• “Written by the Mark Twain of dog writers, A
Useful Dog is an evocative collection of deftly written stories
that will capture the hearts of dog lovers everywhere. Few writers
can match McCaig's ability to speak to the bond between people and
dogs with such quiet and unassuming grace.”
—Patricia B. McConnell, author of The Other End of the
Leash and For the Love of a Dog
• "McCaig's tales of working dogs are luminous and tocuhing.
If you ever loved a dog, you will love this book."
—Carol Lea Benjamin
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A Useful Dog |
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| Donald McCaig |
| 96 pages, 5 x 7 |
| Cloth 978-0-8139-2617-9 • $14.95 |
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Alternately comical, melancholic, pragmatic, and poetic, Donald
McCaig’s collection A Useful Dog offers a delightful
exploration of the simple yet rich relationship between dogs and
humans. Having cast aside urban life in the 1970s in favor of
working and living on a sheep farm in Virginia, McCaig has spent
the past three decades raising working sheepdogs and writing about
his experiences with them. A Useful Dog comprises a selection
of short pieces—vintage McCaig—that reveal not only
the ins and outs of sheepdog work and trials but also the joy
and devotion that dogs bring to our daily lives. For any dog enthusiast,
this little book will prove a telling reminder of why the dog
became known as man’s best friend.
Donald McCaig, sheepdog trainer and writer,
is the author of Nop’s Trials, Eminent Dogs, Dangerous
Men (both about working border collies), Jacob’s Ladder
(a Civil War novel), and An American Homeplace (Virginia).
He lives on a farm outside Williamsville, Virginia with sheepdogs
Slick, Luke, June, Zip, Silk and sheep guard dogs Ruth and Boo.
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