Books and dogs

    Have a look at So Many Books' post about reading to dogs - what a wonderful idea! I hadn't heard of dogs being used for that form of assistance before but it makes perfect sense, and it has started in this country, too, I discover (see Scotts the greyhound and his young reading companions in this clip).

   As to dogs in books, there are many examples given in the interview/article The Dog and the Novel, one of which is Richard Adams' The Plague Dogs. I took my copy off the shelf to photograph Rowf there on the cover and discovered inside notes my seventeen-year-old self took when The Book Programme featured Adams many years ago (I'd forgotten just how keen I was).

   Do you have any favourite 'literary dogs'? I have to approach books featuring dogs with great care as I can't bear it when they are in danger or come to harm, and the latest version of Lassie (though filmed in my homeland) was all too much for Harriet and me!