Story about the dog

10 of the Best Novels and Short Stories about Dogs – Interesting Literature

Literature

Novelists and short-story writers have created some classic narratives about man’s best friend, the dog. But what are the very best stories and novels about dogs? Where should we begin in assessing the classic, canonical literature that features dogs?

From Homer’s Odyssey onwards – where the hero’s faithful hound remembered him upon his return to Ithaca – the annals of literature are full of famous literary dogs. Here are ten of the best works of fiction to feature our four-legged friends.

1. Mark Twain, ‘A Dog’s Tale’.

My father was a St. Bernard, my mother was a collie, but I am a Presbyterian. This is what my mother told me, I do not know these nice distinctions myself. To me they are only fine large words meaning nothing. My mother had a fondness for such; she liked to say them, and see other dogs look surprised and envious, as wondering how she got so much education …

This 1903 tale is one of several stories on this list which are told from the dog’s perspective. The dog in question is sold to a new owner and is sad to leave her mother behind, but the family she goes to live with are kind to her. One day, a fire breaks out in the nursery of the house – and the dog comes to the rescue …

2. Eleanor Atkinson, Greyfriars Bobby.

Bobby slipped out, dry as his own delectable bone, from under the tomb of Mistress Jean Grant, and nearly wagged his tail off with pleasure. Mistress Jeanie was set in a proud flutter when the Grand Leddy rang at the lodge kitchen and asked if she and Bobby could have their tea there with the old couple by the cozy grate fire …

Perhaps the most famous novel ever written about a dog, Greyfriars Bobby (1912) is a Scottish tale about the faithfulness of dogs towards their owners. Written from the perspective of the Skye terrier which gives the novel its title, the novel also features Auld Jock, Bobby’s owner, who has a close bond with his pet terrier.

When (spoiler alert) Jock dies, Bobby refuses to leave his master’s side, even when Jock is buried. Bobby ends up guarding Jock’s grave, by day and night, thus neatly symbolising the two main features associated with dogs: fidelity and vigilance.

3. O. Henry, ‘Memoirs of a Yellow Dog’.

But you needn’t look for any stuck-up literature in my piece, such as Bearoo, the bear, and Snakoo, the snake, and Tammanoo, the tiger, talk in the jungle books. A yellow dog that’s spent most of his life in a cheap New York flat, sleeping in a corner on an old sateen underskirt (the one she spilled port wine on at the Lady Longshoremen’s banquet), mustn’t be expectcd to perform any tricks with the art of speech …

In this 1903 story from one of America’s greatest writers of the short story, the yellow dog of the story’s title recounts his life, his owners, and his love for his master (and his dislike for his master’s wife). Man and dog really do have a stronger bond in this story than man and wife – but we won’t spoil the ending …

4. Rudyard Kipling, ‘Garm – a Hostage’.

First published in 1899, this short story from the writer who also gave us the poem ‘The Power of the Dog’ – tells of a man whose friend gives him a bull-terrier as a ‘hostage’. However, ‘Garm’ – the name the narrator gives to his newly acquired dog – misses his original owner, who visits his beloved terrier on a regular basis. This is another tale tinged with sadness, but shot through with the strong bond between a man and his dog.

5. Jack London, The Call of the Wild.

London (1876-1916) was the first writer to become a millionaire from his writing, and although he wrote a vast number of different books including an early dystopian novel (The Iron Heel) and a novel set in the days of early man (Before Adam), he is best-known for his two short novels set in the Yukon Territory in Canada during the Gold Rush, The Call of the Wild (1903) and White Fang (1906).

The first of these is probably the most famous and widely read, and focuses on a dog which is stolen from its home in California and made to work as a sled-dog in the snowy wilds of Alaska. As the novel’s title suggests, The Call of the Wild is about the canine protagonist’s transition from a life among civilisation to the relative freedom he finds among the wilderness of the Yukon.

6. Virginia Woolf, Flush: A Biography.

Although it’s subtitled A Biography, this short 1933 book is as much fiction as non-fiction. However, its subject was real enough: the Victorian poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s pet dog. The cocker spaniel, Flush, is acquired by Barrett Browning and taken from the countryside to London, where he lives among the London literati before travelling out with the Brownings to Italy. This is Woolf’s funniest book, and although it’s wildly different from The Waves or Mrs Dalloway, it shows off her distinctive modernist style.

