March 15, 2025 • 32 mins
Award-winning, nationally syndicated humor columnist, Bruce Cameron, has written his first fictional novel, A Dog’s Purpose, which has become a New York Times bestseller. Being a best-selling author is not new to Bruce as he is also the author of 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Daughter (which the television show of the same name featuring the late John Ritter was based on). During this podcast, we talked about his latest book, the one dog that had four incarnations within the story, the reason he was inspired to write the book and the screenplay he is co-writing for DreamWorks Studios to make A Dog’s Purpose into a movie. Without giving away the ending of the story, the dog does figure out his purpose in life.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
You're listening to Petlifradio dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Welcome to Animal rights on pet Life Radio. I'm your host,
Tim Link, and I thank you for joining us today.
My guest today is Bruce Cameron, and Bruce will be
talking about is New York Times bestselling novel A Dog's Purpose.
And you love this book if you haven't read it already,
And of course the book is written from a dog's
point of view, so it's a great, great novel. So
(00:31):
we want to talk a little bit to Bruce about
that today, as well as all of his other wonderful projects.
But first, I always like to give tidbits, little stories,
things that help you out or make you smile, And
today we got a little bit of helpful hint, a
little tip for you to check out if you're not
already aware of it. Usually, if it's like my pets,
it's time for annual vaccination. An annual vaccination time for
(00:53):
the dogs and the animals, and there's usually a whole
host of vaccinations that your veterinarians are going to reckon into.
And as you know, vaccinating your pets are it's a
responsible thing to do, it's an important thing to do,
and the best time to do it is to do
an annual check up and get the shots done. Then,
what you may not be aware of is that you
may be able to have your pet vaccinated every three
(01:16):
years for rabies rather than annually. Your vet would be
able to tell you more about this and whether your
particular state's law permits a three year rabies vaccine to
be given to your pets, So check in with your
vetinarians when you're going in for your annual shots and
or your annual checkups.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
You know.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
One other interesting point is that the immunity provided by
some vaccines lasts for much longer than a year, even
though we traditionally get annual shots for our pets. So
a great way to find out if your pet is
still protected by a particular vaccine is to ask your
vetinarium to do a tighter it's titer. Tighters are tests
(01:54):
that measure the level of antibodies in the blood indicate
whether immunity still exists. So if you'd like to learn
more about this, obviously you can contact your veterinarian and
ask them a little bit more about doing a tighter
before doing the annual shots to determine if it's fully needed.
Also ask them about the three year rabies shot. And
of course, if you'd like to learn more about the
(02:14):
three year rabies vaccine or tighters, you visit my blog
on pet Life Radio. Go to Animal Rights blog on
pet Life Radio and click on the links to the
two articles that I've submitted on the blog. And one
of the things I do want to say on the
three years rabies vaccination. Now, I'm not a veterinarian, but
I've got this cleared through my veterinarian and other people
(02:35):
as well. A three year vaccine for rabies for your
pet doesn't mean it's three times the potency. A lot
of people feel it's you think that, oh, it's a
three year vaccine, since we usually do it annually, it
must be three times the potency. That's not the case. Actually,
each state has examined the rabies threat in their particular
state and determine it's really necessary to do an annual vaccine.
(02:57):
Were to spread it out to a three year rabies vaccine,
so it's the same potency, same shot, everything's exactly the same.
It's just that you may be able to spread it
out to every three years instead of every year. That's
making your pet well protected. Against Rabi's and also make
them a lot happier and put a little bit more
money in your pocketbook as well, So keep that in mind.
(03:17):
Check it out, go to the Animal Rights blog on
Petlife Radio petlifradio dot com and find out more about
those topics. Now we're going to go into a commercial break,
but everybody stay tuned. We have Bruce Cameron come in
on talk about his best selling book, A Dog's Purpose
and all the other wonderful things that Bruce has up asleep.
So everybody stay tuned. You're listening to Animal Rights on
(03:38):
pet Life Radio.
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Speaker 2 (06:24):
All right, welcome back, everybody. You're listening to Animal Rights
on pet Life Radio. Thanks for joining me. I want
to introduce Bruce Cameron to you. Bruce Cameron is a
New York Times bestselling author, obviously an animal lover and
an award winning, nationally syndicated humor columnist. Always fun to
talk to, Bruce, Bruce, Welcome to Animal Rights on pet
Life Radio.
Speaker 11 (06:45):
Oh thanks, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
It's always a pleasure. I always love talking to you,
and of course that I love this book, A Dog's Purpose,
a novel for humans. I love that. People are probably
very familiar with your work from the past. But obviously
you've written some best selling nonfiction books such as How
to Remodel a Man and Eight Simple Rules for Dating
My teenage Daughter. But A Dog's Purpose is your first
(07:07):
fictional novel. So yeah, So tell us how you came
about writing this book and taking the approach from giving
it from A Dog's perspective.
Speaker 11 (07:17):
Well, I had this question in my mind, which is,
what would what would it be like? What would happen
if your dog never really dies? What if he is reborn,
and if in the process of being reborn remembers his
past lives? What would that look like from a dog's perspective?
And so I answered the question with a novel for humans,
although some people read it to their dogs. That a
(07:39):
novel for humans a dog's purpose and it tells the
story of this this amazing dog who lives several lives
and with each life learns lessons that helps him with
the next life.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
And you know, that's always whether we're talking about a
spiritual conversation, a humorous conversation, whatever may be, that that
is something we all want to know, we want to
know in our lives. Would that be possible? Is that possible?
And obviously is it possible for our animals as well?
And though you take an approach not addressing it from
a spiritual manner or otherwise, this book we probably ten
(08:14):
times the size, but it's a lovely approach because it
really does give it you if this could happen, which
will debate whether it does or doesn't. But more importantly,
what would happen, What would happen if it happened, especially
to our animals.
