I've just read about the Orang Utan and the dog who are going to appear on Oprah Winfrey soon. There are lovely photos with that article and the postures of the Orang Utan are so human it is amazing. I love the photo of the two cuddling, that surely could be a human and his/her dog.

This Jet, my American Cocker Spaniel. I rescued him from the kill shelter here in Las Vegas. He is the smartest most loving dog I think I have ever owned. I have always had Cocker Spaniels, but he is by far the smartest. He is a little larger than most Cockers, this is due partly to the fact that I never had his tail cropped! Strange to see a pure blooded Cocker with his tail. He is a great part of our family, and will be cherished for years!

After posting last week about Jon Katz questioning whether our dogs love us, there was a very sad news item in the UK that demonstrated just how much we love our dogs. A couple with their young baby in a pushchair, were walking their two dogs along a river, when the dogs got into difficulty in the river.

Is it not often you read a book that makes you laugh and cry as well as educating you, that touches your heart and your head, that even leads you to re-evaluate your relationship with your dog; Merle's Door is such a book. The subtitle, Lessons from a Freethinking Dog, alerts you to the fact that this is not your average dog book. In Merle and Ted Kersaote's relationship the usual conventions of "master" and "dog" are challenged. Merle is no ordinary dog, he has a mind of his own, and in Ted he finds the perfect partner for him.

All dog lovers enjoy a good rescue dog story, and the Diplomatic Dog of Barbados, by Winfred Peppinck is exactly that. The dog at the heart of this story starts off living rough with his mother and siblings. He later becomes the captive of a despicable man who wants him as a security dog, and has training methods I've never come across in any training manual.  The wild dog is christened Roy, and the reader is firmly on his side when he makes his escape. 

Dawn Marcus M.D. had spent years telling patients that changes to their lifestyle were the best way to improve their health. She knew that living well was far more important than taking a tablet, but how to covey that to patients? Then Wheatie, a Wheaten Terrier, came into her life, and she realised how much living with a dog enhances your life. Suddenly she was eating more regularly, exercising on a daily basis, sleeping better and laughing more. And all because of Wheatie - to whom living well came naturally.

This book is subtitled, "Rescuing Devon, the most troublesome dog in the world." By the time Border Collie Devon comes into Jon Katz's life, he was two years old and had serious behaviour problems. Devon had failed as an obedience dog, was unruly and disobedient. So why on earth did Jon Katz, who had two wonderful, well behaved Labradors already in his life take such an obviously difficult dog on?

You've probably seen the film but if you haven't read the book on which the film was based, you've missed out. The book includes a lot more about the relationship between Marley and John Grogan. John's thoughts and his interpretations of Marley; things that you can't really portray in a film adequately. Where the film makes the most of its human stars as well as its canine, the book has Marley firmly centre stage.

In the follow up to his The Dog Whisperer book, Graeme Sims delves more deeply into the subject of rescue dogs. The first concept you may have to rethink the what being a rescue dog actually means. Graeme asserts that there are many things a dog may need rescuing from - not the least being the training methods sometimes employed by well meaning owners.