Merle's Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog

IF YOU LOVE DOGS

This is absolutely one of the best, if not the best book ever written about the bond between humans and their dogs. Not only was it educational in a variety of ways but truely a touching love story. Once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down. You will feel like you are a part of Ted and Merle's great adventure. What a dog and author!!

5 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

Makes you rethink your relationship with animals.

This was a fantastic read. As a biologist and zookeeper my ideas on the relationship between man and animal were pretty well established. . . this book blew them all out of the water. It has made me rethink my relationship with the animals at work as well as my own animals at home. I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves animals.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

You Will Love Merle!

I knew when I picked up this book that I was in for a cry, because I always cry when I read dog books. After all, you know the dog is going to die in the end--they always do! It's not fair, but that's the way it is--most people live several dog lifetimes. It seems as if we're always having to say goodbye. But of course I did pick it up, I did read it, and I did cry. I finished it last night. It took me over an hour, it seemed, to get through the last chapter. I would be sobbing so hard, I'd have to stop, blow my nose, run to the bathroom to splash cold water over my face, and clean my glasses. This book was seriously hard to finish. I loved that dog so much. It was extremely well-written, informative, and thought-provoking. The author may have gotten a little carried away with the anthropomorphisms. I mean, I doubted some of the thoughts that were attributed to Merle, but who am I to judge? Ted knew the dog a lot better than I did, and who's to say he didn't know what Merle was thinking? And what a life that dog had! Obviously, we can't all provide our dogs with mountains, but maybe we can at least learn to treat them as fellow travelers and give them the respect they deserve. I highly recommend this book!!

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Highly recommended

We are an extended family of dog people. My mother-in-law very enthusiastically recommended this book to anyone we met who was walking their dog, saying "if you love dogs then I must recommend a book". I thought it might be sappy, but sent it to a dog-loving friend for Christmas. And still did not read it until I received a copy from my enthusiastic, and very much correct, mother-in-law as a gift. It is not sentimental, but truly wrenches one's heart. It is informative, it is thought-provoking and most telling, anyone who reads this book buys it for someone else as gift! I highly recommend but be prepared for some tears at the end.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Insightful read and great story line

Merle's Door was a wonderful outline of how dogs operate and why they react when their lives are either open or caged. I loved the facts and origins of dogs, and reccomendations on how to think like a dog.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

For the dog lovers!

This book is a great gift for anyone who has a special connection with animals. I just stumbled upon this wonderful book and I am so glad I did! I listen to audio books during my commute and this book makes the time fly by. There are even some days where I actually sit in my car after I have arrived at work just to finish the section I'm listening to.
The author vividly describes an amazing world of rugged wilderness that he shares with an remarkable dog. If only all dogs could have the freedom afforded to Merle then perhaps they would teach us all their lessons.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

An Atypical Relationship

Kerasote has the luxury of living in small-town Wyoming where he can let his intelligent dog avoid a leash. A lot of this book is Kerasote's extensive research into the evolution, biology, and psychology of dogs, so it is in places a textbook instead of leisure reading. The dog, Merle, is highly intelligent and is allowed to develop his skills and live with his fears. Kerasote's somewhat unusual life and unusual value system permeate the book, and a reader has to accept Kerasote in order to read this.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Merle's Door

If you are an animal person this book will resonate with you! Really makes you think about our relationship with the canine world and how we want to live our lives.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

the greatest book I have ever read!!

It was a truly astounding, enlightening, humorous, and heart-wrenching book in which will clearly stand out in any reader's mind for a long, long time! Definately a great read, and blows almost all other animal novels in the dust!!! A great read, in which is an informational piece in which follows the life of a beloved dog, and tells the story of, in bits and pieces in the novel, how dogs originated from wolves. One may say that the information that the author places in this book may be intrusive to Merle's story itself, but, in my opinion, it seems to blend into a perfect mix amongst the novel. It isn't big gaps in which the author cut into the story to place facts in, instead, it IS the story. An astonishing read, all animal lovers, especially dog lovers, should read this book! Truly astounding!!!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

fabulous!!