Speaker 11 (08:28):
Yeah, I think that I don't try to urge people
to pick this up and use it as a way
to understand or believe in reincarnation. The reincarnation thing is
just sort of a way into the mind and life
of a dog, a dog who, because of his several
lives matures it becomes more and more sophisticated. Unlike the
(08:50):
twenty week old puppy that I have right now at
my feet, who's looking for thinkings to chew on, hopefully
not my feet. This dog eventually becomes very wise and
develop a sense that there must be a purpose in
his life. And that's really I really think that when
we when we have a pass, when we have dogs,
sometimes we look at them and we see an old soul.
(09:11):
Sometimes we look at them and realize that they might
very well be capable of contemplating that they have a
purpose in life and be conscious of it and thinking
about it. And that's all. This particular dog is a
regular dog. I mean that a lot of people have
written books from a dog's perspective. This one's unique because
it's a real dog. It doesn't. It doesn't have a
(09:32):
sophisticated understanding. It doesn't understand English, really, it knows a
couple hundred words at the most. So and everything that
happens is interpreted through the dog's experience, and it's not
always true that the dog understands exactly what's going on.
That the dog may feel that there's there's something completely
different happening, or it'll be listening to a conversation and
(09:53):
nobody says anything about car ride or biscuits or anything,
so he thinks it's just a bunch of noise. He
doesn't he doesn't see any significance in it at all.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Exactly.
Speaker 11 (10:03):
The humor in this then comes from the there's a
lot of times when the dog just completely misunderstands what's
going on. And this is because dogs are so joyous.
In a dog's purpose, the dog is a joyous animal
because that's how dogs attack the world.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
That's right, And if they don't get it right the
first time, no worries. They have another opportunity, so they
don't let it get them down like us humans do often.
Speaker 11 (10:23):
That's right. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot we can
learn from our dogs, and we just watch them and
try to live like the dogs. I remember once when
I was just out of college, liberal arts major, so
naturally I was painting houses for a living, and I
brought my two labradors with me to this place way
out in western Kansas. So it was completely flat, this
(10:45):
house that was like out in the middle of nowhere,
like an oasis of human life in the middle of
these flat planes that I was up on the ladder painting,
and the dogs just decided to run and run and run.
And they were just running in a straight line until
they were mere specks on the horizon. And finally whistled
them back and they came back, and the looks on
their faces were like, this is the greatest day ever.
(11:07):
And I'd been up on that ladder thinking, you know,
why am I applying a code of paint to a house?
Why did I go to college? And I looked at
them and realized I need to live life like the
dogs do. And it's that joy that propelled me into
writing A Dog's Purpose.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Now I think it's great at I tell people all
the time, you know, we need to live life like
a dog. People ask me, what can you learn from
your dogs? Well, live like they do, and they understand
their purpose for being here. And you know, now we've
always heard about cats having nine lives, but the dogs
in your book, there's four different incarnations, one being Toby, Bailey, Ellie,
and Buddy. Were any of these dogs based on any
(11:41):
dogs in your life or dogs that you have met
in your life?
Speaker 10 (11:44):
Well?
Speaker 11 (11:44):
Sure, I mean the life of Toby starts off as
he's a feral dog at first, and he's living a
way out of contact with humans, so he finds himself
oddly drawn, so oddly drawn to humans. I mean, so
in a Dog's Purpose, the very first thing we learn
is what a life is like for a dog without people,
and of course it's a really awful life, but the
(12:07):
dog doesn't know that. The dog just thinks it's life
and attacks the attacks the day with joy, and then
later he's picked up by a hoarder. So that particular
life was mostly me imagining and what it must be
like for a dog to be without people and to
have to scrounge in the trash for food. It's not
(12:29):
a pretty existence for dogs, and there are so many
dogs out there that live a life like that. But
the next life, of course, as Bailey. He's a family pet.
And there's a scene where Bailey meets the boy for
the first time, is an eight year old boy, and
(12:49):
they just come together and roll together in the grass.
And that's exactly what happened when I first met my
very first dog when I was eight years old. The
two of us just ran to each other. We were
so excited see each other. He was a puppy, I
was a little boy, And you know that that moment
I will always remember so sure. In a Dog's Purpose,
some of the dogs very much are like the dogs that.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
I've had in my life, absolutely, and so you learn
from them. And now you wrote a book.
Speaker 11 (13:15):
About it, so you know, I think. And I'll tell
you the best part about a Dog's Purpose a little
bit of a plot spoiler, but you don't You don't
wind up going to a funeral in the very end.
We don't bury the dog in the very end. It's
not that kind of book. I remember growing up and
reading like Old the Heller and just being so upset
by the the ending of that book, and it just
(13:37):
tore me up. That doesn't happen in a Dog's Purpose.
Your listeners out there can rest assured this is not
one of those books where the very last page the
main character dies.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
That is great because I remember, if you remember the
book and the television show where the red fern grows
to reflect the back. I remember my grade school teacher
assigning not only to read but watch the show because
the show was just being released on TV. And that
was extremely depressing for a young young boy because nobody
(14:09):
knows that one dog dies and the other one dies
of grieving. It's like, oh my gosh, I'm sure there's
a lesson, but I don't need to know that as
a child.
Speaker 11 (14:16):
That's right. Yeah, So a dog's purpose isn't like that.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
That's right. And you say that I've read in here
that a dog's purpose is to love humans and to
teach humans how to love unconditionally as dogs do.
Speaker 11 (14:28):
Yeah, I would say that that's my definition of a
dog's purpose. That isn't necessarily the conclusion that the dog reaches.
But if you ask me, well, what is a dog's purpose?
I would say, we have bred them to love us,
and they probably had a natural inclination that way to
begin with. But they you know, my dog thinks I'm
(14:49):
the center of his universe. He doesn't understand why I
won't let him too in my high school yearbook. But
other than that, he thinks I'm the greatest exactly.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Well, believe me, I let my chew out my pictures
from my high school yearbook. That's what I tell the
long hair was not a not a good look, incriminated.
