This is one of the best books I’ve ever read about dogs. It’s both a heart-warming story about a Lab-Redbone hound cross and wonderful piece of science and nature writing about dogs and their behavior.
Here’s the youtube interview with the author:
The website for the book can be found here, and you can link up to Merle’s photo album here.
Merle is given freedom to socialize with other dogs and experience nature, and he develops into an intelligent, but free-thinking dog. It’s a really itneresting idea that dogs should be given some freedom to make choices in their lives. Last weekend, The National Geographic Channel carried a program about the San Franscico zoo tiger that attacked last the visitors on Christmas Day last year. The program talked a lot about new findings about carnivore husbandry. Using mink as a study species, researchers found that if mink were allowed to make choices about their environment and given mental and physical stimulation, they were healthier than those who lived in confined cages with little choices or stimulation. Studies on mink and ferrets suggest that they are more intelligent than cats and more on par with dogs and primates in intelligence. These findings are certainly applicable to other species of carnivore, especially the social ones, such as dogs. Today, most dogs live in confined spaces for days and days on end. We can only imagine how much this is hurting their mental and physical health. Perhaps we ought to ban keeping dogs (especially large dogs) in cities and suburbs, unless they are given off leash excercise several times a week. I know this is controversial, and it flies in the face of the current trend in dog ownership.
send me a picture of a blk lab and a coonhound mixed please thank you karisa R.
This video:
And here’s a photo: http://www.helpwithcrazypets.biz/images/romeo.jpg
Dear Ted, I am reading Merle’s Door for the second time. Decided to google some of the sites mentioned in your story and it has led to beautiful insights. I do not know of another man who loved a dog like you. I learned a lot from your book and fell in love with Merle the countryside and the people in your beloved story. I ‘v loaned my personal copy of your book out and have even given your book as a gift to others, to help enhance a healthy relationship with their own dogs. Thank you for the beautiful love story of you and Merle’s time together. Sincerely, Glo
Merle’s Door changed my world. I launched Sadie, my golden retriever, into a new world. Got her trained to come when called, then headed out to freedom. We run. We chase. We watch. We rest. We have so much fun. Couldn’t have done it before we read about Merle, about the importance of giving dogs choices.
There have been other studies that suggest that animals need choices in this world. There was one about mink that I found particularly interesting. It was on the National Geographic show about the tiger in the San Francisco Zoo that went on a rampage a few years ago.
[...] have also been enjoying some posts from Retrieverman, including Can dogs be equals? and a review of Merle’s Door by Ted Kerasote (which I would like to [...]