Dogs Taught Me Everything I Know About Business
Taking a multidisciplinary, lighthearted approach to entrepreneurial guidance, Dogs Taught Me Everything I Know About Business is an inventive business book.
Daniel J. Geltrude’s unconventional business guide Dogs Taught Me Everything I Know About Business mixes canine lessons into its advice for professional growth.
Drawing on personal anecdotes regarding his dogs, Apollo and Annie, and contrasting their personalities and instinctive behaviors, this book takes a metaphorical approach to its business guidance. Apollo, a strong-willed Jack Russell Terrier, represents the grit, territorial focus, and assertiveness needed to build and protect a brand, while Annie, a gentle and affectionate Golden Retriever, embodies a leadership style grounded in patience, consistency, and emotional intelligence. Stories about both dogs are used to illustrate the central principle: that leadership is less about dominance than about awareness, consistency, and care.
Each chapter is organized around a specific principle and connects everyday business concepts, from startup decisions to client retention, to stories about the dogs—or from Geltrude’s working life. (He started an accounting firm and became a recognized media expert.) Naming is a recurring motif, treated not just as a branding decision but as a statement of intent: Apollo was named during a period of grief, for the name’s associations with healing, truth, and strength; Geltrude’s accounting firm received his own name to signal personal responsibility and integrity.
Elsewhere, Apollo’s behavior is used to illustrate less tangible traits, like instinct and loyalty, as when the idea of trusting one’s professional judgment is connected to Apollo’s ability to sense subtle changes in his surroundings. Workplace culture is also discussed, using the practice of rewarding good behavior in dogs as a model for how recognition can shape employee performance. Memories, as of rushing home from an event to walk Apollo and of Annie flopping over for a belly rub as a request for connection, add warmth and character to these lessons.
Some of the dog to business connections are strained, though, as when contracts, business relationships, and questionable conversations are framed as not “pass[ing] the smell test.” Indeed, a few chapters focus more on their metaphors than on imparting clear leadership guidance. And while the chapters end with summaries of their lessons, these closings also include historical facts and behavioral insights about dogs.
Dogs Taught Me Everything I Know About Business is an inventive and upbeat entrepreneur’s guide that uses canine stories to highlight values like intuition, discipline, and loyalty.
Reviewed by
Kiana Curtis
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