Speaker 11 (15:07):
Yeah, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Well, we're gonna come up to a break now, so
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Speaker 2 (18:44):
Okay, welcome back. You're listening to animal rights on pet
Life Radio. This is your host, Tim Link and we're
here with Bruce Cameron talking about his best selling book,
A Dog's Purpose. And I know the message came out
just not too long ago that the book's gonna be
a little more than just a book. I understand you
signed an agreement with Dreamwork Studios.
Speaker 11 (19:04):
Yeah, that's why I Dreamwork Studios picked up the option
and hired my writing partner, Catherine Meshaan and me to
write the screenplay, and then we have already turned in
the first draft. They were really excited to get that.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
So it's all going really well fantastic. Is there any
projected dates or times that the projects should be ready?
Speaker 11 (19:25):
You know, things move out here I live. I live
in Los Angeles, and things in Hollywood move very slowly
and strangely, and then suddenly it's like there'll be no
activity and then all of a sudden, everybody will be
rushing around in a panic. So I would love to
see it come out next Christmas. A Dog's Purpose sold out.
(19:47):
We just we depleted the supplies everywhere in bookstores all
over the country by Christmas because it's a book that
people like to give to other people. And now the
stores are being replenished. It's a slow process. I mean
that Barnes and Noble down the street from me still
doesn't have my book on the shelf, but they've got
it on back order. But the books are showing back
(20:08):
up and so obviously there's a Christmas feel to it
that I think would work really well for people to
go to a movie on Christmas Day if that's what
they do, or around Christmas time and see a Dog's Purpose,
that would be.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
My goal absolutely, you know, I think it would be
a great fit and excited for you for the project,
So congratulations on that. I will be looking forward to
seeing that.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
Thank you.
Speaker 11 (20:31):
Yeah, it's a movie for everybody.
Speaker 9 (20:32):
You know.
Speaker 11 (20:32):
A Dog's Purpose is actually being sold all the way
down to the Schoolastic Book fair level. The Schoolastic Books,
on a separate contract with my publisher, picked up the
rights to sell it to schools. It's a book that
you know, it doesn't have It doesn't have anything inappropriate
for children to read. Let's put it that way. And
(20:53):
because it's written from a dog's perspective, though I do
use I do have to use words that describe things.
If the dog is hungry, he may not know what
the word hungry means, but I have to use the
word hungry so that the reader knows what it means, right, right,
But nonetheless, I deliberately made it a simple vocabulary read
it than try to be complex with it, because I
want people to experience what it would.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Be like to be a dog.
Speaker 11 (21:16):
And that's the goal.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
That's right, and I think it's perfect how you wrote
the book. Because when I do my writing and wrote
my book, I try to make it where it hits
a broad audience, you know, where everybody can understand. And
being a sales marketing guy, I don't necessarily worry about
the approach of well, the broader I can make the language,
the more books I can sell to different audiences. But
what I'm really looking for is just to touch, to
touch everybody from the youth all the way up.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 11 (21:40):
Yeah, And I'm really proud of A Dog's Purpose. It
is doing really well. It's got the highest ranking on
Amazon of any book currently on the New York Times
bestseller list, so it has really resonated with with readers.
And I would tell I would tell your listeners if
they like talking about dogs and seeing dog pictures and
pictures and puppy videos. We've got a fan page on
(22:03):
Facebook and it's going great. Drop in and join the conversation.
Just look for A Dog's Purpose on Facebook if you're into.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Facebook, absolutely, and who isn't everybody's in the past book, right,
So that's good, So join the fan cliff for A
Dog's Purpose on that. I'm going back to talk to
you about the writing the screenplay for the movie. And
you know, we often hear people say, you know that
most books are much better than the movie equivalent. And
(22:32):
unless the movie keeps with the book's intent and close
and stays close to the book's purpose when writing the
screenplay compared to writing the actual book, how difficult is
it to stay true to the stories and the message
that's in the book when converting over to a movie.
Speaker 11 (22:48):
Well, the good news is that by hiring the author,
DreamWorks did a really great job of making sure that
it stays true to the book. Because obviously I'm not
going to throw the book away and start over. That'd
be too much work. And also they said, we want
to make we want to make a movie of this book.
We don't want to just take the title and make
our own movie. It is difficult from the standpoint that
(23:11):
A Dog's Purpose has a lot of story in it.
There's a lot of things that happen, there's a lot
of characters that come in and out of this dog's life.
And I can't make this a twenty two hour movie.
So the challenge for my writing partner and me is
to stay focused on what are the elements in the
(23:31):
book that would tie together in a narrative so that
people will really enjoy the movie experience of A Dog's Purpose.
And sometimes it's just simply choosing one thing over the other.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
You know.
Speaker 11 (23:44):
I could have gone one way and we could have
written a different scene, but we decided to stick with
the outline that we came up with, and it has
worked out great. I mean, I'm really pleased with it.
I think everybody listening you're invited to see this movie
when it comes out, because you're going to really enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Fantastic. I'll be looking for my red carpet invitation through
the mail Arria Grosse when we get that. That's also
about any of the projects you got going on, whether
it's books or movies. I know you can keep very
very active to our listeners a little bit about what
else is going on, how they can find out more
about you and your projects.
Speaker 11 (24:18):
Well, thank you, thank you. A Dog's Purpose will be
out in a trade paperback edition in the spring, I
think around May. That's going to be fun. And then
in September, I've got a new novel called Emery's Gift
that will be out, and I'm really excited about that
project as well. That's great. I just turned in the
(24:40):
final draft, so look for that at September, and then
I'm going to be writing a sequel to A Dog's
Purpose and the movie is going to be coming out.
And then I also am a syndicated columnist. Some of
your listeners may live in areas where they get my
column in their newspaper, and if they don't, I don't
understand they should carry me anyway. That's so that's what's
(25:03):
going on with me. I've got a lot of things
are very blessed right now, and it's all really I mean,
the writer's purpose on this whole thing was just always
to write a novel that really resonated with people, and
I'm really glad that A Dog's Purpose seems to fit.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
That bill absolutely absolutely. Now I notice by going to
your website, Bruce Cameron dot com, you also have a
section in there called Dog of the Week. How do
people see?
