Lab Mysteries

If you like dogs and mystery novels, or even just one or the other, have a look at J. F. Englert’s Bull Moose Dog Run series. There are three so far: A Dog About Town (2007), A Dog Among Diplomats (2008) and A Dog At Sea (2009). The ‘sleuth’ who tells the story is Randolph, a middle-aged black Labrador Retriever.

A sucker for animal stories, I’ve read some of the other dog- and cat-perspective mystery series. I’ve liked them, found them kind of cute, kind of funny. One of the Midnight Louie books by Carole Nelson Douglas made me think about feral cat life and TNR (trap, neuter, release) from the cats’ point of view. Not as straightforwardly beneficial as people may think it to be. While I’ve enjoyed the animal-detective books I’ve read, I haven’t felt a pressing need to immediately get the next one.

Randolph, a literate Lab

As soon as I finished A Dog About Town, I went back to the library and took out the second, A Dog Among Diplomats. Now I want to read the third. I want to know what happens next. Randolph’s take on being an intelligent dog in a human world made me think about many dog behaviours, and people’s behaviour in relating to dogs. You learn a lot (Randolph is a very literate dog), you are given lots of little doggy asides to think about, and the mysteries at the heart of the books are interesting and well-presented.

As with all novels featuring non-human protagonists, disbelief has to be suspended. But it wasn’t a lot of work doing that with Randolph. This is despite him being able to read (a skill learned while being paper trained in puppyhood), and not just reading the cereal box. He reads Dante’s Inferno, Proust, Kierkegaard and, for light reading, Dickens. He teaches himself how to use the internet and succeeds in setting up a hotmail account for himself faster than I’ve ever been able to do. But these improbabilities do not get in the way  – I found myself quickly accepting Randolph’s extraordinary skills and just got on with the story.

Dog and people behaviour

Randolph’s observations on human-dog interaction are shrewd, even cringe-making sometimes when you recognize yourself. He also observes the child-dog relationship in a refreshing way, especially coming from a Lab, the perceived ‘kids’ dog.’ Randolph takes you into his Manhattan – the streets, Central Park and the dog parks. He gives you the dog perspective on dog park politics of dogs and people. He notes the types of dog behaviours in meeting each other and even in their toilet habits. After you read his descriptions of dog habits, you find yourself watching dogs to see if they fit Randolph’s classification system. By and large, they do.

Englert is an astute observer of dogs and people, or he has been taught a lot by his own Lab. I’ve never been a big Lab person – they’re too boisterous and single-minded (usually involving a tennis ball) for me. But I look at them a bit differently now, after ‘meeting’ Randolph. He reminds me of Labs I have known and liked, nice old sensible ones. I also look at my dogs a bit differently, wondering if there’s more going on in their heads than what I have thought.

From my St. Thomas Dog Blog, Apr. 24, 2010.