7. Franz Kafka, ‘Investigations of a Dog’.

Kafka is a master of the weird, the unusual, the not-quite-right, his stories and novels haunting us long after we have finished reading them. And although he’s well-known for longer works like The Castle and The Trial, he was also a master of the short story form, including the long short story (witness his masterpiece, ‘The Metamorphosis’).

This 1922 story is another tale narrated by a dog, telling us about its experiences. But Kafka’s canine narrator is a philosophical creature, who is interested in the deeper meaning behind his existence and who seeks rational explanations for the things which have befallen him.

8. Richard Adams, The Plague Dogs.

Everyone knows of Watership Down, Adams’ bestselling 1972 novel about a group of rabbits, but his 1977 novel The Plague Dogs is not as well-known. The novel focuses on Rowf and Snitter, two dogs which escape from a government research station in the Lake District in northern England.

They survive among the wilds of Cumbria, which Adams describes with great power and skill, but there’s a price on their backs – especially as it’s feared they may be carrying a deadly strain of plague which they acquired at the research station …

9. Philip K. Dick, ‘Roog’.

This story was written in 1951, and is an early work by the prolific science-fiction author – and a patron saint of the counterculture – Philip K. Dick (1928-82), best-known for writing the novel that inspired the film Blade Runner as well as other classic novels and stories such as ‘The Minority Report’ (also made into a film) and for the alternative-history novel, The Man in the High Castle.

This is another story told from the point of view of a dog. Boris believes the garbage-men who come to collect the trash from his owner’s house are aliens invading from another planet. He calls the strange creatures ‘Roogs’, but his attempts to warn his owners about the alien invasion are futile. But Dick leaves enough doubt in our minds that the dog may, after all, be right, and the ‘garbage-men’ may not be all they seem – as usual with Dick’s fiction, our understanding of reality and everything we take for granted is given a good shake.

10. Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

Perhaps no pick of the best novels and stories about dogs could be without this more recent example, this 2003 mystery novel loosely inspired by the Sherlock Holmes adventures and featuring a teenage protagonist, Christopher, who goes in search of the neighbour’s missing dog. Although people tend to assume that Christopher has Asperger’s, Haddon has refuted this, and the book makes no reference to it. Instead, as Haddon has said in a blog post, the novel is about being an outsider.

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Tags: Books, Classics, Dogs, Literature, Novels, short stories

A short story about a dog: 5 short stories

1. A short story about a dog Vovchik

On the outskirts of our city there was a wild area, popularly called the Strelbishche. There used to be a military unit here. Then the part was closed, the wastelands-polygons were overgrown with burdock and they began to distribute them as dachas. Our aunt also got a plot here. And I must say, I was very happy about it. We have rich lands - plant whatever you want, everything will sprout.

She began to go to her dacha on weekends. Yes, that's the trouble, a mad dog showed up in those parts. Not even a dog, but a whole dog: the growth of a giant, teeth in all directions. As it growls, the soul will go to the heels, and if it chases, then the end of the fairy tale. nine0005

Our aunt was a lonely woman, and for the sake of self-defense she always carried salt and pepper with her. So she was taught at school, a beneficial remedy for a rabid dog is to sprinkle salt or pepper in her face, or even better all at once. Only, probably, those who invented this science, such as the local monster wolfhound, have not even been seen in books. Otherwise, they would have forgotten all their recommendations in an instant.

Meeting

One day, on Monday, an aunt returns from her land. The sky is dusk. Until the stop another five hundred meters through an ownerless field. And as luck would have it, none of the people. Lucky summer residents usually come here on weekends. Well, my aunt has an unplanned weekday off, what can you do? nine0005

She is walking and suddenly she sees someone's evil eyes looking out of the grass. Stopped. Died. Her hand intuitively reached for her pocket of salt and pepper. A hefty white carcass fell out onto the road here. The mouth is open, mad saliva is flowing, and the pupils are red, crazed.

Auntie's hand then broke away from her pocket by itself, and hung there. Here, even a bucket of spices spilling, there will be no sense. The woman cried out in fear. What else do you order? She even closed her eyes. Suddenly she feels something soft rubbing against her. She slightly opened one eye and sees that the shaggy monster seems to take pity on her. And the muzzle of a dog up to her chest - that's how hefty. But her eyes are not at all red and not crazy, but rather dreary and intelligent. nine0005

Auntie to the dog says:
— Do you want to eat?
Animal whines. Then the aunt took out her lunch sandwich from her bag. Slowly, carefully. She handed it to the dog. She licked the delicacy without hesitation, and asks for more. And my aunt has nothing else.

