The Underdogs: Children, Dogs, and the Power of Unconditional Love

“Gorgeously written, sparklingly told, The Underdogs makes you want to leap up and cheer for the brilliant ways dogs help children with disabilities, for the hidden resiliency of kids and the courage of their parents, and for the powerful, enduring, and holy bond between humans and our oldest and dearest companion species. Thank God for dogs! And thank you, Melissa Fay Greene, for so compellingly illuminating their love and loyalty.”–Sy Montgomery, author of The Soul of an Octopus 

From two-time National Book Award nominee Melissa Fay Greene comes a profound and surprising account of dogs on the front lines of rescuing both children and adults from the trenches of grief, emotional, physical, and cognitive disability, and post-traumatic stress disorder

THE UNDERDOGS tells the story of Karen Shirk: felled at age 24 by a neuromuscular disease and facing life as an immobile, deeply isolated and depressed, ventilator-dependent patient, she was rejected by every service dog agency in the country as “too disabled.” Her nurse encouraged her to raise her own service dog, and Ben, a German shepherd, dragged her back into life. “How many people are stranded like I was,” she wondered, “who could lead productive lives with a service dog?”

A thousand dogs later, Karen Shirk’s service dog academy, 4 Paws for Ability, is restoring broken children and their families to life. Melissa Fay Greene tells the stories of isolated children, struggling parents, and the marvelous dogs who gallop into their lives. Into these modern wonder tales, she weaves the latest scientific discoveries about the inner lives of dogs. It turns out that dogs really are doing the astounding things they appear to do, and they’re doing them for people they love. The frontiers of the human/dog bond are explored here with insight, compassion, humor, and joy. A cast of remarkable characters-scientists and felons, dog trainers and parents, children with disabilities and the great dogs themselves-together address questions about our attachment to dogs, what constitutes a productive life, and what can be accomplished with unconditional love.

This unforgettable book takes you inside the moments where science, hope, and a dog’s devotion intersect.

• A Founder’s Journey: Meet Karen Shirk, a woman told she was “too disabled” for a service dog, who went on to create a world-renowned academy that has placed nearly a thousand dogs with families in need.
• Autism Assistance Dog: Travel to a remote Alaskan village where Juke, a yellow Labrador, is the only one who can predict and protect a teenage boy named Logan during his violent meltdowns.
• Dogs for Children with Disabilities: Discover how a goldendoodle named Casey becomes the bridge to the world for Connor, a young boy isolated by a ventilator and complex medical conditions.
• The Science of Animal Behavior: Go beyond heartwarming anecdotes to explore the groundbreaking science of canine cognition, uncovering how dogs think, feel, and form their profound bonds with humans.
• Rescue and Redemption: Go behind the walls of a prison where inmates train shelter dogs, finding purpose and a path to redemption by preparing these animals for a life of service.

Melissa Fay Greene is the author of Praying for Sheetrock; The Temple Bombing; Last Man Out; There Is No Me Without You: One Woman’s Odyssey to Rescue her Country’s Children; and No Biking in the House Without A Helmet. Her honors include two National Book Award nominations, a National Book Critics Circle Award nomination, the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize, the Southern Book Critics Circle Award, the ACLU National Civil Liberties Award, the Hadassah Myrtle Wreath Award, the Salon Book Award, Elle Magazine’s Readers’ Prize, the Georgia Author Award, and a Dog Writers of America Award. She is a current Guggenheim Fellow.