Not terrible, but a long way from wonderful. That poor dog - he was so poorly trained it's no wonder he kept running into trouble. First and basic training for a dog that you're going to let run loose even part of the time - come when called. For a hunting dog - stay within reach (of eye and/or voice) all the time. Trueboy, instead, got left with someone too busy to pay much attention until he had the fixed habit of going wandering off to get some exercise; then after the first time he got lost for a while, he got to run out with his master and again run where he would. What a surprise - when he was chained up and denied a run, he took the first opportunity of heading out on his own. Also, the constant repetition of 'he was starving' and 'he was very cautious' got dull quickly - oh, and also 'he was a great dog' followed by a report on his weight. Sorry. No interesting characters (everyone was way too sketchy), behavior that doesn't match what I expect (OK, most of my knowledge of western wildlife and dogs comes from other books - but a lot of books of various sorts by many authors - and there's no excuse for the people's odd behavior!), awkward scenes - I guess I'm glad I read it but I'm a lot happier I'm done with it. ( )