Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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

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.

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.

This is a book that should be required reading for anyone who's thinking of buying a dog. The wide cross section of dog owners profiled allows almost anyone to find bits and pieces of themselves or their lives among the dozen or so vignettes of people and families. Each anecdote reads like a short story in which Katz tries hard not to judge the dog owners, but to help readers understand the frustrations, failures, heartbreak, joy, satisfaction and love that are all part of living with canines. His journalism background helps him draw pictures that are not always flattering and may scuttle the dreams or fantasies many would-be owners may have about what it is like to own and live with a dog. But these are stories that need to be read and understood before a dog purchase or adoption, not after.

Katz proposes that the work of dogs has evolved in the past several decades. Once bred for physical labor, dogs seem to have been relegated to something akin to an emotional crutch for members of an alienated, lonely and driven society. What Katz seems to be trying to decipher is how wide a gap there is between the our modern expectations of dogs and their ability to deliver something even close to our demands.

But while Katz often talks about the appeal of owners' satisfaction in their dogs' perceived unconditional love, I'm forced to wonder: Isn't the greater appeal of dogs that we are able to GIVE them unlimited amounts of love that they never reject, never mock and never betray? Because, in the end, the love humans give is almost always more satisfying and joy-filled that the love they receive. Maybe that, in the end, is the dog's true appeal.

Other reviews of this book have done a good job of summarizing its thesis, which is that dogs were "previously" bred for physical labor and are now primarily in the business of serving their owners' emotional needs.

I've really enjoyed some of Katz's previous books. I am not a "dog person," but I have found his analysis of dog/human interactions to be well-documented and surprising. This book, however, was a big disappointment. Katz provides little evidence for his historical generalizations, and, by focusing largely on suburban owners who have unbalanced relationships with their canines, he overstates the significance of the "new work" he identifies for dogs.

Katz focuses almost exclusively on middle-class American dog owners, with little attention to urban dwellers (save one chapter)or rural dog-owners who still use their dogs for farm labor or hunting, not "show" sheepherding. What about dogs in other countries and locales, who still perform work in a variety of contexts? We don't even have to leave the US for examples. How are dogs in Alaska or Wyoming or the Jersey Pine Barrens different from dogs in the smug 'burb of Montclair?

Dogs have labored as part of the family for centuries, and they still do in many parts of the world. But that doesn't mean they also haven't served as loved and loving companions as well. Literature from previous eras is full of examples of how domestic pets have meant more to their humans than just "go get the sheep, Spike." (And not just in children's books; check out poet Christopher Smart's seventeenth-century poem "In Praise of my Cat Geoffrey.") Katz doesn't talk about the history of dog/human relationships in depth; he simply argues by assertion that dogs were "previously" used for physical labor and are are "now" primarily engaged in emotional labor.

I think a wider perspective and a "both/and" focus would be more informative for Katz to pursue. Today, serving humans' emotional needs may be the primary task of suburban dogs - but it's not the ONLY THING. Sometimes humans' relationships with dogs are balanced rather than pathological or subtly abusive (like many of the owners he portrays in his book). Some dogs aren't just "used" by humans, but develop powerful attachments to people - in spite of Katz's assertion, based on advice from a breeder friend, that dogs will forget a vanished human almost immediately.

Finally: when humans observe emotional responses in animals, this doesn't necessarily mean we're anthropomorphizing. Perhaps emotions aren't a uniquely human province. Perhaps humans as a species aren't as exceptional as we like to think we are. Perhaps there is a much wider territory out there than Katz maps here.

Dog lover might be an understatement for my fascination with this species but this book only reinforces my tenuous claim to sanity in light of the fact that seven dogs currently live with me. The fact that we can trust these animals with our confidences and emotional turmoil much more than most of our human companions is substatiated in Katz' writings about dogs. They are trusting and loving to a fault and yet do demand a commitment from us that far too many people do not take seriously. Thus we hear, "It's only a dog." The lessons learned by children and adults from dogs are important and should not be ignored or downplayed by the,"only a dog" remark. They too love, feel pain and joy, and suffer many of the travails of their human counterparts. For many children, coping with the loss of their dog is the first experience of death. A dog may also be their biggest source of comfort in the loss of another family member. The importance of this partnership should never be downplayed and Katz treats this with respect and brings it to light especially for those poor "dogless" people.

I've followed Jon Katz's work from his mystery series through his technology writing to his more personal recent non-fiction, and his evolution has been an incredible thing to see. This is a great "dog book", so far as that goes, but it's much more besides - interesting and moving stories and people combined with an original and insightful view of our society... and beautifully written as well.

I really enjoyed reading this book about the new work of dogs. Jon Katz writes what I always see in the lives of people with dogs, but can't exactly put into words. He does a great job of that by writing about the lives of people with dogs and how their dogs serve them. Yes, there are actual working dogs in the world working on farms and such. But the work he writes about in this book is more emotional, even spiritual. It is about how we see our dogs, what we expect of them, and in turn how we treat them. Some people in the book relied on their dogs for emotional support, companionship, unconditional love. Others only needed them for a season of their lives, then discarded them, or didn't see their dogs as in need just as we are for just being dogs and having human companionship. I see people like this everywhere. Jon Katz does a fantastic job of writing about real-life examples of this new work. Some stories are heartbreaking, while others make you smile. It's a great book.

This is a phenomenal book and a very easy read. Jon Katz writes of several case stories of different individuals and their dogs. He examines the bond between human and animal. He explains what their humans expect of them and how the dogs fit in to their world. He clearly depicts how each dog and human react in each story, but also explains later in the book that every situation and relationship is unique.

Sometimes a dog will take on different roles as in the case of the author's dog Devon. Devon ordinarily was not receptive to rambunctious children but for some reason warmed up immediately to Joey, a severely disabled boy. The story of Tom and his dog Penny made me laugh at times, Donna and her dog Harry made me cry, and Diane with her dog Chaos made me smile.

He examines the life of a dog by explaining the "work" that they perform in a relationship in today's world of dogs and how it differs from years ago when dogs, for the most part, were allowed to run free. You will begin to understand how dogs go from "puppyhood" to many times being one of those unfortunate enough to end up in an animal shelter. He delves into what it's like to run a dog rescue group and eloquently depicts the tremendous effort Betty Jean's organization puts into the rescue effort. Her organization can only make an imperceptible dent in the shelter population; but that dent is worth a life to the dog that's rescued.

The author, without exception, must have been on an emotional roller coaster ride when writing this book. He had to delve into the lives of good, bad, and unfortunate relationships as an observer only. The composure with which he writes the book is commendable. He will have any reasonable person laughing, crying, and smiling all in the same book as well as expressing a gamut of other emotions. Any reasonable person reading this book will become introspective, ESPECIALLY a dog owner. I highly recommend reading it!

I COMPLETELY disagree with the person who writes that Katz is judgmental. He seems to admire the rescuers. What Katz DOES throughout this book is represent a fair amount of us dog owners who love our dogs something terrible, who WANT to believe that there is something special going on in those heads of theirs, but feel there is always a rational explanation. Is my dog licking my face because he loves me or because there are traces of salt on my skin? Katz also examines how we place dogs in our society now, and what that says about us. A great book.