6 h 57 minAudiobook16 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
A dog’s loyalty is easy to praise—but what happens when danger puts it to the test?
In The Heart of a Dog, Albert Payson Terhune brings together eight stories of dogs who guard, wait, fight and forgive. Each tale places a strong animal at its center and a bond with a person at its heart. Trouble tests that bond, and courage means facing bigger animals, rough men or bad weather, sometimes at a painful cost.
Terhune knows dogs through life with his collies at Sunnybank in New Jersey. His attention rests on how a dog moves, listens and decides. These stories explore dogs as beings of character, loyalty tested by danger and time, and courage that costs something. A clear, brisk style keeps the action close and gives each tale a strong moral shape.
What you’ll discover
- Dogs with character Meet animals whose honor, pride and will make them more than charming companions.
- Loyalty under pressure Follow bonds between dogs and people as trouble puts devotion to the test.
- Courage with a cost Feel the stakes when brave dogs face threats that can leave them hurt.
- An attentive eye Notice the movements, listening and decisions that give Terhune’s dogs their vivid presence.
- Stories that move Enjoy direct sentences and short scenes that keep each animal’s choices in view.
Who will love it
Readers who love animals, farm and country settings, and stories of loyalty. It also suits anyone who enjoys dog shows, clever underdogs, sly humor, and tales that can be read one sitting at a time.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A fox farm loses two prize animals
- A puppy grows up wild and strong
- The reward turns a valley into a hunt
- A battle at the niche tests Ruff
- A puppy guards a house by accident
- Chum and the meanest man in Hampton
- Lad must find the boy who hurts him
- An old judge faces a hard duty
- A swindled man and a scrawny puppy
- A boy, a dog, and a hole in the ice
- Afterword: the real dogs, and what binds the tales
Who’s who
- RuffA collie pup raised by a silver fox, strong and cunning, who loves his foster mother with a collie's whole heart.
- LadThe gentle, wise collie of the Place who bears a boy's cruelty yet follows every command to find him.
- ChumLink Ferris's collie, who loves a chance to chase and outwits the dog catcher Eben Shunk.
- Angus McGileadA small, honest Scottish judge who adores the collie Bruce and must decide fairly between old and young.
- Jamie MackellarA poor truck driver from a family of collie keepers who works hard to buy a champion's pup and is cheated.
- Lochinvar BobbyA scrawny runt who flees into the winter woods and learns to hunt like a fox to stay alive.
- WolfA red-gold collie with a wolf's looks who trusts only three people and tries to save his young master.
- CyrilA sly, spiteful eleven-year-old guest who torments Lad and then gets lost in a blizzard.
Formats and delivery
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 6 h 57 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 16 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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The Heart of a Dog
by Albert Payson Terhune · 1924
A collie pup raised by a silver fox learns to hunt and to guard, then must choose between escape and loyalty.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
The Heart of a Dog gathers seven stories and a closing afterword by Albert Payson Terhune, an American writer who bred collies at his home, Sunnybank, in New Jersey. He wrote about the dogs he lived with, and he died in 1942.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A fox farm loses two prize animals
The first story, Fox, opens at the Stippled Silver Kennel, where two brothers, Rance and Ethan Venner, raise silver foxes for their fur. They have studied government bulletins and diet charts, but they know nothing about how a fox thinks. Twenty-four valuable animals sit in neat wire runs. The brothers feel sure of themselves.
On a moonlit November night, a male named King Whitefoot II digs a shallow tunnel under the border wire of his run. The other foxes watch in total silence, because silence is the only help they can give. A young female named Lady Pitchdark cannot hold still. She climbs her ten-foot wire wall like a cat and swings over the overhang at the top.
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What is The Heart of a Dog about?
It is a set of seven stories and an afterword about collies and the people they love. The tales include a fox-raised pup, a dog catcher outwitted, a dog show judge and a boy in danger, all showing loyalty and courage.
Who are Lad, Bruce and Wolf in these stories?
They are collies from Terhune's Sunnybank home. Lad is the great collie of the Place, Bruce rules after him as a champion, and Wolf is Lad's son and the Boy's own dog. Treve is a real collie described in the afterword.
Are the stories based on real dogs?
Many are drawn from the collies Terhune kept at Sunnybank. The afterword describes real dogs such as Treve and Wolf, with their pedigree and kennel names. The plots themselves are told as fiction, with real touches from his kennel life.
The author
Albert Payson Terhune
1872–1942 · American novelist and dog writer
Albert Payson Terhune (1872–1942) was an American writer and journalist born in Newark, New Jersey. He lived at Sunnybank, his family's home in Wayne, New Jersey, where he bred collies. He wrote books about dogs, including Lad: A Dog (1919) and The Heart of a Dog (1924).
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