The New Work of Dogs: Tending to Life, Love, and Family [Hardcover]

Jon Katz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 6, 2003

“Sometimes human-dog relationships are simple, unrelated to the emotional lives and histories of either species. But often people acquire and love dogs with little awareness that they might have complex and revealing reasons for choosing the dog or pet they choose, loving it the way they do.”

Writing about his own dogs in A Dog Year, Jon Katz became immersed in a larger community of dog lovers and came to realize that in an increasingly fragmented and disconnected society, dogs are often treated not as pets, but as family members and human surrogates.

The New Work of Dogs profiles a dozen such relationships in a New Jersey town, like the story of Harry, a Welsh corgi who provides sustaining emotional strength for a woman battling terminal breast cancer; Cherokee, companion of a man who has few human friends and doesn’t know how to talk to his own family; the Divorced Dogs Club, whose funny, acerbic, and sometimes angry women turn to their dogs to help them rebuild their lives; and Betty Jean, the frantic founder of a tiny rescue group that has saved five hundred dogs from abuse or abandonment in recent years.

Drawn from hundreds of interviews and conversations with dog owners and lovers, breeders, veterinarians, rescuers, trainers, behaviorists, and psychiatrists, The New Work of Dogs combines compelling personal narratives with a penetrating look at human/animal attachment, and questions whether this relationship shift is an entirely positive phenomenon for both species. Katz offers us a portrait of a community, and by extension a country, that is turning to its pets for emotional support and stability—a difficult job that more and more dogs are expected to do every day. The New Work of Dogs is a provocative and moving exploration of the evolving role dogs play in a changing and uncertain world.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Katz, a novelist and nonfiction author (A Dog Year; Geeks), here explores the bond between dogs and their owners. Focusing on 12 people-dog relationships in Montclair, N.J., and drawing on current research into attachment theory, interviews with animal workers and psychiatrists, as well as conversations with dog owners, Katz offers nuanced portraits of what happens when humans depend on dogs to satisfy their emotional needs. He contends that high divorce rates, an unstable workplace and the shrinking extended family are some of the reasons that people have come to rely on pets instead of one another during times of crisis. Donna, a divorced woman with terminal cancer, turns to her Welsh corgi for comfort and as an antidote to loneliness. In a darker portrait, Katz tells the story of Jamal, a troubled 14-year old and the owner of a pit bull whom he clearly loves, and yet beats daily. Katz also describes the laudable work of Betty Jean, who devotes her life to rescuing dogs from shelters-but who gives little attention to her grown children or grandchildren. Although Katz, a dog owner himself, appreciates the strong tie between humans and dogs, he fears that many owners use their pets as support during hard times, only to discard them later: Kate's German shepherd, for example, helped her recover from her husband's death, but she gave the dog away when she remarried. In this well-written and thoughtful account, Katz makes a convincing case that dog owners must be more self-aware and responsible when they use their pets as human substitutes.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Praise for Jon Katz’s A Dog Year

“Moving, funny...a lovable mutt of a book.” —Chicago Tribune

“What distinguishes Katz’s witty canine account from most others is his abstention from sentimentality....The adventures described in A Dog Year are the stuff of great fiction....Part cautionary tale, part love story, A Dog Year reminds us that adopting a pet is a massive responsibility but one that rewards the owner with a richer, more meaningful life.” —Los Angeles Times

“This gentle book is a great reminder—as if anybody needed one—of what animals can mean to people at particular times in life.” —The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“Thoughtful and heartbreaking...Grade: A.” —Rocky Mountain News

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Villard; 1st edition (May 6, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375508147
• ISBN-13: 978-0375508141
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,369,979 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Bedlam Farm in upstate New York is where I live, write and tend my animals - four dogs, two donkeys, two barn cats. The rambling old farmhouse was built in 1862; it's surrounded by pastures, streams and wooded hillsides, plus four barns and a milkhouse in various stages of disrepair.

I write books- memoirs, novels, short story collections, and beginning in 2011, children's books. I am also a photographer.

In my former life, before I grew preoccupied with sheepherding and moving manure around. I wanted to change my life and write more about the experience of living with and understanding animals.
I write novels and nonfiction books (I've written 20 books), along with columns and articles for Rolling Stone, Wired, the New York Times, and the website HotWired.
Coming to the farm turned out to be a Joseph Campbell style "Hero's Journey." I went off into some dark places, got divorced, struggled to face myself, and found someone to share my life.

My wife Maria Wulf is an artist, who specializes in fiber art. She works in the Studio Barn across the road from the farmhouse. Earlier this year, I thought briefly of selling Bedlam Farm. After getting married, we decided to stay here. My daughter Emma, a sportswriter living in Brooklyn, has written her own book about New York baseball. I publish a blog I love dearly - www.bedlafarm.com. My photos appear there daily. My dogs are Izzy, Lenore, Frieda and Rose, the working dog who helps me run the farm.

My writing life began with a novel - "Sign Off" - an unwittingly prescient story about the jarring changes in work and security.

This year - 2010 - I am returning to fiction. I've written a novel, "Rose In A Storm," about a border collie stranded on a farm in upstate New York during a terrible storm. I wrote this book in conjunction with some animal behaviorists who helped me enter the mind of a dog, and hopefully, be faithful to that. My first children's book "Meet The Dogs Of Bedlam Farm," will be published by Henry Holt next year. I have just finished a short story collection to be published next year by Villard/Random House.
In recent years, photography has become central to me as well as writing. I have been fortunate enough to have several gallery showings of my work, and also sell my photos as notecards through the Redux Gallery in Dorset, Vt.

