Nop's Trials
This book was not what I expected. For some reason I had an image in my head of a story centered on sheepdog trials, or maybe how the dogs are trained. While there are descriptions of the trials, that is only a small part of the book. Nop, Lewis Burkholder's newest and promising border collie, is stolen on Christmas day by a pair of rednecks who keep dogs for bear hunting and dogfights. He is then sold to an unscrupulous dog owner (Burkholder's enemy), and begins a long terrifying journey, passing through many different people's hands, suffering abuse from most of them. Told in conjunction with his trials is the story of life back home on the farm: Burkholder's depression and anger at loosing his dog, difficulties working the farm without a dog to handle the cattle and sheep, friction between Burkholder, his wife, daughter and son-in-law, and almost in the background is the Stink Dog, once a champion border collie but now rendered crippled by an accident.
I found the story intriguing, but sometimes McCaig's spare, concise writing style left something to be desired. Also, in this book the animals speak to each other, in a formal manner ("thee" and "thou") but with very basic, cropped sentences and a paucity of vocabulary. I felt like the author could have let the dogs talk a little more competently, without loosing their simplicity.
I did love the insights into how these dogs work and think. Border collies are not at all like other dogs, and Nop is a very strong character. Burkholder himself is quite stubborn and tenacious, and the surprising methods he uses to pursue his lost dog make a good page-turner. However, the examples of almost every kind of cruelty and abuse a dog can suffer could make this book very disturbing to some readers.
