book. As a professional dog trainer/behavior consultant and someone who does rescue, I found this book pretty frustrating. There were some parts (mostly the comments the author's daughter makes) downright hilarious, but some of the stuff about dogs was really disturbing. As I read on, I read more and more upsetting things, until I finally just quit reading it less than halfway through. First, the author admits having adopted a dog with behavioral issues. Then, she hires a "dog trainer" (and I use the term loosely) named "Todd" who uses harsh, from the dark ages training methods. Despite the fact that Sasha "shakes with fear" when this guy comes over, the owner continues to allow him to abuse her dog. This was bad enough, but when she says that this so called trainer is the trainer who was contacted to work with Alastair, the boston terrier who bit her, and he thought the best method of training was to use a shock collar on it, I threw the book in the garbage without finishing it. To someone who truly loves dogs and works with serious behavioral cases, this wasn't funny. It is appalling that someone who considers themself a dog lover would think that shocking a dog with obvious serious behavioral issues is acceptable but that using drugs (which may have actually helped the boston if he were switched to a different drug or a different dosage) is laughable. If I were a boston owner, I would be furious with the comments this woman makes about their breed. Having worked with countless beagles it is frustrating how she acts as though (like many people do) that they are "difficult" and "stubborn" when she just doesn't know how to train dogs reliably. This author needs to stop writing books about dogs and needs to read some on dog training and current behavioral protocols, hopefully before she brings in more rescue dogs! The real scary thing is that "Todd" is out there somewhere shocking and jerking dogs if they "have an opinion" like his own dog Morgan. How sad for all of them.


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