Trouble Dog - Perfect Picture Book Friday #PPBF

This touching picture book follows the journey of an energetic, affectionate, and talented dog who goes from "too much trouble" to amazing. Packed full of humor, action, and found family, it celebrates the unique value everyone offers to the world.

Book cover - woman hugging a dog with a dirt mess all around them.

Trouble Dog: From Shelter Dog to Conservation Hero

Author: Carol A. Foote

Illustrator: Larry Day

Publisher: Eerdmans Books for Young Readers (2025)

Ages: 5-9

Informational Fiction

Themes:

Conservation dogs, rescued dogs, shelters, environment, STEM, and furever homes.

Synopsis:

A thrilling story of a dog who found the perfect job and a loving home, based on the real heroes of Working Dogs for Conservation.

Tucker the dog never means to be trouble: he just loves to play. But at the animal shelter, every visitor says he’s too much trouble—until Laura. Laura thinks Tucker might be just right for a very special job. Could all his energy make him an amazing conservation dog? Laura trains Tucker to track down Gila monsters, endangered flowers, even grizzly bear poop. His first assignment is in Hawaii, searching for invasive rosy wolf snails hidden under leaves. Where will his nose lead him next?

With colorful, endearing art and dashes of humor, Trouble Dog invites children to join scientists—and their canine colleagues—in their work to save wildlife around the world. Readers will cheer for Tucker’s inspiring journey from shelter dog to eager trainee to confident globetrotter. The story concludes with photos and further information about the real dogs and trainers of Working Dogs for Conservation, the world’s largest and oldest conservation dog organization.

Opening Lines:

Tucker never meant to be trouble. He just loved to play.

When no one else had time for fun, he made his own.

Romping . . . Chasing . . . Grabbing . . . Leaping . . .

Chewing . . . CRASHING!

What I LOVED about the book:

Moving from the title page - showing a happy golden retriever leaping across the page with a red high-top shoe in his mouth - to this opening spread with Tucker's rambunctious, energetic nature in full display both in the illustrations and the great series of verbs utilized by Carol Foote, beautifully sets up the problem Tucker has in being a "normal" family dog. Larry Day does such a great job of capturing Tucker's irrepressibly playful nature.

Internal spread - four spot illustrations showing a dog grabbing a paper out of owner's hands, playing tug-a-war with his girl's sweater, racing around the house, and pushing over the fish tank.

Text © Carol Foote, 2025. Image © Larry Day, 2025.

Unfortunately, this meant that "So many families returned Tucker to the animal shelter that the attendant started telling visitors, “Not this dog. He’s trouble"." Larry Day's image of Tucker hopefully watching people pass his cage, is absolutely heart wrenching.

Internal spread - dog in a shelter pen staring forelornly at a family passing by his cage.

Luckily for Tucker, Laura was looking for a dog with a lot of energy and an extreme amount of focus. When she took him into the shelter's yard to play catch, "he ignored other dogs, people, and even food— everything but that ball." Tucker was perfect. Laura even took his whirlwind personality in stride, when he demolished her kitchen, because she hoped she could teach him to use his single-minded focus and boundless energy in the role of a conservation dog.

Interspersing learning to hunt for smells with bouts of play, Laura taught Tucker to track any scent she gave him. He was such a fast learner and proficient sniffer that he surprised Hawaiian conservationists on his first official job, by finding the small, invasive, rosy wolf snails hidden under leaves. I love the various perspectives of Larry Day's colorful ink and watercolor illustrations. Where previously Tucker's nose has been just a small part of his body, as he searches among tiny flowers and leaves for a small snail, it is his most important feature.

Internal spread - dog nose and a paw in a section of hawaiian leaves and flowers finding the invasive rosy wolf snail.

Even though Tucker travels the world and makes some spectacular discoveries that surprise scientists and turn him into a hero, perhaps his greatest discovery was not only that this job was fun, but that . . . well, though I suppose you might guess, I think you ought to make the same discovery for yourself. The great back matter, accompanied by fun photographs, shares the real experiences of conservation dogs Pepin and Wicket. As well as exploring in a bit more depth the activities and training of conservation dogs and their contributions to science and our lives. This is a wonderful STEM picture book full of humor and heart is perfect for dog lovers, conservationists, and budding dog partners.

Resources:

be sure to contact your local shelter first, to ask what they need, and then get some friends together and make projects like cat & dog toys, cat scratchers, dog bandanas, and blankets.
contact a shelter near you and see if they have reading times with dogs, summer camp or scout programs, or other volunteer opportunities to help or interact with dogs and cats as they wait for their furever homes.

check out the citizen science projects kids can help with - bird counting, butterfly monitoring, the lost ladybug project, or shark tracker.

If you missed my interview with Crol A. Foote and Larry Day on Monday, find it (here).

This post is part of a series of blog posts by authors and KidLit bloggers called Perfect Picture Book Fridays. For more picture book suggestions and resources see Susanna Leonard Hill's Perfect Picture Books.