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| Merle's Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog | 
 enlarge | Author: Ted Kerasote
Publisher: Harcourt
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
Buy New: $4.49
You Save: $20.51 (82%)
New (57) Used (51) Collectible (5) from $2.85
Avg. Customer Rating:  152 reviews
Sales Rank: 1920
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 416
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.6
ISBN: 0151012709
Dewey Decimal Number: 636.7092
EAN: 9780151012701
ASIN: 0151012709
Publication Date: July 2, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: ships out next day, click expedited for faster shipping
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| Customer Reviews:
 Good Story - boring scientific tangents September 14, 2007
5 out of 16 found this review helpful
I have the audio book. The narrator was FANTASTIC. The story itself was great. Merle is heartwarming & made me laugh. The scientific tangents that the author too often goes off on bored me & my husband. The Doggie DNA, the research on mice, the smart horse "Clever Haans" study, the wolves studies and tons of other scientific research was drawn out, long & unnecessary. If you forward through that BORING cr@p......the story is great.
Extraordinary September 12, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I just completed this book which was recommended by a friend who heard about it through BEST FRIENDS; the animal rescure group in Utah.
Shortly before finishing the book I heard that a woman I know with her first puppy, now just six months old was considering placing the dog in another home. The pup (a lab) was not what she expected. It barked, it took some chicken off the kitchen table, it shed.
I told her to read Merle's Door before she decided to part with the dog. Not only is Merle's Door a great dog story but it is is a thinking person's dog book. I have had 5 dogs and I still paused to think about certain behaviors that Merle's Door helped me to understand better.
Thanks Ted. Your book was extraordinary and may helped keep Noah with the family he has already grown to love.
A Wonderful Tribute to a Wonderful Friend September 11, 2007
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
What first attracted me to this book was the cover. It could have been a picture of my dog, Rhone, whom I also found as a stray in February 1992, and I'm guessing he was about 10 months at the time.
After reading some of the reviews, I went to Ted's website and looked at the photos of Merle's life in pictures. Merle and Ted's enthusiam for life, and the mutual love and respect Ted and Merle shared beams out of every picture. I then listened to the radio podcast and knew that I had to get this book. I have read my share of books about people and their canine companions (Dogs Who Found Me, Marley and Me, Dogs of Dreamtime, etc.) and this chronicle was by far the most informative and intimate.
I really appreciated how Ted treated his readers, much in the way that he treated Merle, with respect. He provides us with a plethora of information to help us understand our dogs and their evolution, they way that they think, etc. I was also taken by the fact that there were no pictures in the book, they're all on the website. I really liked that, not sure why, but I did. It's too bad that there is not video along with the pictures! It'd be great to see Merle in action.
Ted takes on the herculian task of being story teller, griever (he writes the books over a 2.5 year period after Merle's death), and teacher...succeeding remarkably in each area. Ted guides us through the life he and Merle shared and allows us to share the many epiphanies that Ted has, some funny, some serious, and some very sobering and sad, as when he realized after seeing Merle's 'guimping' (his word, not mine) after one hike, that their days of hiking, skiing, and hunting, are over....and that Merle's time is close to being up. I can't think of anything harder to come to terms with. He adds humor when he reminds us that it is the psychology of man, not dog, that brings about this sadness...Merle doesn't think about his numbering days, his guimpy leg, etc. It's a great reminder that it is how we interpret these things, along with the concepts of death and separation, that impede our growth if we wallow in them.
I also enjoyed reading not only about Merle and Ted, but about Merle's dog friends, Ted's gray cat, his support mechanism of friends, etc.
I loved reading this book, but really didn't want to read the ending, because I was sure it would be difficult emotionally. And although it was, Ted once again guides us through this, like a friend taking our hand, trying to help us see the beauty, and not the tragedy at hand. Of course, part of grieving is crying and acknowledging our loss. It's striking to read so many reviews, where we, the readers, share that sense of loss of Merle, that Ted felt. There, for me, was a secondary loss, in a way. In reading such intimate details of Ted's life, I felt that he truly let us in and was unguarded, as much as he could be. When the book ended, it was like I had been caught in some time machine...I found myself sad and grieving for a loss that had happened years before. I found myself then thinking, now 3+ years after Merle's death, how Ted is doing. Did Ted come across another canine friend? Did Ted finally meet a human with whom he can share his life? And, how's his cabin/house that he and Merle built?
Ted brings us a great gift in this book. Many of the comments remark on how lucky Merle was to have a village and free roaming life. Living in a city (SF), I can't offer nearly as much freedom, but I can offer many of the other things that Ted suggest: love, partnership, off-leash dog walking areas like Fort Funston where Rhone can socialize with other dogs, and make his own friends, resolve his own conflicts, etc....to be a (free thinking) dog.
Thanks for a great share Ted!
One of the best for exploring a dog's attitude and learning ability September 11, 2007
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Love this book. As a breeder of dogs, I find the insights offered by Ted Kerasote in his book most unique. It is the best justification I have found so far for anthropormorphism. He and his dog, Merle, have the best communication system ever. He so typifies the recluse in daily dialogue with his best friend. However, it is not just a tale of "lessons from a freethinking dog", it truly explores a variety of theories about animal intelligence. A very amusing and insightful read.
Explosively Superb! September 11, 2007
15 out of 17 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.
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