This Dog Will Change Your Life

Explore Friedman’s overt avoidance of academic, scientific, and historical data. What is the purpose of these omissions? What is the effect? How would the text benefit and/or suffer from more logical evidence?

Examine Friedman’s use of personal anecdotes throughout the text. What is the tone and mood of these anecdotes? What is their argumentative effect? How would the addition of different types of evidence alter the text’s tone?

Compare and contrast This Dog Will Change Your Life with another dog-centric text that explores Self-Discovery Through Animal Companionship. For example, what narrative, thematic, and/or argumentative overlaps do you observe between Friedman’s title and titles like John Grogan’s Marley and Me: Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog or Alexandra Horowitz’s Our Dogs, Ourselves?

Craft an argumentative essay that supports or refutes the following claim: Dogs are essential to human survival. Incorporate textual evidence and references to Friedman’s stance on the subject.

Craft an essay that challenges Friedman’s messaging about the unique Transformative Power of Human-Canine Bonds. Is there another animal with a similar potential to transform the humans it encounters? Are dogs capable of everything Friedman claims? Incorporate external research to argue why or why not.

Consider Friedman’s arguments for the benefits of Building Community Around a Shared Love of Dogs. Incorporating both textual examples and external empirical evidence,  discuss the ways that dogs challenge the contemporary loneliness epidemic that Friedman describes.

Examine the relationship between This Dog Will Change Your Life and The Dogist Instagram page. Are the moods, tones, themes, and messages the same in both contexts? Where do they diverge, and what is the effect?

Analyze Friedman’s allusions to canine-based nonprofit organizations throughout the text. What is the cultural, social, and thematic significance of these allusions? Do you agree with the organizations’ missions and Friedman’s involvement with them? Why or why not?