One Good Dog

One Good Dog is a novel by Susan Wilson. Published in 2010, it is Wilson’s fifth novel and the first in a series of novels that explore the relationships between people and their beloved pet dogs. It was Wilson’s first and only book to be named a New York Times Bestseller.

The main character of the novel, Adam March, is an ambitious and successful businessman with a wife and daughter. Though he has achieved much in his life, he is stressed and unhappy at work. However, he feels pressured to keep his family in the upper-class lifestyle to which they have become accustomed and to not admit weakness.

When he arrives at the office, Adam is surprised to find a note from his personal assistant saying that Adam’s sister has called. Adam has been estranged from his older sister since she ran away from home to escape their overbearing and abusive father when Adam was still a child. He secretly resents his sister for abandoning him in an abusive home and has no desire to reconnect with her.



The mention of his sister causes Adam to flashback to his childhood and suffer a breakdown in the middle of the office. The episode culminates in Adam slapping his personal assistant, Sophie. His life spins out of control soon after. Adam loses his job, and his wife files for divorce. Sophie also presses assault charges. A judge inexplicably determines that Adam is not a threat to vulnerable people, and sentences him to community service at a homeless shelter.

Other than working at the soup kitchen, Adam has very little contact with other people. He has moved out of his house and into a small apartment. His daughter Ariel resents his visits and is embarrassed by how he was fired from work. His old coworkers and members of his social circle have also become distant. At first, he resents his work at the soup kitchen, but soon finds himself warming up to the facilitator Bob Carmody and the chef Rafe.

In addition, Adam begins to see a therapist and makes several important breakthroughs that have to do with his difficult past. He remembers being given up to foster care and essentially abandoned by his indifferent father. He also realizes that it was this abuse and neglect that caused him to grow up to be the overachieving businessman, as he was always subconsciously trying please his father.



Meanwhile, a dog named Chance has been born into a dogfighting ring. The police raid the ring, and, in the confusion that results, Chance escapes onto the street. Living on the street, Chance at first appreciates the freedom and opportunity to connect with other dogs. However, he also suffers from old dogfighting wounds, has difficult time finding food, and is trapped outside in a blizzard. Soon, he is picked up by animal control and placed in a shelter.

One of the homeless men who comes to Adam’s soup kitchen loses his dog, so Adam visits the shelter in an attempt to find it. He does not find the dog in question, but he does end up adopting Chance. Though he is at first unenthusiastic about taking care of a dog, Adam is mentored by a pet shop owner named Gina who shows him how to bond with Chance.

Chance, who conveniently needs no rehabilitation for his traumatic upbringing or formal training despite the fact that he is essentially a feral dog, has a positive influence on Adam. He helps Adam bond with his daughter and improves his overall mental health.



However, disaster strikes when Chance escapes from the fenced yard behind the soup kitchen and ends up on the streets again. He is promptly captured by dog fighters who return him to the pit. Adam cannot look for him right away because he is attacked by one of the men in the soup kitchen and hospitalized.

Gina and Ariel begin to search for Chance and provide moral support during this period which is more painful for Adam than losing his family was. Adam and Gina connect romantically, and Ariel reconciles with her father. Adam also meets with his own estranged father and achieves closure.

Upon returning from visiting his father, he receives a call from the animal shelter saying that Chance has been found. Though grievously injured from fighting, Chance recovers once he is reunited with Adam and is soon ready to be taken home.



One Good Dog’s defining feature is the occasional chapter narrated from Chance’s point of view. Generally short and inconsequential to the plot, these chapters allow the dog to develop his own unique voice, though his narration is strangely human in nature. It unintentionally raises the question, if a dog has the ability to reason and empathize exactly like a human being, is he morally culpable for the many dogs he killed while fighting? Is Chance really the good dog that the title claims, or is he a very bad dog indeed?