Merle's Door: Lessons From A Freethinking Dog By Ted Kerasote

This is very well written book that draws you in. Couldn't help but celebrate the joys of Merle's life and cry at the end. Mr. Kerasote has some different views on raising dogs, but it seemed to work for them.

Pros: Very well written

Cons: Cried like a baby

“Merle’s Door” was very good book. It covers all of Merle’s life up to the very end and so the book was sad near the end, but Merle had an extremely good life. I liked how the book told about Merle and how Ted Kerasote told his thoughts on things dog related. Merle was given what seemed like total freedom to come and go. But Merle and Kerasote lived in a rural Wyoming area so it was easier to do that compared to living in a city somewhere. Still, even if I lived in rural Wyoming, I don’t know that I could give my dogs that much freedom because I would be worried something would happen to them.
One of the things I really liked about the book is that Kerasote did a lot of research on dog behavior and he talks about it in the book. He has references and the book is also indexed. It isn’t just a story – it is something to think about in regards to how dogs act and think and how we act towards dogs. Such as, do we give them the opportunity to explore?
I had the opportunity to hear Kerasote speak about Merle and the Merle’s Door book. Kerasote said he received tons of emails and letters about the book. One of the emails he told us about was a person who lived in a suburb in a subdivision on fairly large lots a little under an acre and each lot was fenced. The people in the subdivision got 11 houses (or it might have been 10) that were each next to each other to put dog doors in the fences. And so then the dogs in those 11 houses had 11 big yards to go explore instead of just their own 1 yard and all the dogs got along with each other. I thought this was pretty neat.
I thought it was an interesting and thought provoking book that was well written and told Merle’s story really well.

Pros: good story and gives you lots to think about

Cons: can't think of any