CANINE Courage by Tiffin Shewmake is the first book to take an in-depth look at dog heroism and loyalty. Canine Courage is about untrained dogs that save lives. The book explores heart-warming, sad and funny stories of heroism as it reveals why dogs are heroic and explains how this unique behaviour developed. Canine Courage examines the dog's natural history and behaviour to take a fresh and revealing look at the relationship between people and dogs.

Ancient legends document that people have long believed in dog heroism and loyalty and modern stories and literature show that this belief continues today. Is this belief based on fact? Despite some obviously untrue stories, like Seymour driving his owner to the vet's after the man suffered a heart attack at the wheel, the number of dog hero stories and the similarity over time give them legitimacy. This does not explain why one species would risk its life for another, behaviour that seems to break the rules of survival of the fittest. Canine Courage explains how heroism and helpfulness developed and why this behaviour actually benefits the dog. Like a corporate protégé who trusts his career to a mentor, dogs have based their future on their relationship with people.

Dogs save people from almost every danger imaginable - including drowning, animal attacks, fire, speeding cars, being lost, and armed intruders. Canine Courage looks at what motivates these dogs to help.

The book examines the importance of dog emotions and their sensitivity to our emotions. Canine Courage analyses how dogs recognise danger and take the right action, like Max pulling a burning blanket off his unconscious owner; or Lucason, a show dog who had never been swimming, rescuing a drowning child from a river. Some stories are miraculous and defy explanation - how could the dog Patsy have known to warn her owner just before the riverbank where he was standing collapsed? Canine Courage discusses conventional explanations for such stories and also considers the possibility of ESP.

Not all dogs are equally heroic and the book details which breeds are the most heroic (and the least) and why. Loyal behaviour is related to heroism and Canine Courage looks at extreme loyalty such as Shep who waited years at a railroad station for his owner's return, or Bobbie who travelled hundreds of miles to find his family. People value such loyalty; dogs like Greyfriars Bobby in England who waited by his owner's grave for years, become national icons.

To better understand dog loyalty, Canine Courage looks at the why this behaviour would have developed and discusses whether dogs can be truly loyal or if people misinterpret the behaviour because it is what they want to believe.

Dogs that rescue people from immediate danger are not the only canine heroes. Canine Courage also looks at the quiet heroism of untrained dogs that help disabled owners. Like Sport, who in the 1920s helped his paralysed owner achieve self-sufficiency. These dogs are the models for the trained service dogs used today, especially one of the more controversial ones, seizure alert dogs. Canine Courage examines what makes these dogs want to help and how they learn what to do without training. The book includes stories of dogs with jobs, such as firehouse dogs, canine mail carriers, even a morse code operator.

Available from www.doghero.com on-line bookstores, or by order from Bricks and Mortar stores.