The two of them went on to the bus stop. Now it's slowly, no one is afraid. After all, there is a special charm in twilight.

Since then, our aunt's guide has appeared. Clever, knows unmistakably what days to expect her. She told him - chicken legs, sausages, sausages, in general, that is what it brings. And he will take her to the site, wait there until she redoes all the work, and then escort her back to the bus stop. nine0005

Yes, I almost forgot, my aunt called her wild friend Vovchik. Why so, is not recognized. Well, she knows better.

2. A short story about the dog Caesar

In a large country house lived a fat clumsy dog Caesar. The doctor strictly forbade the owners to overfeed her, and especially to allow her to eat various unhealthy foods like sausages, cheeses and cakes with sour cream.

A week has passed since the ill-fated visit to the doctor. Caesar lost as much as two kilograms. The owners were happy, but the dog was afraid that if it goes on like this, he might completely disappear. nine0005

So dad brought a stick of excellent smoked sausage from work. The air smelled so that Caesar's vision went dark. But, of course, no one was going to give him sausages.

Savvy

As you know, the need for inventions is cunning. So Caesar figured out how to get what he wants. Constructing his saddest and most unhappy expression, he went to the front door and began to ask for help. Mom was taking a bath at that time, I was doing my homework in my room, and dad had just put the food on the table and was going to watch TV. But it is impossible to resist the natural dog's call (and Caesar was well aware of this). nine0005

Dad had to put on his shoes again and take the dog outside. As soon as they were outside the threshold, like a fat man, he flew off the steps like a bullet and rushed around the corner of the house. Having rounded the building and having reached the back entrance, he pushed the door with his paw and (lo and behold!) it was not locked. Caesar flew into a small corridor, from there into the kitchen, there - onto the ottoman and from the ottoman to the table for sausage. The piece was fragrant, but quite small. So for one tooth.

The dog immediately ate it and rushed back to the street. nine0005

In the meantime, my father was slowly walking around the house. And when he reached the back door, he saw a dog by the bush peacefully doing his dog business. Nothing suspicious.

After the walk, dad and Caesar came home. Mom set the table and we all sat down to eat. And the next day, dad wanted a sausage sandwich for breakfast. It was then that it turned out that there were no sausages in the house. Dad remembered and remembered and finally decided that he forgot the product in the store.

That would have been the end of the story if Caesar hadn't made his cunning plan a habit. They caught him like that from the third time. And having compared all the non-random accidents, they guessed everything. nine0005

3. A short story about the dog Shilly-Shagan

Dogs are like people. There are quiet and complaisant. And there are wayward and capricious. The problem is that it is impossible to immediately understand the special properties of the acquired pet. At first, they are all cute puppies.

So was our rogue, very glorious, with sad tearful eyes. It was even sold for half the price. Why, you ask? Allegedly, they wanted to quickly attach in good hands.

We brought our bundle of happiness home. Small, frail, on thin trembling legs. Painfully fragile breed - Russian toy terrier. nine0005

They fed me, gave me drink, put me to bed. The dog already had a name in his passport - Shilly Shagan. Not some Bobby or Tuzik.

The next day, Schilli determined for himself his favorite place in the house - the corner on the sofa, just opposite the TV. Fine, don't say anything. The only problem was that our dad also loved this place very much and was not going to share it with the dog at all.

And the battle broke out

Dad comes home from work in the evening. Look - your favorite place is occupied. He is Shilly lightly with his palm - a rod! Go ahead, find yourself something else. But the dog is not appeased. He grinned with his tiny teeth, growls, sparkles with his eyes. Doesn't want to leave. Dad then took it with two fingers and lowered it to the floor, and he sat down on the sofa. nine0005

But the dog is also not a blunder. Lurking and waiting. Dad just gets up from the sofa - the dog is right there in HIS rightful place. Such a struggle for power continued for several days. Until one fine day, dad came home from work and saw how this microdog (a hybrid, as he called it, dogs and mice) marks his favorite sofa.

By the way, the furniture was still new, with a soft pleasant pile, so that the corrosive smell was then removed for a long time and persistently.

