Merle's Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog

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Overview

Now including a wonderful new photo insert chronicling Merle’s life, this national bestseller explores the relationship between humans and dogs. How would dogs live if they were free? Would they stay with their human friends?

Merle and Ted found each other in the Utah desert—Merle was living wild and Ted was looking for a pup to keep him company. As their bond grew, Ted taught Merle how to live around wildlife, and Merle taught Ted about the benefits of letting a dog make his own decisions.

Using the latest in wolf research and exploring issues of animal consciousness and leadership and the origins of the human-dog relationship, Ted Kerasote takes us on the journey he and Merle shared. As much a love story as a story of independence and partnership, Merle’s Door is tender, funny, and ultimately illuminating.

Merle's Door

What People Are Saying

Stanley Coren

"Reading Merle's Door involves more than just sailing through an engaging biography of a man sharing his life with a rare and free-spirited dog since it contains islands of useful and scientifically sound information about dog behavior as well. To be entertained and educated at the same time time is rare in dog books, which makes this one definitely worth reading."--(Stanley Coren, author of How Dogs Think)

Temple Grandin

"Merle’s Door is a window into the mind of a dog. You will experience his loyalty, fears, and joys and his true inner self. Everybody who loves dogs must read this book."--(Temple Grandin, author of Animals in Translation)

Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble

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Kerasote wasn't looking for a dog when he was traveling with friends in southwestern Utah. When a large, panting dog emerged from a grove of cottonwoods and trotted toward their campsite, he wasn't prepared for the deep brown eyes that looked into his own and said, "You need a dog and I'm it." Unable to refuse, he named the the Labrador mix Merle and took him home to Wyoming.

Mindful of the freedom he suspects that Merle has enjoyed, Kerasote installs a dog door in his house, allowing Merle to come and go as he pleases, rather than making him a prisoner of his schedule. As the days, seasons, and years pass, Kerasote grows to believe that allowing Merle such liberty to make his own decisions provides a window into the dog's innate intelligence and curiosity -- which Kerasote begins to see as compromised when we constrain animals to live on our terms. Time and again, Merle proves that altering this dynamic is not about control but about trust.

Touching, sad, humorous, and heartfelt, Merle's Door challenges readers to rethink old attitudes and advocates a change in the attitude that has us continually seeking to "train" our pets. An unforgettable look at the enigmatic terrain of our most cherished companions, Merle's Door is a tribute not just to Kerasote's own faithful friend but to dogs everywhere. (Fall 2007 Selection)

Publishers Weekly

Kerasote, winner of the National Outdoor Book Award, draws on inspirational experiences with his beloved canine companion, Merle, and extensive research in animal behavior to advance the notion that living in harmony with our dogs requires us to embrace-rather than suppress-their natural instincts. Patrick Lawlor delivers an animated performance, both literally and figuratively. His renderings of Merle's incessant pants of enthusiasm evoke the essence of canine loyalty. Lawlor successfully navigates the potentially tricky terrain of the book's anthropomorphism. He gives voice to Kerasote's human interpretations of Merle's expressions and behaviors in a manner that manages to preserve a healthy measure of mystery and wonder. Lawlor does slightly over-reach with regard to his performance of relatively extraneous human dialogue, especially some of the ethnic accents of experts that Kerasote quotes in the text. While not all pet owners may be able to grant the degree of freedom that Kerasote afforded Merle, this heartwarming story will still manage to enlighten and entertain fans of four-legged memoirs. Simultaneous release with the Harcourt hardcover (Reviews, Apr. 9). (Aug.)

More Reviews (1) Fewer Reviews

From The Critics

"In telling Merle''s story, Kerasote also explores the science behind canine behavior and evolution, weaving in research on the human-canine bond and musing on the way dogs see the world. Merle is a true character, yet Merle is also Everydog. An absolute treasure of a book."

