This note contains spoilers for the book.

Another of this multi-named author's juvenile books. This one seems to be about the tragic results of poor dog raising. And I can even see some of the bad behavior being trained in. I haven't yet gotten around the fact that the first pair of hunting dogs are superbly trained, though; nobody in the household now seems to have the faintest idea how to train a dog. I'm also upset at putting the mother in the stereotypical "protecting her baby" stupidly role.

Wow, this is weird; the vet has just suggested that "castrating" Precious might curb his aggressive tendencies. As if even the vet wasn't familiar with neutering dogs. This book is copyright 1982; in my experience dogs in the 60s were routinely neutered, as were cats.

I know the state of veterinary medicine has advanced a lot over the years, but where I hang out the stuff in the story is antiquted. Since there's a postscript explaining he had a very similar experience with a real dog, perhaps the details are true to that real story, which perhaps happened rather earlier than the date on the book (or perhaps the contents of the book aren't set in the time the book was published in).

They do, of course, get another dog after they have to have Precious put down.