Part I. A life with dogs -- Dog fancy -- A dog's life with Dickens: Timber -- I have taken to dogs lately: the great Gad's Hill dogs -- Dogs encountered -- Dickens's dream dog : Mrs Bouncer -- Part II. Knowing his place : the dog in Dickens's art -- Man and dog : Oliver Twist and The old curiosity shop -- The circus dog and the whelp : Hard times -- The drover's dog : Bleak House -- The essential dog : Dombey and Son and Little Dorrit -- The defining dog : David Copperfield and Great expectations.