Merle's Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog | 
 enlarge | Author: Ted Kerasote
Publisher: Harvest Books
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
Buy New: $9.13
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Rating:  172 reviews
Sales Rank: 838
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Pages: 416
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.3 x 1.3
ISBN: 0156034506
Dewey Decimal Number: 636.7092
EAN: 9780156034500
ASIN: 0156034506
Publication Date: April 21, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.
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Product Description
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 45 more reviews...
Wonderful Story Masterfully Written July 5, 2007
M. L Lamendola (Merriam, KS USA)
151 out of 160 found this review helpful
"Wow. What a book." These are the words that I breathed out when I reached the end of Merle's Door.
Ted Kerasote is to writers what Mozart is to composers. His writing is that good. If he were to write about how the grass grew in his yard over summer, I have no doubt it would be a page-turner.
But that's not the story he wrote. This story is so much more. This unforgettable story begins when a big golden dog emerges from the dark to introduce himself to a small group of people camping in the desert. One of those people was Ted Kerasote, and the dog went home with him. As the story unfolds, we are taken on an amazing journey that goes well beyond "a boy and his dog."
Good relationships are built on mutual respect, and this relationship was better than most. This book is the story of that relationship. These two were the best of friends, and this account of their life together shows how each grew and learned from the other. Love, patience, and understanding are evident throughout the book.
At times, this book is humorous, and at other times it's instructive. But always, it's interesting. One of the lessons Merle taught Ted was that great things can happen if humans will change their behavior instead of always trying to change the behavior of their dogs. The prevailing wisdom is that dogs must be trained and molded a certain way, and treated as though they have no independent powers of judgment. Merle proved this isn't so wise.
The problem is that people don't let their dogs grow up. They make the dog into a perpetual child, and then are surprised when anxiety surfaces in the form of behavior problems. But how would you feel if you always had someone telling you what to do, and not letting you make any decisions on your own? This treatment, while often well-intended, disables a person. It disables dogs as well.
Ted suggests loving in a different way, one that provides more personal freedom and is less about controlling the dog. He says, "His (Merle's) lessons weren't about training, but about partnership. They were never about method; they were about attitude."
The partnership between these two took them on a far different path from one they would have taken if, for example, Ted had decided to make a bird dog out of Merle. Rather than make Merle into something to fit a desire of his own, Ted allowed Merle to be himself. And in so doing, Ted would eventually find his own deep needs met in ways that he could not have predicted. This made for a story worth telling and one definitely worth reading.
In addition to providing us with a wonderful story masterfully written, this book presents an impressive amount of science and technical information on a range of subjects. The list of sources runs 15 pages (in small print, at that). Yet, none of this seems out of place. Whether it's a quote from a biologist, an explanation of cognitive maps, or a summary of experiments with dolphins and mirrors, it's all good and it all fits. The wolf research is especially interesting. For anyone wishing to look up those facts after finishing the story, the extensive index will prove helpful.
This book has 18 chapters spanning 364 pages. Not a single one was wasted.
Even if you have never loved a dog, read this book June 29, 2007
Jeffrey Capshew (New York, NY USA)
69 out of 74 found this review helpful
First, the cold facts. Ted Kerasote has an uncanny ability to mix the sociology and history of dogs with humans and the very personal story of his life with his extraordinary Labrador mix, Merle, and makes it work like no other dog book I've read (and that's a lot of books). He is such a good writer that it's fun to read science part. But what really makes Merle's Door sing, or howl, is the poignant love story of Ted and Merle as they get to know more about each other over the years. Merle's story as told through Ted, who can put the words on the page since Merle could not, rings so true. When you read this book you are reading the story of two friends who share a life of adventure and love that is simply all too short. Millions of humans have had loving relationships with our canine halves, and never has it been so eloquently distilled in a single volume as this book. Read it, shed some tears of joy, give it to your friends, this is a magical book.
Explosively Superb! September 11, 2007
agnes bonaparte
17 out of 19 found this review helpful
This book was UNBELIEVABLE. This was quite possibly the best book I have ever read. It was so intelligent, interesting, well written, suspenseful, insightful, heart rending and hilarious. I was up half the night AFTER I finished it contemplating its many facets. I cannot recommend this enough. Make no mistake, this is a story of deep, life changing friendship that few, if any, of us ever experience in our lives with anybody. It is a love story, and a tale of life's deepest lessons, told with such flair you cannot stop reading. Ted Kerasote is a man I would really like to meet. He is insightful and above all one of the most compassionate people I have ever read about. And what a life, full of excitement and adventure, and Merle is along for every experience, contributing his unique input at every opportunity.
I also admire a tale about letting your dog be a DOG and not treating it like a stuffed animal....i.e. carrying it around in a pocketbook like a fashion accessory. I only wish I could provide my dogs with a mountain range teeming with wildlife and a town full of other friendly people and dogs to romp with off leash.
I was literally sobbing at the end, and I felt this book opened my eyes in the sense that it brings home a point we all know but seldom think about. Life is so, so short for all of us, and if we pay attention, we can make sure our time on this earth is filled with happiness, earth shattering love, beauty, peace, and deep meaning if we let it.
100 Stars January 5, 2008
W. Soule (Aylett, VA United States)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
What a wonderful book. I guess being a dog lover and having experienced a similar situation, this book really touched me. I have never had a book so profoundly touch my senses. The tears flowed like water. Both for the sadness and the beautiful description in which he writes of his best friend. I will feel the affects of this book for a long, long time. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to know what is important in this life and to cherish every single day. It will open your eyes to the beauty that is mother earth and the beauty of the love that only comes from a four legged buddy. A hundred stars to you Mr. Kerasote. A beautifully writted and compasionate closure to a wonder chapter in your life.
I fell in love with Merle March 8, 2008
Michelle Mckenzie (Grass Valley, CA USA)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I am so impressed with how the author interpreted Merle's looks into language! I have seen so many of these expressions in my own dogs and couldn't verbalize it nearly as well as Ted does here.
Their love affair has added another dimension to my life with my dogs, and I really did not think that was possible. Really. I now watch their expressions even closer than before. Eyebrow up, eyebrow down. "Ha ha ha," Merle said.
To quote an old TV show, Night Court, "I laughed, I cried, it became a part of me."
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