I loved, loved, loved this non-fiction book, which traces the history and explains the use of dogs in our military. Fully entitled “The Dogs of War: The Courage, Love, and Loyalty of Military Working Dogs”, Rogak begins with the story of Cairo, the dog used in the mission against bin Laden, and then traces the history of dogs in the military from the 1800’s to present. Throughout, there are stories of real dogs and real people, pictures, and references. She covers how dogs are trained, what they are used for, what their lives are like on base and on mission, and what happens to them afterwards. The stories of dogs and their handlers are quite touching. The dogs themselves, though, are the heroes of this book.

As a dog lover, I found this book so interesting and inspiring. I will put it on the Christmas list for the dog lovers in my life! I also found this book very “readable” – I think it’d be great for a YA student looking for an interesting topic for a paper.

Thanks, Net Galley and St. Martin’s Griffin Publishing for my free kindle copy!