Elias Weiss Friedman, creator of the popular social media account the Dogist, firmly believes that dogs can change lives. He discusses this belief in his highly entertaining memoir, This Dog Will Change Your Life, which begins with an anecdote about how a yellow lab's sheer presence positively impacted the life of a friend of Friedman's who had anxiety issues.
Friedman illustrates the bond between dogs and people, showing why the Dogist, which presents photographs of dogs from New York and other city streets that capture their personalities, has developed such a strong following. This Dog Will Change Your Life isn't a scientific, psychological, or academic examination. Instead, it's more like a long chat with a friend about "a celebration of the joy that dogs bring into our lives, and... the way that they can help us to have a better approach to our identity, our relationships, and our purpose." That's a heavy responsibility to put on four little legs, but Friedman compassionately relates how dogs help veterans diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, bring a sense of purpose to prisoners through training programs, and offered therapeutic services to the 2024 U.S. Olympic women's gymnastics team.
Friedman also offers up personal tidbits, writing about his family of physicians, who are all dog lovers (his grandmother's black lab rescued him as a toddler); his 2013 creation of the Dogist after being downsized from his job at a marketing agency; his own dog, and his engagement (he's now married).
As Friedman so warmly writes, dogs "get into your soul and they don't disappear." --Oline H. Cogdill, freelance reviewer