This book touched my heart because I am beginning to understand what he means. I have had dogs off and on my whole life but until Macaroni, our lab-heeler mix we got five years ago, I had never lived with a dog, done life with a dog. I find myself cherishing his friendship and loyalty and trying already to prepare my heart and choose joy because he IS a dog and I know they don't live forever. I liked this book despite the sadness and unfairness of some of Gary's life. This book let's me know so much more about his growing up years and his family. I liked that, getting to know him better. I also wrote down a fantastic sentence, which I will also pen into my Keepers journal.

I had just gained the top, brought my head up over the edge, when a part of the darkness detached itself, leaned close to my face and went: "Woof."

I think adults would read this especially if they like dogs. I think they would like it because it is the authors true story about living a adventurous life with his favorite animals. I also think this relates to a lot of people who have parent issues because he was always alone growing and took care of himself so his animals became his people. I think people will really relate to the loss of cookie the sled dog because the dog saved his life and when he got worms it felt as though a human that is like family got sick which made me relate to the book so much.

Great little book. The book is small and the margins are big, so a quick read. Great stories though. One story talks about a farm dog that makes his rounds to all the animals on the farm, unless the little girls in the household are out and then he is watching them and not letting them get to close to the pigpen. In Jon Katz's books like 'Rose in a Storm', he talks about how the farm dog keeps a mental map of all the animals, but the story on Rex in My Life in Dog Years describing the patrols helps you understand how it is done.

The story of Caesar the Great Dane had nice Marley and Me type stories that are pretty funny. Other stories also had very funny moments.

The book ends with a story on Josh the Border Collie. Darn those dogs are quirky but so freakin smart. Love how they are always looking for ways to help out.

So short book, but definitely a good quick read.

K-9 friends or DOG: Man's best friend.
I shed tears as I read this riveting life story told by the dogs in Gary Paulsen's life.
I could identify w/many of dogs having grown up on a farm in Pennsylvania and Minnesota.
The book made me think of the dogs in my life, Rascal, Duke, Tim, Tiny, Gabby, Norellie, Freckels and Pepe!

A must read for dog and pet owners and lovers!

Gary Paulsen list the dogs he has owned from his young age to present day.

Cookie, the sled - dog
Snowball- a dog he had while in the Philippines.
Ike a stray black lab, a hunting buddy
Dirk a stray dog was a guard dog for sheep.
Rex a cow herder
Caesar a giant loved kids and hot dogs
Fred a destroyer of everything
Quincy a model dog that attacked a bear.
Josh the smartest dog ever, he is a Border Collie.

This was a fun and entertaining read .

I'm not a dog person, really, but I am a Gary Paulsen fan, and I like how this book is organized by the dogs that had an impact on his life since he clearly IS a dog person. These stories are funny, touching, and sometimes sad - always worth a read.

I liked this book very much and this is definitely a book I would recommend to my friends. This book makes me want to make a book about all of the dogs in my life as he did. I could make some money from it. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes dogs or nature. The only part I didn't like was how small it was because he didn't have a huge amount of dogs. His dogs did many great things for him and you can figure out things they did in the book if you read it.

This is a book by Gary Paulsen, it is a book that talking about the dogs live with Gary Paulsen. In this story, Gary Paulsen talked about ten dogs lived with Gary, suck as Cookie, Snowball, Ike, Dirk, Rex, Caesar, Fred, Pig, Quincy and Josh. Like Cookie save him, Cookie is his Life Sled Dog. And Ike is my favorite dog in the story, because of that Ike is a good friend in the story, he accompany Gary for a period of time, he play with him, talk with him, and hunt with Gary. But Ike leave Gary at a time, Gary do not know why he leave, but he do not see Ike ever. When I looked at the story of Ike, I was sad.

This book started for me with a real wallop of distaste. When discussing his wonderful sledging dog Cookie, Paulsen mentions that at this time he was trapping beavers for a living - the thought of which I find truly vile. Anyway, I continued reading, but that reader/author connection was dented.

His parents were alcoholic, and largely left him to fend for himself. He left home at 14, and amazingly supported himself while going to school by working in a bowling ally, which was a very physically demanding job. Somehow he managed to survive in what was obviously a tough world......and fortunately he found a protector in the form of a semi-feral, streetwise dog called Dirk.

He does seem to have attracted dogs of all sorts of different types throughout his life - and he obviously loved them deeply. He manages to convey that love, plus a marvellous sense of wonder at the the numerous assets his dogs possessed. The book stands as a memorial to both his dogs and to him. (He died in 2021.)

His talents with dogs are not only conveyed with his sensibilities when writing about them, but also in his achievements. He completed in the Iditarod Sled Dog Race twice, which is a huge challenge, even for very experienced sledders. In this book he tells a wonderful story about his lead sled dog Cookie, who saved his life when he fell through the ice into freezing water.

Paulson seems to have done some pretty amazing things with his maverick life - things discussed briefly in this book, but also in other books he has written. I was pleased to see how long the list of books was that he has authored. After such an appalling start to life, he went on to live first as a survivor, and then later he triumphed in adulthood. Along the way he certainly shared his life with some extraordinary dogs - and his ability to see their merits - made for interesting & sometimes heartwarming reading.

I know this is children/young adult, and it was a taste of a handful of the dogs in his life, but because of that, it left me wanting more though. I think there are books just about specific dogs which I will look into.

I really liked this book because of that he ceapt on getting dogs and every one of thoses dogs had a great life and a great story behide them. At the last chapter I thought that that was going to be his best dog because on the front of the book it is the same dog that he is talking about. I hope you will read this book because it is a great story.

I think that this book was very good and it showed him growing up with dogs. It also showed his interactions with dogs, for example, when he is about to die, the dog saves his life. He also once had a dog named Dirk that helped him when he needed it, he used him for protection and fed hi, then he because a farm dog.