The world is divided into two groups; dog people and everybody else. For dog people, they will always remember the one dog that changed their life, each one with a waggly tail and unique smell. For John Grogan, that dog was Marley.
Marley and Me, the book that made us all ugly-cry, became a global bestseller in 2005, and in 2008, the film brought in $247,812,011 (€222m) worldwide (good boy, Marley!), changing Grogan's professional life substantially.
But in his personal life, he credits “the world’s boldest dog”, who was part of the family for 13 years, with preparing him and his wife Jenny for parenthood.
“The book talks about how he really helped my wife Jenny and I grow up; kind of become responsible adults,” he says over Skype, with Jenny pottering about in the background. “A dog, especially a trying dog . . . some people would give up on but if you don’t give up on him – this is one of the things that I like to talk to people about – they really make you a better person: more responsible, more caring or thoughtful.”
Grogan notes that when you have a dog, it brings you closer to other humans. On your morning and evening walks, you fall in sync with your neighbours who are doing the same thing or stop for a chat with total strangers, who want to steal a moment with your dog. “It’s an open door to meet new people. People who would never take the chance to talk to a stranger. If you’re walking with your dog, they will ask you a question or ask if they can pet the dog or whatever,” he says.
“My wife loves to go up to people who have dogs and she’ll start up a conversation and next thing you know, she’s down on her knees petting the dog and talking to the owner of the dog. Twenty minutes later, we’re still talking . . . There’s something about having a dog in the middle that makes that relationship possible. I don’t know exactly what it does. I don’t know, if you walk around with a cat, would that happen?”
Grogan, and almost every dog owner I spoke to, remarks that the one thing the one thing they try to learn from their dog is to live in the moment. Their loyalty and love means that they never stay in a bad mood for long. “Dogs never get mad at you. They forgive you,” he says. “It’s the most accepting, loving type of a relationship. If we humans could nail that down, how dogs react, we’d probably all get along better and have better relationships.”
Isla and Ceri Jeffers in Bandon, Co Cork, know that welcoming a furry thunderball of energy into your home can do more than that. Ceri (18) is one of just a handful of people in the world diagnosed with a degenerative neurological condition called H-ABC (hypomyelination with atrophy of basal ganglia and cerebellum) syndrome. It causes the muscles in her legs to contract, making it difficult for her to walk without support. That was until she found George through Dogs for the Disabled, an incredible charity that has trained task, stability and therapy dogs for over 120 adults and children in Ireland with physical disabilities.
When the three-year-old golden retriever wears his harness, he counterbalances instability Ceri has. This means that she can go out and about by herself, something she couldn’t do until the pooch came into their lives a year ago. “She went to the cinema with him yesterday, she met her friend. They went into the cinema and George lay on the floor,” says her mother Isla. “Afterwards, she said, ‘Mum, it was so cool being able to go to the cinema without you,’ which is brilliant.”
Isla praises the “gorgeous” George at every given opportunity and says that, while it took some time for the two of them to get used to each other, he is now devoted to Ceri. “Because Ceri’s needs are so high, I felt it was a bit like putting your best china on a skateboard and pushing it down the hill!” she says. “He’s at the point now where he just really seems to understand what her needs are and it has done so much for her confidence. They’re kind of a team now, they go everywhere together.”
The companionship of a dog is incomparable, as Clare Smith can testify. Smith has cystic fibrosis but she is confident that at 31 years of age, she is in the best physical health of her life and it's down to her daily walks with her golden retriever, Rupert.
“From day one, our lives completely changed. I’d gone from being home alone pretty much every day while Barry [her husband] went to work. I was just muddling through the day and getting through my treatments, trying to stay motivated,” she says.
“Before I got him, I couldn’t really walk more than a kilometre or a kilometre and a half. I had thought that that was it and my fitness was capped because of the CF but because dogs are so interested in everything, you find yourself walking further and further without even realising it.”
