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Red Dog
by Louis de Bernieres
I stumbled upon the story of Red Dog while browsing through my local Redbox’s movie offerings last fall. All I saw was 
the movie’s title and “Coming Soon”, but it was enough to prompt me to sign up for an email reminder. Two months later, as soon as that email arrived in my inbox, announcing the DVD was now available to rent, I reserved it.
I watched the film. Fell in love with Red Dog. Cried throughout the whole thing.
If you aren’t familiar with Red Dog, his is a true story. The movie opened in Australia (where the story takes place) in 2011, and only just made it to the States last fall. Actually, it became available to rent on DVD before those of us in the U.S. could even buy it.
I immediately preordered a copy of my own, and set about tracking down a copy of the book to read. The book is out-of-print, though you can still find it via used bookstores such as Amazon and Half-Price Books, for anywhere from $30-$80. It’s a short story and a small volume, as there’s not much to tell, and the tale is basically a compilation of the accounts and memoirs of the folks who experienced life with the Red Dog first hand.
This is, however, one of the best true dog stories out there. Definitely the best one I’ve ever read. I’ll even go ahead and say it knocks my all-time favorite (Old Yeller, which I am quite partial to, as the story- also true- is set in the region where I grew up, and relatives of the author were not only local, but wrote -and shared- their personal memoirs for the local newspaper, where I eagerly devoured them every week) to second place!
A bronze statue stands in a town on Australia’s northwestern coast, simply labeled “Red Dog.” Author Louis de Bernieres encountered it during his travels and was immediately compelled to know more. When he began inquiring about the statue, he found that everyone -for hundreds of miles and in every direction- had a story to share.
Australia, in the 1970s. A local mining camp played host to a wandering rogue, Red Cloud Australian Kelpie simply called Red Dog. He had no master (for a while, anyway), came and went as he pleased, and was known for his knack for knowing just who was driving down any road, at any time, and insisting upon bumming a ride (and also for his enormous appetite and horrific intestinal emissions). He traveled far and wide over the country, touching -and changing- many lives. The author set about collecting various local accounts and working them into a book after coming across a simple statue erected in Red Dog’s memory. In the movie, the story begins on what is to be a black night for the Red Dog, and while the townsfolk await his fate, they reminisce about Red Dog, sharing their stories with a lone traveler who happened to be passing through at the time. Each person has an account to share, a story to tell, of how the Red Dog altered the course of their life.
The movie is basically an interpretation of the book, and, thus, follows it closely. Either way, readers will want to see the film, and viewers will be inspired to read the book for themselves.
Red Dog is a story of how one dog brought a group of widely varied individuals together. Red Dog is also a story of how one motley group of immigrants
