Working Like a Dog: The Story of Working Dogs Through History

Linda M. McClure is an administrator at the University of Alberta in
Edmonton.

Working Like a Dog is a lighthearted exploration of the development of
the working dog and the dog’s relationship with people through
history.

The book begins with a brief overview of the family tree of the genus
Canidae—including the doglike marsupials of Australia in a section
titled “The Wolf That Wasn’t”—and then goes on to explore the
role of dogs in prehistory and early civilizations such as Egypt,
Assyria, Greece, and Rome.

With the support of a number of black-and-white pictures, ranging from
historical woodcuts to recent photographs, Gorrell examines the
development of various dog breeds based on the jobs the dogs were
required to perform. In the amusingly titled chapters “Making Sense of
Scents” and “The Nose Knows,” she looks at the roles of modern
working dogs in search and rescue and law enforcement, from fugitive
searches to drug- and bomb-sniffing dogs. After a sobering exploration
of dogs in wartime, presented in the chapter “Dark Days Dogs Go to
War,” she describes the training and work performed by modern service
dogs that assist people who are blind, epileptic, or otherwise
physically disabled. She concludes the book with an entertaining review
of the role of dogs on stage and in film.

This thoroughly enjoyable and well-documented book is enhanced by
charts, diagrams, and quotations. Recommended.