Luck of the Irish

When the plane carrying Stephen's father is presumed to have gone down in the jungles of Venezuela, he finds his life and plans for college have crashed as well. The running of the family's farm falls squarely on his young shoulders, alone, until the day a courier arrives with a dog. Rex is a show dog, destined to board in the kennels at the farm. Angus decides to stay, willing to help Steve with the farm chores for only room and board, but turns out to have experience with training show dogs as well.

Though much of this tale is obviously dated, and some of the descriptions might be considered offensive by modern standards, it still is a pretty good tale of a boy and his dog.