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780151012701
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication date: 7/2/2007
Pages: 416
Sales rank: 200,356
Product dimensions: 6.20 (w) x 9.10 (h) x 1.40 (d)

Meet the Author

Ted Kerasote

TED KERASOTE 's writing has appeared in more than fifty periodicals, including "Audubon, National Geographic Traveler, Outside, Field & Stream, Salon," and the "New York Times," His most recent book, "Out There: In the Wild in a Wired Age," won the National Outdoor Book Award. He lives in Wyoming.

Read an Excerpt

Merle's Door

Lessons from a Freethinking Dog

By Kerasote, Ted

Harcourt

chapter 1
From the Wild

He came out of the night, appearing suddenly in my headlights, a big, golden dog, panting, his front paws tapping the ground in an anxious little dance. Behind him, tall cottonwoods in their April bloom. Behind the grove, the San Juan River, moving quickly, dark and swollen with spring melt.
           It was nearly midnight, and we were looking for a place to throw down our sleeping bags before starting our river trip in the morning. Next to me in the cab of the pickup sat Benj Sinclair, at his feet a midden of road-food wrappers smeared with the scent of corn dogs, onion rings, and burritos. Round-cheeked, Buddha-bellied, thirty-nine years old, Benj had spent his early years in the Peace Corps, in West Africa, and had developed a stomach that could digest anything. Behind him in the jump seat was Kim Reynolds, an Outward Bound instructor from Colorado known for her grace in a kayak and her long braid of brunette hair, which held the faint odor of a healthy, thirty-two-year-old woman who had sweated in the desert and hadn’t used deodorant. Like Benj and me, she had eaten a dinner of pizza in Moab, Utah, a hundred miles up the road where we’d met her. Like us, she gave off the scentsof garlic, onions, tomato sauce, basil, oregano, and anchovies.
           In the car that pulled up next to us were Pam Weiss and Bennett Austin. They had driven from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, to Moab in their own car, helped us rig the raft and shop for supplies, joined us for pizza, and, like us, wore neither perfume nor cologne. Pam was thirty-six, an Olympic ski racer, and Bennett, twenty-five, was trying to keep up with her. They had recently fallen in love and exuded a mixture of endorphins and pheromones.
           People almost never describe other people in these terms—noting first their smells—for we’re primarily visual creatures and rely on our eyes for information. By contrast, the only really important sense-key for the big, golden dog, doing his little dance in the headlights, was our olfactory signatures, wafting to him as we opened the doors.
           It was for this reason—smell—that I think he trotted directly to my door, leaned his head forward cautiously, and sniffed at my bare thigh. What mix of aromas went up his long snout at that very first moment of our meeting? What atavistic memories, what possibilities were triggered in his canine worldview as he untangled the mysteries of my sweat?                      The big dog—now appearing reddish in the interior light of the truck and without a collar—took another reflective breath and studied me with excited consideration. Might it have been what I ate, and the subtle residue it left in my pores, that made him so interested in me? It was the only thing I could see (note my human use of “see” even while describing an olfactory phenomenon) that differentiated me from my friends. Like them, I skied, biked, and climbed, and was single. I had just turned forty-one, a compact man with chestnut hair and bright brown eyes. But when I ate meat, it was that of wild animals, not domestic ones—mostly elk and antelope along with the occasional grouse, duck, goose, and trout mixed in.
           Was it their metabolized essence that intrigued him—some whiff of what our Paleolithic ancestors had shared? Smell is our oldest sense. It was the olfactory tissue at the top of our primeval nerve cords that evolved into our cerebral hemispheres, where thought is lodged. Perhaps the dog—a being who lived by his nose—knew a lot more about our connection than I could possibly imagine.
           His deep brown eyes looked at me with luminous appreciation and said, “You need a dog, and I’m it.”
           Unsettled by his uncanny read of me—I had been looking for a dog for over a year—I gave him a cordial pat and replied, “Good dog.”
           His tail beat steadily, and he didn’t move, his eyes still saying, “You need a dog.”
           As we got out of the cars and began to unpack our gear, I lost track of him. There was his head, now a tail, there a rufous flank moving among bare legs and sandals.
           I threw my pad and bag down on the sand under a cottonwood, slipped into its silky warmth, turned over, and found him digging a nest by my side. Industriously, he scooped out the sand with his front paws, casting it between his hind legs before turning, turning, turning, and settling to face me. In the starlight, I could see one brow go up, the other down.
           Of course, “brows” isn’t really the correct term, since dogs sweat only through their paws and have no need of brows to keep perspiration out of their eyes, as we do. Yet, certain breeds of dogs have darker hair over their eyes, what might be called “brow markings,” and he had them.
           The Hidatsa, a Native American tribe of the northern Great Plains, believe that these sorts of dogs, whom they call “Four-Eyes,” are especially gentle and have magical powers. Stanley Coren, the astute canine psychologist from the University of British Columbia, has also noted that these “four-eyed” dogs obtained their reputation for psychic powers “because their expressions were easier to read than those of other dogs. The contrasting-colored spots make the movements of the muscles over the eye much more visible.”
           In the starlight, the dog lying next to me raised one brow while lowering the other, implying curiosity mixed with concern over whether I’d let him stay.
           “Night,” I said, giving him a pat. Then I closed my eyes.