Speaker 11 (25:27):
Yeah, that's it do Yeah, that's at a Dogspurpose dot com,
and that is people can upload pictures of their dogs
and nominate them for Dog of the Week, and then
you accumulate votes over ninety days. The dog that comes
in first place, the owner gets to get a free
copy of A Dog's Purpose. Hey, so I've been doing
(25:47):
this contest all the way started all the way back gosh,
in like May or June, and it has just been
really fun. We've had some great dogs win is Dog
of the week. And you can also view my book
trailer on there, and unfortunately I'm in that And yeah,
(26:08):
it's a fun place to hang out. There's always a
dog story on the on the homepage about the dog
of the week. It's all really really really fun. That's
at a Dog's Purpose dot com.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Yeah, so everybody check that out, go to a dogspurpose
dot com and submit your dog. You may be a
Dog of the week. You just never know, that's right.
Speaker 7 (26:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Hey, going back to the book briefly, I understand one
of the motivations for writing the book was based on
the dog rescue work that your daughter does. Can tell
us a little bit about that and what some of
the key points are that that you tended to bring
about in that aspect for you?
Speaker 11 (26:39):
Yeah, thank you. You know, I really didn't all my life.
I've just sort of gone to a breeder and bought
a dog. I thought that's the only way you can
get a good dog. My daughter, though, became heavily involved
in animal rescue in Denver and started her own charity.
Now Life is Better is the name of the charity.
(27:00):
She just started it this month. She's been working for
the past She co founded an organization called Mikino's and
for the past ten years has been rescuing the animals.
And so I've really come to learn a lot about
dogs that need to be rescued, and fostering dogs and
adopting out dogs and all the issues around that. And
(27:21):
you know, this is this is something, this is a problem.
We could solve the problem of homeless and abuse pets.
We could solve that problem because it really is just
a question of whether or not one's animals are spade
or neutered. If if everybody accept responsible breeders got their
dogs spade or neutered within within a very short period
(27:42):
of time, we'd see this problem of these these abandoned
dogs just drastically declined. My own dog was little Tucker,
was one of a cardboard box fall of puppies that
were brand new puppies, just born, left at the shelter
in a box, and just fortunately my daughter's shelter happened
(28:06):
to have a German shepherd who had just weaned off
her pupps the day before, and they brought the box
of newborn puppies into the German shepherd, and the German
shepherd gave them a look like you've got to be kidding,
and they shoved the dogs at her, and the German
shepherd lay back down, and it was miraculous. It was
(28:28):
also interesting that the German shepherd had a leg injury
and really shouldn't have been running around anyway, so the
puppies kind of kept the mommy right there. The whole
thing was just such a moving story. And then out
of that I got this this dog, Tucker. We have
no idea what he is. I thought he was a
golden but he's too little. He's just not growing any
(28:51):
That's okay. I keep pulling on his feet, saying you
can do it, you can do it, Tucker. But I
don't think he's going to get any bigger. But that's
just the kind of miraculous work that all these people do.
And in the process of doing our work with charities,
when the book first came out, we've supported more than
one hundred animal charities across the country and We're doing
(29:14):
an event with a lab rescue up in Montecito, California tomorrow.
So I have really gotten interested and involved to the
extent that I can with animal rescue and the dogs.
In a Dog's Purpose, it's very clear that dogs can
have a great life story, but they can also start
(29:36):
out without a great life story. And it's all got
to do with how we treat them. It's not their choice,
it's what we have arranged for their lives. They see
themselves as being hope, being animals who are basically dedicated
to us and are told what to do by us,
and their lives take the direction that we steer them in.
(29:58):
So in the Dog's Purpose, I touched on a lot
of issues that are really important to animal rescue people
about you know, the dog always gets newter. The dog
lives a good life or a bad life depending upon
how the people treat them.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Absolutely absolutely more learning lessons from our animals. And big
kudos to you and your daughter. Do you have your
daughter's website for her life is Better?
Speaker 11 (30:21):
She has not yet put a website up. It's that
new of a charity.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Okay, well put in your little tickler note. Have her
dropped me? A note when she gets that up and running,
and we'll give a plug on that as well, because
we're all about yeah, we're all about helping out and rescuing.
I'm for her president of a local humane society and
rescue shelter. And my two boys, Buzz and what are
my schnauzers, are not only love my life, but the
greatest teachers I've ever had. And they were from a
(30:47):
rescue situation as well.
Speaker 11 (30:48):
So wonderful.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Yeah, So we applaud you, you and your daughter for
the great work. We appreciate that for the dog, all
for the dogs, all for the dogs. That's absolutely right. Well, Bruce, hey,
it's always a pleasure. Time for lies by so quickly,
but we're gonna be back in touch. Obviously. You got
some projects. They're gonna be right up our alley, and
I'll be looking for that golden red carpet invite to
(31:10):
come out for the movie premiere when it comes. Okay,
so'll be looking for that. So everybody, Bruce Cameron, once again,
go out and buy the book if you can buy
it quickly, because it's gonna fly off the shelfs again.
The second print is gonna fly off. So the book's
called A Dog's Purpose, a novel for humans.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Bruce Cameron, thanks for joining Animal Rights on pet Life Radio.
Thanks for having me our pleasure. What everybody. We're gonna
wrap up for today. We're coming to the end of
the show, so I'd like to thank everybody for listening
to Animal Rights on pet Life Radio. I also like
to thank Bruce Cameron for being on the show today.
A big thank you to our sponsors and producers for
making the show possible. To find out more about me,
(31:48):
timlink other podcasts that I have done for Animal Rights
show and my blog. Check it out on pet Life Radio.
Go to petlife Radio dot com and while you're there,
be sure to check out all of the other hosts
and all the they're wonderful pet Life Radio shows. If
you have any questions, comments ideas for the show, please
email them to me. You can email them at timat
(32:09):
Petliferadio dot com. Tim at Petlife radio dot com. I'll
do my very best to answer your questions and listen
to your comments and take any recommendations on who you'd
like to see on the show. So until next time,
write a great story about the animals in your life,
share it in a blog, article, or book, and who knows,
you may be the next guest on animal rights pet
(32:29):
Life Radio. Thanks for listening every great day.
