A collection of observations and anecdotes about man's best friend, from pampered pooches to curs and mongrels. It includes more than 800 contributions from over 400 different writers, ranging from the fifth century BC to 1996. It covers a dog's beauty, fidelity, sustenance, sense, sagacity, strength, training, intelligence, courage and obedience. Lore on the breeding, training and characteristics of dogs over two millennia, include contributions from Pliny, King Canute, George Sand, Scott of the Antarctic, Sir Thomas Malory, Kipling, Maeterlinck, Martin Luther, Richard Nixon, Aristophanes, Ogden Nash, Bernard Levin, and P.G. Wodehouse on the trickiness of pekineses and Jerome K. Jerome on the schizophrenic nature of the fox terrier.