Wednesday 22 January 2014

Review: K9 Commando Police and Army Dogs from New York to Berlin by Violetta Kovacs


K9 Commando... An inspiring story that delves into the life of the silent detectives and four-legged crime fighters serving the Police, Special Forces (Commandos) and the Army. We can enrich our own appreciation of life via the great K-9 dogs of Europe and the United States of America whose help, extraordinary scent receptors and selfless heroism are indispensable to humanity. The insightful stories are heart breaking and exciting at the same time. With K9 Commando readers will discover stories never told before to introduce them to an unknown depth of human and canine relationship, where passion, danger, tears and humor dominate... This book is the chronicle of a mystical relationship, of love, selflessness and heroism. A relationship that can only exist between man and dog. And why is this book different from other similar books? With her twelve true stories, ninety color photographs the author offers an intimate journey into the lives of dogs and their owners made unique by her writing style and voice. Most likely her unique thought-provoking voice is the reason why the English language Facebook page of the Hungarian journalist/writer has accumulated more than 107,000 followers from the United States in a short period of time. Hungarian critiques say about the books of Violetta Kovacs that she is fluent in the language of dogs. American readers must have the same impression from the author's comments and that could be the reason for many to follow her posts every day. Her readers have come to like the strong emotional contents of the stories; the same trait that characterizes the book. Another important consideration is that this is the first book published in the US market which, besides the American K-9 units, illuminates the original home of police dog activities, and portrays European police and army dogs. American dog lovers would like to get an insight into other countries' police dog stories is proven by their special love of Bagira, the Hungarian Anti-Ter

Paperback, 228 pages
Published November 5th 2013 by Outskirts Press      
Terri's Thoughts:

I received a copy of this book directly from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.  For anyone who knows me would know that I was pretty excited to read this due to my extreme love of dogs and fascination with service dogs (I'm the proud mom of a 2 year old Golden Retriever).

This was a compilation of stories about various police and army dogs and their handlers.  It was remarkable to read about all of the brave and heroic things that these canines have done.  The story that stood outmost to me was regarding Roscoe and what occurred to him in the line of duty.  Warning, have your Kleenex nearby for this one!

One of the aspects of this book that I had a hard time getting past was the fact that the stories were told in story form the majority of the time.  Kovacs describes the emotions of the dogs and sometime provides a voice for them.  Although I am guilty of doing what I call the "voice over" for my dog all of the time I found this made the stories lose a bit of their impact.  I think the stories would have been better told as a factual recount of events as opposed to the style that was chosen.  Perhaps I am being picky however this prevented me from fully enjoying the stories.

At the end of the day it was amazing to read about these real life dogs and to learn about what they are able to do to make our lives safer.  I always say that they give us so much for how little we give them in return.  For anyone who is owned by a dog they would appreciate this read!


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