In a couple of days I’ll be heading to Tarrytown, NY for this year’s Westminster Dog Show. Most of you know that I’ve been working for the past couple of years on a book about the dog show, and about the incredible bond between dogs and human beings. This will be, I think, the last big reporting trip before I really dive into the writing.
From here on out, I’m planning to post a lot here in the newsletter about my process of putting the book together. I’m going to try to walk you through how it works—or at least how I’m doing it—without spoiling too much of what’s actually in the book.
We don’t have an official title yet, or a cover, and so I hope to reveal some of those things along the way as well.
I’ve learned SO much in my reporting about dogs, dog shows, how dogs think, and how dogs and people have connected over thousands of years. I can’t wait to share it all with you. But I thought this might be a good time to stop and ask: What do YOU want to know?
Please take a minute and drop into the comments with any questions or thoughts you have about the dog-show world, dogs in general, how dogs and humans relate to each other, that sort of thing. I’ll answer in the comments and maybe I’ll pull out some others for a Q&A post down the road.
I’ll also post some photos from the show once it gets rolling on my Instagram feed. Because who doesn’t like dog photos?
I’d also encourage you to become a paid subscriber now, not just because your contributions fund this operation, but because I’ll have some perks for paid subscribers as we get closer to publication. I think it’ll be worth it.
Thanks to all of you for the support and encouragement. Dispatches from Dogland coming soon! — TT
You may have already heard this, but one of the podcasts from Freakonomics Radio (I'm thinking it was probably No Stupid Questions) interviewed a dog expert on how dogs experience the world. She was truly mesmerizing. She watched hours of footage of dogs (in slow-motion), and recorded their interactions with various stimuli. Even if she can't say for certain what they think, she could say with some expertise what their behaviors mean.
Oh, good grief, I went to find her episode for you, and it turns out, they have an entire pod series on dogs now. Here is the one episode; I have no recommendations on the other series but of course, if they are handling it, it's probably good.
https://freakonomics.com/podcast/forget-everything-you-know-about-your-dog-ep-436/
Will your book deal only with pedigree, registered dogs or will it deal with cross breeds as well?