Even if you don’t like dogs, admit it: they want to help humans. Sometimes they’re too goofy to help, but with proper training dogs do amazing things.

Author Gena Gorrell goes way deep into the dog’s past—to roughly 15,000 years ago. Gorrell follows dogs from their first appearance to Ancient Egypt to their present position as “human’s best friend”. But she points out that they’re far more than that. Dogs have served humans since they stepped up to the dinner plate.

Broken up into nine chapters, readers can follow dogs through a range of their jobs—war, rescue, and guiding, for example. There are some unsavoury, inhumane activities that will shock some readers. Gorrell includes source notes and a bibliography. Even if you’re not mad about dogs, you’ll still walk away impressed by canine crusaders.

Working Like a Dog is a truly amazing book. When I picked it up, I thought it looked interesting with a humorous title. Before I started reading I did wonder if there really was that much to know about the history of dogs, but by the end of the book I had learned a lot. For example, the Chinese-bred Pekinese dogs do look like lions. I also learned that people have lived with dogs as friends and companions since the time of the Egyptians. But dogs have been more than just friends. At the time of the First World War, a dog name Sergeant Stubby was awarded medals for bravery.

I enjoyed reading this book so much that I found myself reading at the oddest times and sometimes late at night. Each chapter was full of such good stories that I had trouble putting the book down. Some of the stories were pretty funny too. I loved the story about the guy who tried to smuggle mangoes under the hood of his car. The mangoes cooked and so the sniffer dogs had no trouble catching him!

The book deserves a 10 out of 10 because I found the whole thing unexpectedly interesting. I also thought the drawings and pictures went well with the stories. The picture of Sergeant Stubby wearing his medals was highly amusing. I can’t describe this book in one word, but the closest I can get is amazing.


(Originally published in the Nov/Dec 2004 issue of YES Mag.)