A Useful Dog

by Donald McCaig

Alternately comical, melancholic, pragmatic, and poetic, Donald McCaig’s collection AUseful Dog offers a delightful exploration of the simple yet rich relationship between dogs and humans. Having cast aside urban life in the 1970s in favor of working and living on a sheep farm in Virginia, McCaig has spent the past three decades raising working sheepdogs and writing about his experiences with them. A Useful Dog comprises a selection of short pieces―vintage McCaig―that reveal not only the ins and outs of sheepdog work and trials but also the joy and devotion that dogs bring to our daily lives. For any dog enthusiast, this little book will prove a telling reminder of why the dog became known as man’s best friend.

Genres: Dogs, Nonfiction

96 pages, Hardcover

First published March 30, 2007

About the author

Donald McCaig was the award-winning author of Jacob’s Ladder, designated “the best civil war novel ever written” by The Virginia Quarterly. People magazine raved “Think Gone With the Wind, think Cold Mountain.” It won the Michael Sharra Award for Civil War Fiction and the Library of Virginia Award for Fiction.

Donald McCaig wrote about rural American life, sheepdogs, and the Civil War. He also wrote poetry and wrote under various pseudonyms.

Reviews

[David Rudin · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful little (80 small pages) book! For anyone interested in Border Collies, or dogs in general, these short vignettes are priceless. They leave one wanting more and fortunately McCaig has other books also of interest.
McCaig has a penetrating sense of discrimination, finding a deeper level of “truth” in the various situations he finds himself in. He can be acerbic and pointed but you get the feeling that, though he doesn’t suffer fools gladly, he’d be a good friend to have.
As someone who fancies himself a writer at times, McCaig sets the bar high and makes me want to take my own skills towards his level.

[Artemis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful collection of the writings of one Donald McCaig. I learned a couple things about dogs and it was a magnificently easy and fast read. Not too sure I'd buy it due to the briefness that it was but I would definitely recommend grabbing it at the library.

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a nice little book about working dogs and the people who work with them and love them. I have read other books by Donald McCaig about Border Collies as well. I had two rescue Border Collies and have been to watch many sheepdog trials. It is obvious that Mr. McCaig loves his dogs. I live in Virginia and was fortunate on a couple of occasions to visit Mr. McCaig's home in Highland County, Virginia to watch trials there and to be able to speak to him. I have seen and met the dogs and people he mentions in this book. I feel lucky to have been able to see the relationship between these dogs and their people. It really is a beautiful thing to watch.

Several years ago I was able to go to Scotland and one of my fondest memories was on the island of Skye. We were hiking and I looked up one of the hills and saw some sheep coming toward us and suddenly they turned and then I saw the beautiful Border Collies moving them away from us. It really was like a dance and I was so happy to see them in their natural habitat.

I am glad I finally read this book. Sadly, Mr. McCaig passed away and I miss him.

[Trilby · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book came out in the same year as McCaig's novel Canaan This slim volume begins with a poem about the efforts of an old sheepdog to gather up the sheep. Anyone who's seen a beloved pet slip a notch with advancing age can relate; it's all the more poignant to see this working dog at the end of his working life.
The book explores history of the relationship between dogs and humans, focusing on dogs that work with sheep. McCaig's tone changes with each section, sometimes lyrical, other times straightforward. He ranges through a number of dog-related topics from sheep trials, to politics, to training. In his section on the Christmas Eve service in the little country church his family attends, McCaig gives us a brief, but intimate view of his farmer-neighbors. These farmers have to work very hard for small monetary compensation--but that's obviously not why they've chosen this work.
You don't have to be a border collie nut to appreciate this book. In it McCaig shows us once again his versatility and mastery of style.

[Bill Glose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alternately comical and melancholic, these sharply crafted essays explore the rich relationship between working dogs and humans. It includes some canine history, but mostly the book focuses on the communion between man and working dog. The writing is witty and McCaig’s love for border collies apparent on every page. Perhaps the best example appears in the opening passage: “The snow is deep and he is old but two hundred sheep are yarded half a mile from feed so I send him. The snow is deeper than he is. He coils himself below its blank crust to buck into the light like a porpoise. Each lunge, each crash back in flurry achieves, nearly, three feet. He has eleven years and must get eight hundred yards. Too much love can burst the heart.”

Dog lovers will adore this book.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the same author who wrote Nop's Trials and Nop's Hope, which I read earlier this year. I enjoyed both of those books but this one, a slim little volume (only 80 pages long) was a disappointment. It's a series of short stories by the author. Only one of the stories, the three-page "Passports," was really touching. Most of the stories seemed to veer off the idea of the book, which is stories about working stockdogs. One tread right into the problems with purebred dogs and genetic issues without really saying much about working stockdogs. Overall, it wasn't really worth the money.

[Kaywebb · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this pleasant book. He has working dogs on a ranch. He communicates with the dogs and they with he. Dogs have an internal communication they are born with I think. It's just heartwarming if you have furry friends.
I do

[Mary Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick read for folks who appreciate herding dogs.

[Claire Arbogast · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tightly written, good working dog tales. The best phrase: "the arc of fidelity"

[Karrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short one, not bad though.

[Rob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Something to occupy me on our trip to Santa Barbara. McCaig in Cliff's Notes doses.

Thoughtful and meditative.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

It made me miss my dog when I was a teenager. Best dog ever.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Small book, read it in an hour. very good. had some bits about hunting dogs. Tim might enjoy.

[Stephen Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Little 80 page book which I enjoyed. Short books give you that easy accomplishment, and when you are recording your books on Goodreads, another notch in your collection.

I love reading of this author's work on his herding dogs, so enjoyed this book for that. I don't think there is any new ground here on working with herding dogs and sheep that he doesn't cover in his other books in much more detail. More, even just a little more, of what I like to read makes it work for me.

He undercuts his overall story on herding with dogs with at least two other things, one is the evolution of dogs, and the other is his disagreements with AKC. Although I haven't read it yet, his other book The Dog Wars: How The Border Collie Battled The American Kennel Club, is where he fully takes on that topic and I am looking forward to reading it. Both topics I didn't think helped this book that much, he could have put in more details just on herding sheep with dogs and I think it would have been better.

So overall, a good little book to pick up and read, but invest your money on his other books.

[Betsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A series of essays about sheep dogs. Some were informative, some were touching, some were matter of fact. None were sappy (that's important to know about a dog book). All were good.