This fantastic book really gets into all corners and hide-outs of the Toller. Alison's and Gail's knowledge of this dog is simply amazing. We as breeders show the book to all our friends in the dog world, and many of them has already bought it. Simply fantastic. Thanks Gail and Alison

This is just about as good a book on any breed you can get, it has pride and place with my other books.

It is is very good book about Tollers. Lay-out is very high quality. If you have Toller of your own or you want to know about Tollers it is a good buy.

A great book about Nova Scotia's Little River tolling retrievers which are bred to ATTRACT as well as retrieve ducks. Lots of background stories about the breeders and owners of these dogs.

This story of dogs bred to attract ducks is more than entertaining. Gail MacMillan takes the reader back from the show dogs, the registered Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retrievers, back to the Little River Duck Dogs, and to their owners who have, for centuries now, kept these beautiful dogs. Toller, retriever, and family pet, the Little River Duck Dog is a prize and so is the book by Gail MacMillan.

Gail MacMillan, has, with a great deal of sensivity brought together stories about the Little River Duck Dog (from Nova Scotia) and the people who have bred them over the years. Archival photos show the delightful dog, their owners, and the the love that takes place......

You do not have to be a dog lover to delight in Biography of a Beagle, the latest in a series of books written by Bathurst author Gail MacMillan. Bran, a nickname for Brandy, the irrepressible hero in this life story scampers mischievously through the pages in a series of anecdotes that warm the heart of anyone who was ever owned by a pet. Chosen in the mid nineteen seventies, for the author's youngest daughter, Carol, when the little girl was eight, Bran quickly became a household favourite. His particular interpretation of what it meant to be a Beagle landed him in enough hot water to flood Parkwood Heights, the Bathurst subdivision where the family lived. Fortunately his patient and long-suffering pals always bailed him out.
His frequent 'jail brakes' took him in any of several directions. Whether it was the day he chased a pair of race horses around their paddock until caught by their protector, a Great Dane, or the time Bran returned home dragging a plucked and stuffed ready-for-the oven turkey, the beagle kept the MacMillan family off balance, and the author using her considerable creative ability thinking up excuses. Most of the incidents are funny but some are hilarious, like the morning Bran found the solution for permanently getting rid of an unpopular boyfriend, or when his hunter instincts caused him to flush an unsuspecting nudist from the protective coverage of a summer meadow.
The author and the dog enjoyed a special bond. He was her muse and her confident, and therefore no matter how outrageously his behavior she always forgave him.
The book is illustrated throughout with photographs taken by Gail's husband Ron, a forgiving gesture on his part, since Ron, the disciplinarian, was often the victim of the beagle's own unique form of revenge.
The book is set in Bathurst, New Brunswick, Canada and follows the little dog throughout his sixteen-years, thus also offering a window on this particular era of a family's history. Biography of a Beagle is a quick read, but Bran is unforgettable.