Things My Dog Has Taught Me

A dog's guide to life - how to be a kinder, compassionate, more mindful and wiser human.

Anyone who has ever fallen hopelessly in love with a dog will know they have the capacity to love us back unconditionally, welcome us home with unbridled excitement, forgive us endlessly for our impatience, comfort us when we're feeling low, then play games with wholehearted contentment - bringing endless joy to our days. The sheer zest for embracing life in all its fullness is something at which we humans can only marvel.

But can our dogs teach us to approach our own lives in this way too?
To love and care for one another with unconditional acceptance, to be fully present in each other's company, to be more mindful of the natural world around us, to comfort each other in grief or fear, and to let joy flow through our hearts?

All these things dogs do instinctively and more naturally than their human friends - yet they love us just the same.

In this charming and engaging story of his beloved canine companions, Jonathan Wittenberg shares with dog lovers everywhere his inability to resist the big, brown-eyed look which says, 'I'll melt your heart if you even think of going out without me', the security he feels on a twenty-mile trek across the bleak Scottish Highlands with not a soul for a friend but his border collie, and everything else, practical and spiritual, he's learned from his dogs along life's path.