Dogs With Jobs, Review: Laura Greaves’ heartwarming tales
Dogs with Jobs by Laura Greaves is a compelling collection of heartwarming tales about the special bond between canines and humans. Read on for my review.
Dogs with Jobs Book Synopsis
Extraordinary true stories of some of the hardest-working dogs in the world.
Meet Molly Polly, the diabetes alert dog whose round-the-clock job is to keep her two young owners healthy;
Bailey, the Assistant Director of Seagulls, who keeps the pesky birds away from the heritage vessels at the Australian National Maritime Museum; and
Daisy, the Collie mix who’s a full-time guide dog for another dog.
From inspirational moments of bravery to dogs doing the jobs that no one else can, these are the life-affirming stories of the most remarkable dogs on the planet.
(Penguin Books, 2018)
Genre: Nonfiction, Essays
Disclosure: If you click a link in this post we may earn a small commission to help offset our running costs.
Dogs with Jobs Review
I am very much ‘a dog person’. I was fortunate to grow up with dogs and a few months back, very sadly, had to say goodbye to my fourth. She had been a loyal shadow and kept our house running like clockwork. Her absence was loud, the loss initially very raw. But a perceptive friend knew enough time had now passed to gift me this lovely book…
In her introduction to Dogs with Jobs, a collection of essays about 24 different working dogs, Laura Greaves says:
I often say that dogs are a gift we don’t deserve. That’s true of all canines, but perhaps working dogs even more so. What did we do, for example, to deserve a creature with a nose so powerful it can smell a sick little girl’s plummeting blood sugar levels? What makes humans worthy of an animal that would literally throw himself under a bus to protect us?
This unbridled admiration and appreciation for dogs’ amazing capabilities is the lens through which Greaves explores each unique canine-handler relationship in Dogs with Jobs. And, while I am continually impressed by the skill of dogs that carry out valuable functional tasks like herding and detection work, it is those stories of dogs literally transforming, and indeed saving people’s lives that most moved me.
From support and assistance dogs for veterans, quadriplegics and the visually impaired, through to Frankie the hospice dog and Coop the comfort dog for child sexual abuse survivors, what these dogs bring to their humans’ lives is incomparable and invaluable.
Laura Greaves’ Dogs with Jobs is a wonderful title to dip into, and read a story or two, whenever you are in need of a boost, or simply a healthy dose of perspective. Few hearts will fail to be moved by these stories of loyalty, resilience, dedication and commitment by very special dogs and their humans.
BOOK RATING: The Story 4.5 / 5 ; The Writing 4 / 5 – Overall 4.25
Get your copy of Dogs with Jobs from:
Amazon Book Depository Booktopia AU Bookshop US
More books about animals:
About the Author, Laura Greaves
Laura Greaves is a multi-award-winning journalist, author and proud ‘crazy dog lady’. She has spent more than twenty years writing for newspapers and magazines in Australia and around the world and is the former editor of Dogs Life magazine. She is the author of the collections Incredible Dog Journeys, Dogs with Jobs, Extraordinary Old Dogs, The Rescuers and Miracle Mutts, the children’s book Amazing Dogs with Amazing Jobs, as well as three romantic comedy novels, Be My Baby, The Ex-Factor and Two Weeks ’Til Christmas, all of which feature an extensive supporting cast of cheeky canines. She has twice won the Dog Writers Association of America’s Rio Award, which recognises the best book about a dog that has impacted a human’s life in a profoundly positive way.
This review counts toward my participation in the Nonfiction Reader Challenge 2021, the Aussie Author Challenge 2021 and the 2021 Australian Women Writers Challenge.