Speaker 4 (32:32):
Let's talk pets every week on demand only on petlife
radio dot com.
You're listening to Petlifradio dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Welcome to Animal rights on pet Life Radio. I'm your host,
Tim Link, and I thank you for joining us today.
My guest today is Bruce Cameron, and Bruce will be
talking about is New York Times bestselling novel A Dog's Purpose.
And you love this book if you haven't read it already,
And of course the book is written from a dog's
point of view, so it's a great, great novel. So
(00:31):
we want to talk a little bit to Bruce about
that today, as well as all of his other wonderful projects.
But first, I always like to give tidbits, little stories,
things that help you out or make you smile, And
today we got a little bit of helpful hint, a
little tip for you to check out if you're not
already aware of it. Usually, if it's like my pets,
it's time for annual vaccination. An annual vaccination time for
(00:53):
the dogs and the animals, and there's usually a whole
host of vaccinations that your veterinarians are going to reckon into.
And as you know, vaccinating your pets are it's a
responsible thing to do, it's an important thing to do,
and the best time to do it is to do
an annual check up and get the shots done. Then,
what you may not be aware of is that you
may be able to have your pet vaccinated every three
(01:16):
years for rabies rather than annually. Your vet would be
able to tell you more about this and whether your
particular state's law permits a three year rabies vaccine to
be given to your pets, So check in with your
vetinarians when you're going in for your annual shots and
or your annual checkups.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
You know.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
One other interesting point is that the immunity provided by
some vaccines lasts for much longer than a year, even
though we traditionally get annual shots for our pets. So
a great way to find out if your pet is
still protected by a particular vaccine is to ask your
vetinarium to do a tighter it's titer. Tighters are tests
(01:54):
that measure the level of antibodies in the blood indicate
whether immunity still exists. So if you'd like to learn
more about this, obviously you can contact your veterinarian and
ask them a little bit more about doing a tighter
before doing the annual shots to determine if it's fully needed.
Also ask them about the three year rabies shot. And
of course, if you'd like to learn more about the
(02:14):
three year rabies vaccine or tighters, you visit my blog
on pet Life Radio. Go to Animal Rights blog on
pet Life Radio and click on the links to the
two articles that I've submitted on the blog. And one
of the things I do want to say on the
three years rabies vaccination. Now, I'm not a veterinarian, but
I've got this cleared through my veterinarian and other people
(02:35):
as well. A three year vaccine for rabies for your
pet doesn't mean it's three times the potency. A lot
of people feel it's you think that, oh, it's a
three year vaccine, since we usually do it annually, it
must be three times the potency. That's not the case. Actually,
each state has examined the rabies threat in their particular
state and determine it's really necessary to do an annual vaccine.
(02:57):
Were to spread it out to a three year rabies vaccine,
so it's the same potency, same shot, everything's exactly the same.
It's just that you may be able to spread it
out to every three years instead of every year. That's
making your pet well protected. Against Rabi's and also make
them a lot happier and put a little bit more
money in your pocketbook as well, So keep that in mind.
(03:17):
Check it out, go to the Animal Rights blog on
Petlife Radio petlifradio dot com and find out more about
those topics. Now we're going to go into a commercial break,
but everybody stay tuned. We have Bruce Cameron come in
on talk about his best selling book, A Dog's Purpose
and all the other wonderful things that Bruce has up asleep.
So everybody stay tuned. You're listening to Animal Rights on
(03:38):
pet Life Radio.
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Speaker 2 (06:24):
All right, welcome back, everybody. You're listening to Animal Rights
on pet Life Radio. Thanks for joining me. I want
to introduce Bruce Cameron to you. Bruce Cameron is a
New York Times bestselling author, obviously an animal lover and
an award winning, nationally syndicated humor columnist. Always fun to
talk to, Bruce, Bruce, Welcome to Animal Rights on pet
Life Radio.
Speaker 11 (06:45):
Oh thanks, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
It's always a pleasure. I always love talking to you,
and of course that I love this book, A Dog's Purpose,
a novel for humans. I love that. People are probably
very familiar with your work from the past. But obviously
you've written some best selling nonfiction books such as How
to Remodel a Man and Eight Simple Rules for Dating
My teenage Daughter. But A Dog's Purpose is your first
(07:07):
fictional novel. So yeah, So tell us how you came
about writing this book and taking the approach from giving
it from A Dog's perspective.
Speaker 11 (07:17):
Well, I had this question in my mind, which is,
what would what would it be like? What would happen
if your dog never really dies? What if he is reborn,
and if in the process of being reborn remembers his
past lives? What would that look like from a dog's perspective?
And so I answered the question with a novel for humans,
although some people read it to their dogs. That a
(07:39):
novel for humans a dog's purpose and it tells the
story of this this amazing dog who lives several lives
and with each life learns lessons that helps him with
the next life.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
And you know, that's always whether we're talking about a
spiritual conversation, a humorous conversation, whatever may be, that that
is something we all want to know, we want to
know in our lives. Would that be possible? Is that possible?
And obviously is it possible for our animals as well?
And though you take an approach not addressing it from
a spiritual manner or otherwise, this book we probably ten
(08:14):
times the size, but it's a lovely approach because it
really does give it you if this could happen, which
will debate whether it does or doesn't. But more importantly,
what would happen, What would happen if it happened, especially
to our animals.
Speaker 11 (08:28):
Yeah, I think that I don't try to urge people
to pick this up and use it as a way
to understand or believe in reincarnation. The reincarnation thing is
just sort of a way into the mind and life
of a dog, a dog who, because of his several
lives matures it becomes more and more sophisticated. Unlike the
(08:50):
twenty week old puppy that I have right now at
my feet, who's looking for thinkings to chew on, hopefully
not my feet. This dog eventually becomes very wise and
develop a sense that there must be a purpose in
his life. And that's really I really think that when
we when we have a pass, when we have dogs,
sometimes we look at them and we see an old soul.