4. A short story about the dog Barsik

In one village, in the yard of an ordinary house, there lived a dog. And the dog's name was Barsik. According to the old Russian tradition, a man's friend sat on a chain day and night. In front of him stood a bowl of water, blackened with age, and a bowl of porridge boiled in chicken bone broth. Next to the dog kennel was a pen with pockmarked mangy hens.

Toli because the chain was too short, or because of the close proximity of brainless chickens, or simply because of the vicissitudes and injustices of a dog's life, Barsik was always very angry. A hundred times a day (at least) he burst into such a feral bark that neighbors from neighboring houses cautiously locked their flimsy doors, and pedestrians passing along the street tried to get out as soon as possible. nine0005

Guest (like a bone)

One day, a very intelligent relative came from the capital city to the residents of the house in the yard of which Barsik lived. This man saw rural life only on TV, and read a lot about it in books. Seeing the conditions in which the dog is kept, he immediately began to lecture the owners. He appealed to their humanity and swore by the Society for the Protection of Nature.

In the end, humanism won. Barsik was moved away from the chickens, a new booth was built for him and they began to feed him with worthy canned dog food. nine0005

But some time passed, and the owners noticed that the dog was sad. He no longer barked furiously into the void, twitched back and forth on his chain, and showed no signs of a normal healthy creature at all. He just lay on the ground for days on end, putting his front paws under his head and sadly looked at the world.

Since the city relative had already left, the owners decided to return the dog to its original place. Oh, it will help. And indeed, a miracle happened. Barsik dispersed, barked and began to resemble himself. nine0005

The harsh truth

If only the owners could understand what dogs bark about and what chickens cackle about, the nature of such wonderful metamorphoses would become clearer than clear to them.

— You are wrong! Wrong! No, no, Bars Vasilyevich! the chickens cackled. - We are what we eat. And we eat food. Therefore, the better the food, the better we are. How can we deny the influence of the material on our lives?

But Barsik did not agree and furiously, spraying saliva in all directions, argued:

— Asceticism is the only true way for everyone who wants to achieve complete control over their body and mind. Values only distance us from understanding our own essence and make us hostages of empty, mortal worthlessness. Putting food and comfort at the forefront, you evaluate yourself at the level of these factors, and in order for a material thing to acquire moral value, at least some conviction, meaning must lie at the basis of its use ...

So Bars Vasilyevich and the chickens, whose names no one remembers, got inflamed day after day.

5. A short story about a dog and a smell

One day Uncle Vanya went to visit his army friend. I took with me, as usual, snacks of different and strong. They haven't seen each other for a long time. A friend of that lived at home a dog, small and shaggy. Outbred. But Uncle Vanya knew nothing about the dog.

Here the peasants met. They went into the kitchen, put snacks with alcohol on the table. They sit, chat, remember the past years - they have a good time. nine0005

In the meantime, a shaggy dog came out of the room and got under the table. Nobody noticed her. This dog suffered from indigestion at times. And now, she ate something, and she can't.

Uncle Vanya had just remembered about their regimental commander, when he suddenly senses something unkind. The smell is so worth it, as if his friend (forgive me for being rude) put it in his pants. At the same time, Uncle Vanin's friend smelled the smell. His eyes were watering from such a volley. "That's it, he gives!" the friend thinks to himself. nine0005

They sit, look at each other and say out loud awkwardly.
To somehow defuse the situation, Uncle Vanya says:
— Do you have our old album with photos?
A friend was glad that he could escape from the smell and took Uncle Vanya to the photography room to look.

Some more time has passed. They have already reviewed almost all the photos. Suddenly a dog enters the room. He approaches the owner and then loudly, publicly pours a striking volley over those sitting.

It was only then that the friends realized that they had slandered each other in vain. And they laughed out loud. nine0005

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Story about the dog

10 of the Best Novels and Short Stories about Dogs – Interesting Literature

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TOP DOG STORIES (AMAZING TRUE STORIES ABOUT DOGS)

A short story about a dog: 5 short stories

1. A short story about a dog Vovchik

Meeting

2. A short story about the dog Caesar

Savvy

3. A short story about the dog Shilly-Shagan

And the battle broke out

4. A short story about the dog Barsik

Guest (like a bone)

The harsh truth

5. A short story about a dog and a smell

Stories about the Dog - Read to children online

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