When I opened them in the morning, he was still curled in his nest, looking directly at me.
           “Hey,” I said.
           Up went one brow, down went the other.
           “I am yours,” his eyes said.
           I let out a breath, unprepared for how his sweet, faintly hound-dog face—going from happiness to concern—left a cut under my heart. I had been looking at litters of Samoyeds, balls of white fur with bright black mischievous eyes. The perfect breed for a winter person like myself, I thought. But I couldn’t quite make myself bring one home. I had also seriously considered Labrador Retrievers, taken by their exuberant personalities and knowing that such a robust, energetic dog could easily share my life in the outdoors as well as be the bird dog I believed I wanted. But no Lab pup had given me that undeniable heart tug that said, “We are a team.”
           The right brow of the dog lying by me went down as he held my eye. His left brow went up, implying, “You delayed with good reason.”
           “Maybe,” I said, feeling my desire for a pedigree dog giving way. “Maybe,” I said once more to the dog whose eyes coasted across mine, returned, and lingered. He did have the looks of a reddish yellow Lab, I thought, at least from certain angles.
           At the sound of my voice, he levered his head under my arm and brought his nose close to mine. Surprisingly, he didn’t try to lick me in that effusive gesture that many dogs use with someone they perceive as dominant to them, whether it be a person or another dog—a relic, some believe, of young wolves soliciting food from their parents and other adult wolves. The adults, not having hands to carry provisions, bring back meat in their stomachs. The pups lick their mouths, and the adults regurgitate the partly digested meat. Pups who eventually become alphas abandon subordinate licking. Lower-ranking wolves continue to display the behavior to higher-ranking wolves, as do a great many domestic dogs to people. This dog’s self-possession gave me pause. Was he not licking me because he considered us peers? Or did my body language—both of us being at the same level—allow him to feel somewhat of an equal? He circumspectly smelled my breath, and I, in turn, smelled his. His smelled sweet.
           Whatever he smelled on mine, he liked it. “I am yours,” his eyes said again.
           Disconcerted by his certainty about me, I got up and moved off. I didn’t want to abandon my plans for finding a pup who was only six to eight weeks old and whom I could shape to my liking. The dog read my energy and didn’t follow me. Instead, he went to the others, greeting them with a wagging tail and wide laughs of his toothy mouth. “Good morning, good morning, did you sleep well?” he seemed to be saying.
           But as I organized my gear, I couldn’t keep my eyes from him. Despite his ribs showing, he appeared fit and strong, and looked like he had been living outside for quite a while, his hair matted with sprigs of grass and twigs. He was maybe fifty-five pounds, not filled out yet, his fox-colored fur hanging in loose folds, waiting for the adult dog that would be. He had a ridge of darker fur along his spine, short golden plumes on the backs of his legs, and a tuxedo-like bib of raised fur on his chest—just an outline of it—scattered with white flecks. His ears were soft and flannel-like, and hung slightly below the point of his jaw. His nose was lustrous black, he had equally shiny lips, and his teeth gleamed. His tail was large and powerful.
Copyright © 2007 by Ted Kerasote

