Book review: ‘Catching Sight’

Catching Sight: How a Guide Dog Helped Me See Myself by Deni Elliott with Graham Buck. Beacon Press, 2026. Hardcover, 264 pages.

Ordering information

Most people, at one time or another, have seen a guide dog team at work. Most people, though, have little idea of how that dog and person who’s visually impaired actually work as a team to navigate the world around them. And even fewer people know how that dog and person trained to become the successful team seen in public.

In Catching Sight: How a Guide Dog Helped Me See Myself, first-time guide dog handler Deni Elliott and longtime guide dog trainer and instructor Graham Buck answer these questions in a book that blends memoir with factual information about how guide dogs are born, raised, and trained.

An ethics professor who traveled frequently for work, Deni had always managed her personal life and professional commitments fairly well despite lifelong visual impairment. In middle age, however, life became more difficult as her vision deteriorated. After two unsuccessful attempts to work with privately trained guide dogs, Deni applied to Guiding Eyes for the Blind, one of the oldest and well-established guide dog schools in the country. Once accepted, she began her formal guide dog training with Graham Buck, who was for many years the assistant head of training.

Through her work with Graham, Deni began to notice that not only did she feel safer and more independent with her dog Alberta, but she also began to view herself as a more competent individual. While much of the book deals with her life as part of a guide dog team, that work is interwoven with the backstory of a guide dog’s life — the two or three years from birth to being matched with a human partner. This inclusion of what makes a dog a guide dog sets Catching Sight apart from most guide dog handler memoirs.

The insight and clarity Deni and Graham have put into this book make it a highly readable and educational volume, one that will help readers come away with an insider’s understanding of the entire guide dog experience.

Note: Although this reviewer has received three guide dogs from Guiding Eyes for the Blind, I do not know the authors personally and have not benefited in any way from this review.

Are you the author or publisher of a book about animals that you would like considered for review? Please send the details to editor@bestfriends.org.

Our goal at Best Friends is to support all animal shelters in the U.S. in reaching no-kill. No-kill means saving every dog and cat in a shelter who can be saved, accounting for community safety and good quality of life for pets. 

Shelter staff can’t do it alone. Saving animals in shelters is everyone’s responsibility, and it takes support and participation from the community. No-kill is possible when we work together thoughtfully, honestly, and collaboratively.