A dog's gift

Terry Henry, a former military counterintelligence officer, takes his young daughter Kyria to a nursing home so the residents can spend time with the family golden retriever, Riley. He is astonished by the change the dog brings over the people there.

That visit leads Terry and Kyria to found paws4people, a service dog organization. It pairs dogs with people who need healing: traumatized and wounded war veterans, and children with physical, emotional or intellectual disabilities.

Bob Drury, a journalist, follows the organization through one year. This is narrative non-fiction, built around the people the dogs help and the dogs bred and raised by the organization itself.

The puppies start with affectionate but demanding early training. The book then moves to "the bump", the event Terry and Kyria named, where each service dog picks its own new owner.

Alongside these stories, Drury draws on canine history and science, and on what the author presents as the wisdom of dogs. The question the year turns on is what happens to a person once that match is made.