Merle¿s Door is a fascinating take on the mind and behavior of man¿s best friend. It is a true story of a man, a dog, and their love and mutual understanding of each other. This literary masterpiece has allowed me to have a greater level of comprehension of my dog and her behavior, and for this I am very grateful to the author. I myself found the bits of theoretical canine psychology fascinating, and loved how it forced me to think about the mind and mental capacity of a dog in a new light. Never before had the evolutionary process of the Canis lupis familiaris been explained to me, in such an exciting and comprehensive way. My favorite part of this was learning about how and why dogs became dogs. Merle¿s Door has just the right amounts of humor, logic, and passion to be a successful novel. At times, the book is heart-wrenching, and at others, it is instructive, but it is always interesting. For me, there was never a dull moment. Through this book, the author has teaches many valuable lessons on how to raise a dog. The main one being be your dog¿s partner and friend, not its master. I find that I myself wholeheartedly support this revolutionary concept, and it is the exact same relationship that I strive to have with my own dog. The book begins with the first meeting between Ted and Merle near a river in New Mexico. At first, the rustic writer, hunter, and skier from Wyoming, and the small timid pup living on its own in New Mexico seem an unlikely pair. But when Ted makes the decision to take the dog home with him, an unbreakable bond of companionship is wrought. Under the tender careful nurturing of Ted, the dog, Merle, becomes an athletic, friendly, and outgoing pooch. From that day on, for each of them, all of life¿s challenges and problems seemed smaller, because each had each other to help them along. From fierce bear encounters, to cancerous tumors, to lost love, the two face all adventures together. It is definitely the most insightful novel I have ever read, and no other book has made me think so hard. Merle¿s Door is a book that everyone on this planet should read!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Fantastic True Story about a dog living as a free spirit

Kerasote writes with passion. It's as though Kerasote and Merle had a closeness that is almost unheard of between human and dog. He got into Merle's mind, viewing the world from the point of view of this marvelous dog. He captured, beautifully, Merle's wonderful individual personality, bringing him to life for the reader. I felt I was there with Merle hunting elk, running after bison, skiing down mountain slopes together and taking the daily trips with Merle as he made his rounds of the town, visiting his neighbors and friends, spreading his wisdom, presence, aliveness and glorious laughter with others. Yes, he laughed! I truly savored this book, hating for it to end. I really do cherish knowing Merle through this great book and I am sure I will read it many times.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Walk through Merle's Door for an experience you will never forget.

Kerasote captures the emotions between dog and companion beautifully while anchoring this love story in the science of animal/human interaction. Few writers grab a dog's personality so perfectly. I would recommend this book to anyone who has ever loved an animal. Those who go through Merle's Door will learn much about human relationships, as well.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

A Perfect Story

This was by far one of the best books I have read. It is a great story about the love and kinship we have with our dogs and the lessons we learn from them if we take the time to listen. The author, Ted Kerasote does such a great job explaining and describing the story in such great detail. He also lists numerous scientific facts that are just as fun and interesting to read as is the story of him and his dog Merle. I have grown to appreciate my dogs even more through reading this book and I'm not going to lie this book made me cry. It is such a touching story. Mr. Kerasote did a wonderful job with this book about his best dog Merle!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Higher Levels of Education, Canine Style

Merle bounced from a road near the edge of a river straight into Ted's heart where he lives today. Dogs are the ultimate source for all things spiritual and have the ability and innate propensity to teach us more than we could ever teach them. If you're lucky enough to be owned and loved by a dog, you're lucky enough! This is THE best book I've read in years and is scientifically informative beyond reasonable expectations.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Memories of Merle the Magnificent

'Merle's Door' grips you from page one and keeps you enthralled for 359 more. Kerasote's tale of him and his dog is packed with pathos, humor, insight and, most of all, great love for a four-legged friend that padded into his life one day. If you have any regard for animals and wish to be entertained and challenged you must pick up 'Merle's Door' today and read it straight through without delay. I give it 'Four Paws!'

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

A reviewer

The chance meeting on a camping trip in Utah of Ted Kerasote and an abandoned dog, who eventually was named Merle, was the beginning of the most remarkable relationship between human and dog that I have ever read. And I have read many wonderful dog stories, fiction and non fiction, and this book is probably my favorite. No other writer has captured how closely dogs and humans are so much like each other, emotionally and intellectually. There are plenty of adventures over their thirteeen years together that Mr. Kerasote chronicles in his beautiful prose, as he is a fine writer, with not a maudlin false step. He captures the essence of how dogs make us more human by what they teach us. What a gift. This book is not to be missed.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Best book ever

Not a big reader, but after this book i want to find books that are this good. Love it, MUST read!

Best Story I've Read in Years

If you have a dog, if you've ever had a dog, if you like dogs, or if you love the outdoors, you need to read this book.

Loved this!

A must read for dog lovers

Be Careful

This book changed forever how I see dogs. The mark of a truly good book is it's ability to help you see the world differently This book does that and my dog has a better, more rewarding life as a result. Great book.