When he carries her bag back from the shops or makes a run for it with the contents of their laundry basket, he lightens the load of the bad days by making her laugh. “They just take you out of yourself. They remind you that whatever is going on, will it matter tomorrow? Will it matter this time next year? You could come in after a really crappy day and he’s wrapped in my raincoat and a scarf and he’s so happy with himself,” she says. “They’re just acting the maggot and it’s like ‘ah, this stuff is so trivial – this is what’s important’.”
When Smith is in hospital, Rupert stays at home and that’s when she needs her pal the most. “I’ve thought of sticking him in a wheelchair, putting him in a really big coat, put a hat on, and trying to hide his face but I don’t think we could pull it off. I think a tail would stick out through the back of the wheelchair,” she says.
“Because you’re in isolation rooms, you’re on your own and it’s quite lonely and you’re doing your drugs and feeling really rubbish. It would be lovely to have your compadre with you. It would help with the healing process, even for your mental state; to give you a little bit of endorphins to cheer you up.”
Comedian Andrea Farrell found a similar remedy with Joey, a little bit of collie and a little bit of something else, who she rescued last year from the Animal Care Society Cork when she was very ill with Crohn's disease. "With the disease, my energy levels can be extremely low but having Joey pushes me to get out and go for walks with him," she says. "He wakes me up in the morning by standing on my chest and hitting me with his paw. He gets me out of bed like no human ever could."
She refers to him as “the dog of craic” and she can’t imagine life without him. “Joey’s just a cool dog. He does this funny growl whenever I get home and shakes his arse. It’s a ‘where the f**k have you been?’ growl but he’s also so happy to see me, so his emotions are so mixed and it’s hilarious to see,” she says. “A few friends have said he’s been the making of me. He’s a great lad.”
Husband and wife Conor Stevens and Siobhan O'Donovan are co-founders of The Doggie Do, a dog festival in Dublin that they call the "Mardi Gras for mutt and man". When they started going out, Stevens's 17-year-old, wire-haired terrier Poppy was part of the package. "I never had a dog until I met Conor. When I met Conor, I met Poppy, and I was kind of won over because she was such a brave little personality and quite bossy and I found myself going a bit dog mad," says O'Donovan, who confesses she was more of a cat person when she was growing up.
“She was a remarkable little dog,” says Stevens of Poppy, so remarkable that last year’s Doggie Do was in her honour.
It was New York’s annual Halloween Dog Parade in Tompkins Square, where all dogs and humans dress up, that inspired the festival. “We got this amazing sense of this huge dog community and we felt that was really missing in Dublin,” she says. “There was nowhere really for people to get together and hang out with their dogs. Because we dog people like talking about our dogs and looking at other people’s dogs. We started thinking it would be great to have a big event in Dublin that would bring a focus to that and be a celebration of dogs.”
Since adopting Ellie, a collie and terrier mix, from Dogs Trust last year, the couple are enjoying dog ownership all over again but this time with a pup. Stevens says that watching her play in Dublin 8's Oscar Square is a joy unlike any other. "When we have Ellie off the leash in the evenings in Oscar Square – and she's bounding around with nine or 10 other dogs of various shapes and sizes – the sheer, unalloyed joy that the dogs are experiencing is a tonic for humans."
John Grogan, who will be speaking at The Doggie Do, says he will always have dogs in his life, no matter what. “Every day we recognise and we talk about how they’re such good stress therapy. They really enrich our lives,” he says. “They love us unconditionally, which any human has to appreciate.
“We have friends and relatives who just do not get dogs. For them, it’s just as bizarre as how I would think about living with a wasp nest in your house or a grizzly bear. They just think it’s really unpalatable,” he jokes. “You either get it or you don’t.”
The world is divided into two groups; dog people and everybody else and as the author's labradors Woodson (one of the puppies from the litter scene in Marley and Me) and Wallace trot and sniff around the living room during our video call, it's easy to see who's missing out.
The Doggie Do takes part in Herbert Park on Sunday September 11th. See thedoggiedo.com for details