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Requests for permission to make copies of any part of the work should be submitted online at www.harcourt.com/contact or mailed to the following address: Permissions Department, Harcourt, Inc., 6277 Sea Harbor Drive, Orlando, Florida 32887-6777.

Continues...

Excerpted from Merle's Door by Kerasote, Ted Copyright © 2007 by Kerasote, Ted. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Prologue     11
From the Wild     13
The First Dog     53
The Synaptic Kiss     90
In the Genes     119
Building the Door     169
Growing Into Himself     196
Top Dog     250
The Gray Cat     290
Estrogen Clouds     309
At Home in the Arms of the Country     330
The Problem of Me     357
The Mayor of Kelly     397
The Alpha Pair     421
White Muzzle     455
What Do Dogs Want?     478
A Looser Leash     511
The First Passing     526
Through the Door     549
With Many Thanks     609
Notes     611

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4.5

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Anonymous

Posted July 19, 2008

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.
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Anonymous

Posted April 9, 2010

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.
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Anonymous

Posted October 13, 2009

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.
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Anonymous

Posted April 22, 2009

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.
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Anonymous

Posted March 12, 2010

I Also Recommend:

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 1 people found this review helpful.
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Anonymous

Posted March 12, 2010

I Also Recommend:

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.
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WawaLW

Posted February 21, 2010

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.
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Honu

Posted April 13, 2009

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.
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Anonymous

Posted July 18, 2008

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.
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Anonymous

Posted May 9, 2008

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.
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Anonymous

Posted April 3, 2008

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.
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Anonymous

Posted February 27, 2008

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.
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Anonymous

Posted February 7, 2008

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.
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Anonymous

Posted October 4, 2007

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.
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Anonymous

Posted August 13, 2007

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.
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Anonymous

Posted July 8, 2007

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.
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Anonymous

Posted January 7, 2012

Loved It

Very enjoyable, easy to read and educational on many levels. One of the books in my life that has stayed with me.
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10198905

Posted August 16, 2011

Best book ever written about dogs

Amazing! Funny. Witty. Profound. Intelligent. Well researched. Exquisite presentation. Beautiful story of mutual respect, love, dedication and understanding between a man and his best four legged companion. Human and animal psychology, in sync. A must read for all those that have a heart, love to learn and want to better themselves in this lifetime.
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RitaBook

Posted August 4, 2011

more from this reviewer

Outstanding!

Not only a great story, but a great source of dog info.
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6318606

Posted June 16, 2011

Must reading!

If you love your dog AND want understand them this is a must read. There's a touching story but also facts to facilitate canine understanding. Concise, and helpful for dog lovers!
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Overview

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Merle's Door

Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble

Publishers Weekly

From The Critics

Product Details

Meet the Author

Ted Kerasote

Read an Excerpt

Merle's Door

Harcourt

Table of Contents

Rating Distribution

IF YOU LOVE DOGS

Makes you rethink your relationship with animals.

You Will Love Merle!

Highly recommended

Insightful read and great story line

For the dog lovers!

An Atypical Relationship

Merle's Door

the greatest book I have ever read!!

fabulous!!

Fantastic True Story about a dog living as a free spirit

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

A Perfect Story

Higher Levels of Education, Canine Style

Memories of Merle the Magnificent

A reviewer

Loved It

Best book ever written about dogs

Outstanding!

Must reading!