(09:11):
Sometimes we look at them and realize that they might
very well be capable of contemplating that they have a
purpose in life and be conscious of it and thinking
about it. And that's all. This particular dog is a
regular dog. I mean that a lot of people have
written books from a dog's perspective. This one's unique because
it's a real dog. It doesn't. It doesn't have a
(09:32):
sophisticated understanding. It doesn't understand English, really, it knows a
couple hundred words at the most. So and everything that
happens is interpreted through the dog's experience, and it's not
always true that the dog understands exactly what's going on.
That the dog may feel that there's there's something completely
different happening, or it'll be listening to a conversation and
(09:53):
nobody says anything about car ride or biscuits or anything,
so he thinks it's just a bunch of noise. He
doesn't he doesn't see any significance in it at all.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Exactly.
Speaker 11 (10:03):
The humor in this then comes from the there's a
lot of times when the dog just completely misunderstands what's
going on. And this is because dogs are so joyous.
In a dog's purpose, the dog is a joyous animal
because that's how dogs attack the world.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
That's right, And if they don't get it right the
first time, no worries. They have another opportunity, so they
don't let it get them down like us humans do often.
Speaker 11 (10:23):
That's right. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot we can
learn from our dogs, and we just watch them and
try to live like the dogs. I remember once when
I was just out of college, liberal arts major, so
naturally I was painting houses for a living, and I
brought my two labradors with me to this place way
out in western Kansas. So it was completely flat, this
(10:45):
house that was like out in the middle of nowhere,
like an oasis of human life in the middle of
these flat planes that I was up on the ladder painting,
and the dogs just decided to run and run and run.
And they were just running in a straight line until
they were mere specks on the horizon. And finally whistled
them back and they came back, and the looks on
their faces were like, this is the greatest day ever.
(11:07):
And I'd been up on that ladder thinking, you know,
why am I applying a code of paint to a house?
Why did I go to college? And I looked at
them and realized I need to live life like the
dogs do. And it's that joy that propelled me into
writing A Dog's Purpose.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Now I think it's great at I tell people all
the time, you know, we need to live life like
a dog. People ask me, what can you learn from
your dogs? Well, live like they do, and they understand
their purpose for being here. And you know, now we've
always heard about cats having nine lives, but the dogs
in your book, there's four different incarnations, one being Toby, Bailey, Ellie,
and Buddy. Were any of these dogs based on any
(11:41):
dogs in your life or dogs that you have met
in your life?
Speaker 10 (11:44):
Well?
Speaker 11 (11:44):
Sure, I mean the life of Toby starts off as
he's a feral dog at first, and he's living a
way out of contact with humans, so he finds himself
oddly drawn, so oddly drawn to humans. I mean, so
in a Dog's Purpose, the very first thing we learn
is what a life is like for a dog without people,
and of course it's a really awful life, but the
(12:07):
dog doesn't know that. The dog just thinks it's life
and attacks the attacks the day with joy, and then
later he's picked up by a hoarder. So that particular
life was mostly me imagining and what it must be
like for a dog to be without people and to
have to scrounge in the trash for food. It's not
(12:29):
a pretty existence for dogs, and there are so many
dogs out there that live a life like that. But
the next life, of course, as Bailey. He's a family pet.
And there's a scene where Bailey meets the boy for
the first time, is an eight year old boy, and
(12:49):
they just come together and roll together in the grass.
And that's exactly what happened when I first met my
very first dog when I was eight years old. The
two of us just ran to each other. We were
so excited see each other. He was a puppy, I
was a little boy, And you know that that moment
I will always remember so sure. In a Dog's Purpose,
some of the dogs very much are like the dogs that.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
I've had in my life, absolutely, and so you learn
from them. And now you wrote a book.
Speaker 11 (13:15):
About it, so you know, I think. And I'll tell
you the best part about a Dog's Purpose a little
bit of a plot spoiler, but you don't You don't
wind up going to a funeral in the very end.
We don't bury the dog in the very end. It's
not that kind of book. I remember growing up and
reading like Old the Heller and just being so upset
by the the ending of that book, and it just
(13:37):
tore me up. That doesn't happen in a Dog's Purpose.
Your listeners out there can rest assured this is not
one of those books where the very last page the
main character dies.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
That is great because I remember, if you remember the
book and the television show where the red fern grows
to reflect the back. I remember my grade school teacher
assigning not only to read but watch the show because
the show was just being released on TV. And that
was extremely depressing for a young young boy because nobody
(14:09):
knows that one dog dies and the other one dies
of grieving. It's like, oh my gosh, I'm sure there's
a lesson, but I don't need to know that as
a child.
Speaker 11 (14:16):
That's right. Yeah, So a dog's purpose isn't like that.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
That's right. And you say that I've read in here
that a dog's purpose is to love humans and to
teach humans how to love unconditionally as dogs do.
Speaker 11 (14:28):
Yeah, I would say that that's my definition of a
dog's purpose. That isn't necessarily the conclusion that the dog reaches.
But if you ask me, well, what is a dog's purpose?
I would say, we have bred them to love us,
and they probably had a natural inclination that way to
begin with. But they you know, my dog thinks I'm
(14:49):
the center of his universe. He doesn't understand why I
won't let him too in my high school yearbook. But
other than that, he thinks I'm the greatest exactly.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Well, believe me, I let my chew out my pictures
from my high school yearbook. That's what I tell the
long hair was not a not a good look, incriminated.
Speaker 11 (15:07):
Yeah, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Well, we're gonna come up to a break now, so
everybody stay tuned a little bit, give our chance for
some messages from our sponsors service. Stay tuned. You're listening
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Speaker 2 (18:44):
Okay, welcome back. You're listening to animal rights on pet
Life Radio. This is your host, Tim Link and we're
here with Bruce Cameron talking about his best selling book,
A Dog's Purpose. And I know the message came out
just not too long ago that the book's gonna be
a little more than just a book. I understand you
signed an agreement with Dreamwork Studios.