I am also working on a book about animal grieving. Hopefully, it will be useful.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Read by an Excellent Author, July 25, 2003

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The New Work of Dogs: Tending to Life, Love, and Family (Hardcover)

Dog lovers who enjoyed A DOG YEAR and RUNNING TO THE MOUNTAIN are forewarned. THE NEW WORK OF DOGS is not a walk in the park, though author Jon Katz indulges readers with a few anecdotal romps. This is a call to arms. Pet people around the world will reluctantly learn about the underbelly of the dog world, the realities that lurk outside the realm of most fenced yards, and bedrooms where dogs and cats lounge like royalty. And it's a hard pill to swallow, though Katz, through his wonderful writing, softens the blow.

From the cocoon of his home in Montclair, New Jersey, a wealthy suburb where many dogs and kids are pampered, Katz takes readers on a sad yet real journey into a world where dogs are thrown from cars, battered by their owners, and discarded like trash. This is the story of what happens to them if saints of the dog world, people who form organizations like Save the Pets, find them. And it is the story of what Katz calls "the new work" of dogs --- to fill the emotional voids created by a culture in which television has replaced community, where work dominates schedules and friendships fill in the gaps.

THE NEW WORK OF DOGS is a good read by an excellent author about a topic that will break the heart of any animal lover. With statistics that startle any compassionate person, let alone a dog person, the book delves into the realities of the world we have created --- a world where most dog owners call themselves mommy and daddy and spent $29 billion on their pets in 2001; the same world where between 8 and 10 million dogs enter the U.S. shelter system and close to 5 million are killed "because there are no homes for them," says Katz.

A true journalist, Katz follows a few dog owners to discover their motivation for owning dogs. And while they are all good-hearted and well intended, the discoveries that he makes will tug on heartstrings when readers realize that dogs have entered a whole new realm of existence. These are dog owners who have unwittingly delegated the responsibility of companionship and personal fulfillment to four-legged creatures whose only charge should be eating, sleeping, perhaps a bit of obedience training and, well, relieving themselves.

"During many interviews, it seemed that the people I was talking to had holes of one sort or another in their lives; they were hoping that a dog might fill it," says Katz, who did a tremendous amount of research for this book that prompts readers to delve further.

What readers discover in this 223-page book is that, while some dogs are loved more than ever before --- in the form of hired dog walkers, gourmet dog food, and high-end pillow beds --- they are purchased to alleviate emotional needs of their owners, an unfair prospect for the sweetest of canine companions. A widow who will ultimately remarry and relegate new-found best friend to a small yard without daily walks, a workaholic who is unable to relate to his children or wife, a single woman who focuses her attention on a small dog after being continually disappointed by friends. These are some of the folks you meet in the pages of THE NEW WORK OF DOGS, a book that is difficult to pick up and even harder to put down. It is a story that will stay with you.

--- Reviewed by Heather Grimshaw

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not just pulling sleds any more, September 22, 2004

By 

Lynn Hamilton (Tybee Island, GA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The New Work of Dogs: Tending to Life, Love, and Family (Hardcover)

Not many dogs pull sleds these days, and only a few fight crime. But that doesn't mean dogs aren't working. Not according to Jon Katz, whose latest book, The New Work of Dogs, explores the less documented duties canines have assumed within family life.

Katz's previous book, A Dog Year, was a popular personal account of the 12 months he spent with two crazy border collies and a pair of laid-back labs, animals that had a transformative effect on his life. Now, with his new book he takes a look at other people's pets, compiling the stories of men and women who have hit a wall in their lives and found comfort in the family canine.

According to Katz, the new work of the American dog is to be companion, counselor, nurse, even surrogate child. One of his subjects, Sandra Robinson, is divorced, miserable and thwarted in her dreams of having children. She fills the void with a new puppy, Ellie. Rob Cochran feels walled in by the demands of his family and his high-paying job. Through his dog, Cherokee, Cochran vicariously experiences the simple, uninhibited life that eludes him personally.

These are lofty roles for our furry friends, but, as Katz shows, they're up to the task. His list of working dogs is as varied as his register of the people who need them. One chapter tells of the Divorced Dogs Club, a group of divorced women who get together and embellish their list of ways that dogs are better than men.

Perhaps the most moving story he tells is of Donna Dwight, a cheerful, dynamic woman dying of cancer whose Welsh Corgi, Harry, accompanies her almost to the gates of death, providing love and companionship all the way. His true work is to save her from feeling alone in the most dreadful hours of her life. And he never flinches, as would so many humans, in the face of cancer's ugliness. "He might not have wanted to push sheep around, but he was ready to work with Donna," writes Katz. As his touching new book proves, a good dog's work is never done.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars We're Giving Dogs Work They Cannot Do, November 24, 2003

By 

M. JEFFREY MCMAHON "herculodge" (Torrance, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The New Work of Dogs: Tending to Life, Love, and Family (Hardcover)

Katz's insightful thesis is that as our society grows more fragmented and irresonsible many of us will suffer intense isolation, compelling us to look to dogs for substitute sources of friendship and family. As a result, a tragic paradox has inflicted the canine world: On one hand, dogs are now regarded with higher esteem but on the other hand our unrealistic expectations result in disappointment and frustration, resulting in the neglect, abuse, and anger against dogs, many of which are abandoned. Katz isn't saying we shouldn't lavish love on dogs. Rather, he is saying we should be aware of the kind of emotional needs we're requiring our dogs to make and to perhaps not fall into the trap of overdoing our dog obsession. To make his point, he provides about a dozen in-depth profiles of dog owners, many lonely and alienated from society and shows the pressures their loneliness puts on their dogs.