THIS DOG WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE

An affectionate paean to the wonder that is a dog.

“Dogs are the ultimate human connector; they are what help forge and preserve happiness, community, and meaning.” So writes Friedman, creator of the online platform The Dogist, which showcases photographs of dogs and owners he meets on the streets of New York and beyond. That human connection need involve only one human and one dog, as when Friedman recounts helping a stressed-out, anxious friend by pairing him with a yellow Lab, saying—yes—that the dog would change his life. And so it did, and so do all dogs, almost always for the better; Friedman means it quite literally, pointing out that prisoners who are paired with dogs in training programs are themselves being trained in responsibility. The dog need not be pretty or even identifiable (as he notes, Westminster has begun to allow mutts to compete, “a welcome sign of evolution from an institution based on tradition”). Friedman’s yarns rely more on anecdote than science (for the latter, see Elizabeth Marshall Thomas’ Social Lives of Dogs), but those anecdotes are both entertaining and instructive, as when he writes about the impromptu relationships he forges with dogs when he photographs them, describing them with unabashed anthropocentrism: “I personally believe they’re capable of many of the same emotions we possess: happiness, sadness, jealousy, anger, confusion, restlessness.” What is clear is that dogs mirror humans, and often the other way around is true: A good owner can bring a fearful, once-abused dog back from the brink, while a bad owner can turn the best of dogs into a monster. And as for Joe Biden’s bite-happy White House dogs? It’s to be expected in a situation where “the vibe around it is constantly tense and packed with people and activities.”

A pleasure for fans of Canis lupus familiaris, as all humans should be.