“Why did dogs make one want to cry? There was something so quiet and hopeless about their sympathy. Jasper, knowing something was wrong, as dogs always do. Trunks being packed. Cars being brought to the door. Dogs standing with drooping tails, dejected eyes. Wandering back to their baskets in the hall when the sound of the car dies away.”

“But humans drive the cars and decide when dogs eat and where dogs live and clearly this was something else in their power - they could find their dogs when they needed them.”

“Ever hear the one about that dog that spent its life chasing cars and finally caught one—and had noidea what to do with it?I’m that dog.”

“That sense of the world being the lack of something dogged him for years, and when it stopped dogging him, he felt unmoored. ”

“The best dog training was based on the reward system. You did not punish a dog for doing wrong, you rewarded the dog for doing right. The dog did something you wanted, you reinforced the behavior with a reward - pet'm, tell'm they're a good dog, let'm play with a toy. The standard reward for a K-9 working dog was a hard plastic ball with a hole drilled through it where Leland liked to smear a little peanut butter.”

“When a man's dog turns against him it is time for a wife to pack her trunk and go home to mama.”