7 stories
Dog stories
Loyal, brave, and usually the best friend in the story
Seven dog stories, four of which read aloud in five minutes or less. The dog is almost always the loyal one, and The Old Hound at eleven minutes is the one that will make an adult swallow hard.
Dog stories are about loyalty, and loyalty is a thing children understand in their bones. These tales feature faithful old dogs, brave young ones, and the families who owe them everything. Several of the classics on this theme are about an old dog whose master forgets what the dog once did for him, and they say more about gratitude than any lecture could. Gentle enough for preschoolers, meaningful for older children.
Where to start with dog stories
4 min
Ages 4–8 · Classic Tales
The Dog and the Oyster
Rex, a curious dog in a quaint seaside village, discovers a glistening oyster on the beach. Intrigued by a faint sound…
4 min
Ages 4–8 · Classic Tales
The Thief and the House-Dog
Rex, a fluffy house dog, lives happily with the kind Johnson family. One night, a cunning thief named Jack targets…
5 min
Ages 3–7 · Classic Tales
The Dog and the Cook
Max the curious dog loves Maria's delicious cooking. One day, the smell of her stew is too tempting, and he devises a…
5 min
Ages 3–5 · Classic Tales
The Dog and the Shadow
Max, a friendly dog, loves playing in his sunny town. One day, a mysterious shadow follows him everywhere, making his…
6 min
Ages 3–7 · Classic Tales
The Mischievous Dog
Max, a mischievous dog, loves adventure and finds a hidden clearing with two old dogs guarding a pile of delicious…
7 min
Ages 4–8 · Classic Tales
The Blacksmith and His Dog
The blacksmith and his loyal dog, Sparky, work side by side every day. Sparky is always ready to help, whether it's…
10 min
Ages 6–10 · Classic Tales
The Old Hound
Meet the old hound, a once-legendary hunter whose pride masks a secret: his hearing isn't what it used to be. Two…
What a dog is for in a story
Dogs in tales stand for loyalty the way foxes stand for cunning. That makes them easy for a young child to read: whatever else is going on, the dog can be trusted. The Thief and the House-Dog is four minutes of exactly that — a dog offered a bribe and not taking it — and The Blacksmith and His Dog is seven gentle minutes on standing by somebody.
The exceptions
The Mischievous Dog and The Dog and the Shadow both give the dog the fault instead. The second is five minutes, listed for ages three to five, and it is one of the few stories on the site aimed that young.
Four minutes, on a night when four minutes is all there is
The Dog and the Cook and The Dog and the Oyster are four minutes each. Neither has a frightening moment in it, both are complete stories rather than fragments, and either will do when the bath ran long and you have nothing left. There is no shame in the short option; our guide to bedtime stories when you are exhausted makes the case better than we can here.
Why four minutes is enough
The part of a bedtime story that does the work is the sitting down, the voice and the ending. A four-minute fable has all three. A child who gets a complete story every night is better off than one who gets half of a long one on the nights you can manage it, and these two are complete.
The Old Hound, and reading it at the right moment
The Old Hound is eleven minutes, listed for six to ten, and it is about a dog whose body has stopped doing what it used to. It is the longest and by some distance the most affecting story in this collection.
It is a good story to have read before a family pet gets old, and a difficult one to read in the week after. Use your judgement, and if your child wants to talk afterwards, let bedtime slip by ten minutes. A story that opens a conversation has earned the overrun.
For the child who is campaigning for a dog
These stories are honest about dogs being work as well as company, which is quietly useful if a campaign is under way in your house. Pair The Blacksmith and His Dog with The Mischievous Dog and the conversation writes itself.
The honest version is that a dog in a story is loyal because the story needs it to be, and a dog in a house is loyal on its own schedule. Reading both sides of that in one evening is fairer to everyone than pretending otherwise.
When the seven run out, fox stories has nineteen from the same fable tradition, farm stories keeps the same farmyard, and friendship stories covers the feeling rather than the animal.
| Story | Read aloud | Ages | The dog is |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Dog and the Cook | 4 min | 3–7 | Patient |
| The Thief and the House-Dog | 4 min | 4–8 | Incorruptible |
| The Dog and the Shadow | 5 min | 3–5 | Easily fooled |
| The Blacksmith and His Dog | 7 min | 4–8 | Steadfast |
| The Old Hound | 11 min | 6–10 | Old, and still proud |
Collections that share these stories
Ranked by how many stories they have in common with this one.
Questions about dog stories
How many dog stories are on the site?
Seven, from four to eleven minutes read aloud, covering ages three to ten.
Is there a dog story for a three year old?
The Dog and the Shadow is listed for ages three to five, which is the youngest range on the site, and The Dog and the Cook is listed three to seven.
Which dog story is the saddest?
The Old Hound. It is eleven minutes about a hunting dog who has lost his speed, and it suits six to ten year olds who are ready to think about getting older.
Are the dog stories fables?
Most follow the fable shape — a short episode with a clear lesson — and several are close to the Aesop tradition, though they are told here as original stories.