Speaker 11 (19:04):
Yeah, that's why I Dreamwork Studios picked up the option
and hired my writing partner, Catherine Meshaan and me to
write the screenplay, and then we have already turned in
the first draft. They were really excited to get that.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
So it's all going really well fantastic. Is there any
projected dates or times that the projects should be ready?
Speaker 11 (19:25):
You know, things move out here I live. I live
in Los Angeles, and things in Hollywood move very slowly
and strangely, and then suddenly it's like there'll be no
activity and then all of a sudden, everybody will be
rushing around in a panic. So I would love to
see it come out next Christmas. A Dog's Purpose sold out.
(19:47):
We just we depleted the supplies everywhere in bookstores all
over the country by Christmas because it's a book that
people like to give to other people. And now the
stores are being replenished. It's a slow process. I mean
that Barnes and Noble down the street from me still
doesn't have my book on the shelf, but they've got
it on back order. But the books are showing back
(20:08):
up and so obviously there's a Christmas feel to it
that I think would work really well for people to
go to a movie on Christmas Day if that's what
they do, or around Christmas time and see a Dog's Purpose,
that would be.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
My goal absolutely, you know, I think it would be
a great fit and excited for you for the project,
So congratulations on that. I will be looking forward to
seeing that.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
Thank you.
Speaker 11 (20:31):
Yeah, it's a movie for everybody.
Speaker 9 (20:32):
You know.
Speaker 11 (20:32):
A Dog's Purpose is actually being sold all the way
down to the Schoolastic Book fair level. The Schoolastic Books,
on a separate contract with my publisher, picked up the
rights to sell it to schools. It's a book that
you know, it doesn't have It doesn't have anything inappropriate
for children to read. Let's put it that way. And
(20:53):
because it's written from a dog's perspective, though I do
use I do have to use words that describe things.
If the dog is hungry, he may not know what
the word hungry means, but I have to use the
word hungry so that the reader knows what it means, right, right,
But nonetheless, I deliberately made it a simple vocabulary read
it than try to be complex with it, because I
want people to experience what it would.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Be like to be a dog.
Speaker 11 (21:16):
And that's the goal.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
That's right, and I think it's perfect how you wrote
the book. Because when I do my writing and wrote
my book, I try to make it where it hits
a broad audience, you know, where everybody can understand. And
being a sales marketing guy, I don't necessarily worry about
the approach of well, the broader I can make the language,
the more books I can sell to different audiences. But
what I'm really looking for is just to touch, to
touch everybody from the youth all the way up.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 11 (21:40):
Yeah, And I'm really proud of A Dog's Purpose. It
is doing really well. It's got the highest ranking on
Amazon of any book currently on the New York Times
bestseller list, so it has really resonated with with readers.
And I would tell I would tell your listeners if
they like talking about dogs and seeing dog pictures and
pictures and puppy videos. We've got a fan page on
(22:03):
Facebook and it's going great. Drop in and join the conversation.
Just look for A Dog's Purpose on Facebook if you're into.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Facebook, absolutely, and who isn't everybody's in the past book, right,
So that's good, So join the fan cliff for A
Dog's Purpose on that. I'm going back to talk to
you about the writing the screenplay for the movie. And
you know, we often hear people say, you know that
most books are much better than the movie equivalent. And
(22:32):
unless the movie keeps with the book's intent and close
and stays close to the book's purpose when writing the
screenplay compared to writing the actual book, how difficult is
it to stay true to the stories and the message
that's in the book when converting over to a movie.
Speaker 11 (22:48):
Well, the good news is that by hiring the author,
DreamWorks did a really great job of making sure that
it stays true to the book. Because obviously I'm not
going to throw the book away and start over. That'd
be too much work. And also they said, we want
to make we want to make a movie of this book.
We don't want to just take the title and make
our own movie. It is difficult from the standpoint that
(23:11):
A Dog's Purpose has a lot of story in it.
There's a lot of things that happen, there's a lot
of characters that come in and out of this dog's life.
And I can't make this a twenty two hour movie.
So the challenge for my writing partner and me is
to stay focused on what are the elements in the
(23:31):
book that would tie together in a narrative so that
people will really enjoy the movie experience of A Dog's Purpose.
And sometimes it's just simply choosing one thing over the other.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
You know.
Speaker 11 (23:44):
I could have gone one way and we could have
written a different scene, but we decided to stick with
the outline that we came up with, and it has
worked out great. I mean, I'm really pleased with it.
I think everybody listening you're invited to see this movie
when it comes out, because you're going to really enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Fantastic. I'll be looking for my red carpet invitation through
the mail Arria Grosse when we get that. That's also
about any of the projects you got going on, whether
it's books or movies. I know you can keep very
very active to our listeners a little bit about what
else is going on, how they can find out more
about you and your projects.
Speaker 11 (24:18):
Well, thank you, thank you. A Dog's Purpose will be
out in a trade paperback edition in the spring, I
think around May. That's going to be fun. And then
in September, I've got a new novel called Emery's Gift
that will be out, and I'm really excited about that
project as well. That's great. I just turned in the
(24:40):
final draft, so look for that at September, and then
I'm going to be writing a sequel to A Dog's
Purpose and the movie is going to be coming out.
And then I also am a syndicated columnist. Some of
your listeners may live in areas where they get my
column in their newspaper, and if they don't, I don't
understand they should carry me anyway. That's so that's what's
(25:03):
going on with me. I've got a lot of things
are very blessed right now, and it's all really I mean,
the writer's purpose on this whole thing was just always
to write a novel that really resonated with people, and
I'm really glad that A Dog's Purpose seems to fit.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
That bill absolutely absolutely. Now I notice by going to
your website, Bruce Cameron dot com, you also have a
section in there called Dog of the Week. How do
people see?
