How My Dog Saved My Life: Thirty Tales of Courage and Compassion
by Cate Cochran
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Description
"Dogs are deeply empathetic and able to understand humans in ways that surpass language. Any dog owner knows how comforting it is to have their dog nuzzle them at just the right moment. Dogs can also act in ways that are at times astonishing--not only sensing danger, but actively finding ways to help in an emergency How My Dog Saved My Life is full of stories about clever and courageous canines--dogs that save people from a burning building, run a great distance to bring help to the scene of show more a car crash, or guide rescuers across the freezing tundra to save their owner in the nick of time. These heroic rescue stories are here. But rescue goes beyond world-altering accidents--often, it's in the everyday. Dogs and people share a mysteriously communicative bond. Dogs' unique capacity to intuit the needs of their humans and respond equips them to be trained as sophisticated service animals. Most people are familiar with seeing eye dogs, but there are myriad other types of service dogs, perhaps as many as there are people whose lives are improved by them. You'll meet some of these remarkable dogs in this book. How My Dog Saved My Life brings you stories of dogs that change the course of their owners' lives through their physical bravery and uncanny, unwavering commitment to their person. These stories will remind you why the love between humans and their dogs is so enduring and has the power to profoundly change someone's world. This book is for all dog lovers. It will pull at your heartstrings and teach you a little bit more about the animals that share our homes and lives."-- show lessTags
Member Reviews
After the somewhat disappointing read of Wonderdog - How the Science of Dogs Changed the Science of Life by Jules Howard last year, I added How My Dog Saved My Life - Thirty Tales of Courage and Compassion by Cate Cochran to my TBR, convinced this would scratch my canine related itch.
Listening to the audiobook narrated by Kate Marcin, the book is a series of thirty stories of dog owners and the dogs that saved their lives. I guess I was expecting the majority of stories would be the kind where regular family dogs perform extraordinary feats of bravery or uncanny ability but that's not what I found.
There were a small handful of stories like those I expected to encounter, like the family dog who alerted a sleeping partner that his wife show more had collapsed in the basement and had a stroke. Another involved a 5 year old girl who fell into a corn crushing machine on her family's farm. Fortunately their German Shepherd ran to the farmer operating the mulching machine and barked insistently until he turned it off. This saved the girl's life although her brother had already run for help.
I wanted more stories like these, however the majority of the thirty life-saving events recounted in the book were about service dogs and their owners. Cochran provides a short bio of each of the owners, and the physical and mental challenges they face along with the service dogs who provide more than comfort and companionship.
All of the tales originated from Canada and after a while they began to feel formulaic and repetitive. There were many inferences that owners wouldn't have survived without the assistance and unconditional love of their service dogs with the reader left to assume they're implying they would have committed suicide if it weren't for their service dog. Perhaps I'm being a little harsh here or I went in with unrealistic expectations, but I was looking forward to reading a book about 30 times a dog literally saved someone's life, not 25 stories about hugely successful service dogs and the amazing bonds they develop with their owners. That's a completely different book in my opinion.
If I had to sum up this book in one word, I'd say 'woof' (repetitive) and I've decided to paws my reading about man's best friend here. Instead, I think I'll continue to enjoy the many videos of dogs using buttons to communicate with their owners, including Stella the talking dog and her speech pathologist owner. show less
Listening to the audiobook narrated by Kate Marcin, the book is a series of thirty stories of dog owners and the dogs that saved their lives. I guess I was expecting the majority of stories would be the kind where regular family dogs perform extraordinary feats of bravery or uncanny ability but that's not what I found.
There were a small handful of stories like those I expected to encounter, like the family dog who alerted a sleeping partner that his wife show more had collapsed in the basement and had a stroke. Another involved a 5 year old girl who fell into a corn crushing machine on her family's farm. Fortunately their German Shepherd ran to the farmer operating the mulching machine and barked insistently until he turned it off. This saved the girl's life although her brother had already run for help.
I wanted more stories like these, however the majority of the thirty life-saving events recounted in the book were about service dogs and their owners. Cochran provides a short bio of each of the owners, and the physical and mental challenges they face along with the service dogs who provide more than comfort and companionship.
All of the tales originated from Canada and after a while they began to feel formulaic and repetitive. There were many inferences that owners wouldn't have survived without the assistance and unconditional love of their service dogs with the reader left to assume they're implying they would have committed suicide if it weren't for their service dog. Perhaps I'm being a little harsh here or I went in with unrealistic expectations, but I was looking forward to reading a book about 30 times a dog literally saved someone's life, not 25 stories about hugely successful service dogs and the amazing bonds they develop with their owners. That's a completely different book in my opinion.
If I had to sum up this book in one word, I'd say 'woof' (repetitive) and I've decided to paws my reading about man's best friend here. Instead, I think I'll continue to enjoy the many videos of dogs using buttons to communicate with their owners, including Stella the talking dog and her speech pathologist owner. show less
Audiobook: Such an uplifting read ! If you love dogs you'll love these animal support stories. It's all about dogs and how they make our lives better in so many ways. The narrator did a fabulous job and brought these short stories to life. There are all kinds of dogs, working dog, family dogs, support dogs, furry dogs.... great dogs
Your dogs want you to read this
Your dogs want you to read this
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Globe and Mail | Canadian Non-Fiction: November 29, 2025
10 works; 1 member
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2 Works 10 Members
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- Nonfiction, General Nonfiction, Biography & Memoir
- DDC/MDS
- 636.7 — Technology Agriculture Animal husbandry Dogs
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