Speaker 11 (25:27):
Yeah, that's it do Yeah, that's at a Dogspurpose dot com,
and that is people can upload pictures of their dogs
and nominate them for Dog of the Week, and then
you accumulate votes over ninety days. The dog that comes
in first place, the owner gets to get a free
copy of A Dog's Purpose. Hey, so I've been doing
(25:47):
this contest all the way started all the way back gosh,
in like May or June, and it has just been
really fun. We've had some great dogs win is Dog
of the week. And you can also view my book
trailer on there, and unfortunately I'm in that And yeah,
(26:08):
it's a fun place to hang out. There's always a
dog story on the on the homepage about the dog
of the week. It's all really really really fun. That's
at a Dog's Purpose dot com.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Yeah, so everybody check that out, go to a dogspurpose
dot com and submit your dog. You may be a
Dog of the week. You just never know, that's right.
Speaker 7 (26:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Hey, going back to the book briefly, I understand one
of the motivations for writing the book was based on
the dog rescue work that your daughter does. Can tell
us a little bit about that and what some of
the key points are that that you tended to bring
about in that aspect for you?
Speaker 11 (26:39):
Yeah, thank you. You know, I really didn't all my life.
I've just sort of gone to a breeder and bought
a dog. I thought that's the only way you can
get a good dog. My daughter, though, became heavily involved
in animal rescue in Denver and started her own charity.
Now Life is Better is the name of the charity.
(27:00):
She just started it this month. She's been working for
the past She co founded an organization called Mikino's and
for the past ten years has been rescuing the animals.
And so I've really come to learn a lot about
dogs that need to be rescued, and fostering dogs and
adopting out dogs and all the issues around that. And
(27:21):
you know, this is this is something, this is a problem.
We could solve the problem of homeless and abuse pets.
We could solve that problem because it really is just
a question of whether or not one's animals are spade
or neutered. If if everybody accept responsible breeders got their
dogs spade or neutered within within a very short period
(27:42):
of time, we'd see this problem of these these abandoned
dogs just drastically declined. My own dog was little Tucker,
was one of a cardboard box fall of puppies that
were brand new puppies, just born, left at the shelter
in a box, and just fortunately my daughter's shelter happened
(28:06):
to have a German shepherd who had just weaned off
her pupps the day before, and they brought the box
of newborn puppies into the German shepherd, and the German
shepherd gave them a look like you've got to be kidding,
and they shoved the dogs at her, and the German
shepherd lay back down, and it was miraculous. It was
(28:28):
also interesting that the German shepherd had a leg injury
and really shouldn't have been running around anyway, so the
puppies kind of kept the mommy right there. The whole
thing was just such a moving story. And then out
of that I got this this dog, Tucker. We have
no idea what he is. I thought he was a
golden but he's too little. He's just not growing any
(28:51):
That's okay. I keep pulling on his feet, saying you
can do it, you can do it, Tucker. But I
don't think he's going to get any bigger. But that's
just the kind of miraculous work that all these people do.
And in the process of doing our work with charities,
when the book first came out, we've supported more than
one hundred animal charities across the country and We're doing
(29:14):
an event with a lab rescue up in Montecito, California tomorrow.
So I have really gotten interested and involved to the
extent that I can with animal rescue and the dogs.
In a Dog's Purpose, it's very clear that dogs can
have a great life story, but they can also start
(29:36):
out without a great life story. And it's all got
to do with how we treat them. It's not their choice,
it's what we have arranged for their lives. They see
themselves as being hope, being animals who are basically dedicated
to us and are told what to do by us,
and their lives take the direction that we steer them in.
(29:58):
So in the Dog's Purpose, I touched on a lot
of issues that are really important to animal rescue people
about you know, the dog always gets newter. The dog
lives a good life or a bad life depending upon
how the people treat them.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Absolutely absolutely more learning lessons from our animals. And big
kudos to you and your daughter. Do you have your
daughter's website for her life is Better?
Speaker 11 (30:21):
She has not yet put a website up. It's that
new of a charity.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Okay, well put in your little tickler note. Have her
dropped me? A note when she gets that up and running,
and we'll give a plug on that as well, because
we're all about yeah, we're all about helping out and rescuing.
I'm for her president of a local humane society and
rescue shelter. And my two boys, Buzz and what are
my schnauzers, are not only love my life, but the
greatest teachers I've ever had. And they were from a
(30:47):
rescue situation as well.
Speaker 11 (30:48):
So wonderful.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Yeah, So we applaud you, you and your daughter for
the great work. We appreciate that for the dog, all
for the dogs, all for the dogs. That's absolutely right. Well, Bruce, hey,
it's always a pleasure. Time for lies by so quickly,
but we're gonna be back in touch. Obviously. You got
some projects. They're gonna be right up our alley, and
I'll be looking for that golden red carpet invite to
(31:10):
come out for the movie premiere when it comes. Okay,
so'll be looking for that. So everybody, Bruce Cameron, once again,
go out and buy the book if you can buy
it quickly, because it's gonna fly off the shelfs again.
The second print is gonna fly off. So the book's
called A Dog's Purpose, a novel for humans.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Bruce Cameron, thanks for joining Animal Rights on pet Life Radio.
Thanks for having me our pleasure. What everybody. We're gonna
wrap up for today. We're coming to the end of
the show, so I'd like to thank everybody for listening
to Animal Rights on pet Life Radio. I also like
to thank Bruce Cameron for being on the show today.
A big thank you to our sponsors and producers for
making the show possible. To find out more about me,
(31:48):
timlink other podcasts that I have done for Animal Rights
show and my blog. Check it out on pet Life Radio.
Go to petlife Radio dot com and while you're there,
be sure to check out all of the other hosts
and all the they're wonderful pet Life Radio shows. If
you have any questions, comments ideas for the show, please
email them to me. You can email them at timat
(32:09):
Petliferadio dot com. Tim at Petlife radio dot com. I'll
do my very best to answer your questions and listen
to your comments and take any recommendations on who you'd
like to see on the show. So until next time,
write a great story about the animals in your life,
share it in a blog, article, or book, and who knows,
you may be the next guest on animal rights pet
(32:29):
Life Radio. Thanks for listening every great day.
Speaker 4 (32:32):
Let's talk pets every week on demand only on petlife
radio dot com.
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