The Professional Dog

About the Book

In this abecedarian art album, The Professional Dog, Sue Clancy shares handmade portraits she created of her friends’ dogs in alphabetical order by profession (job) along with an adjective (descriptive word) in a sentence about each dog.

Clancy’s text and book concept are inspired by a 19th century word game called “The Minister’s Cat”. Can you think of more professions and adjectives in alphabetical order than there are in this book?

This 48 page book was made because Clancy believes that children need books of fine art too – any vocabulary building there may be in this book is a bonus.

Both print and ebooks are available here https://www.blurb.com/b/10926040-the-professional-dog

Here’s a look at the printed book:



Below is a video look at the original artwork for The Professional Dog an abecedarian art album written and illustrated by Sue Clancy. Clancy’s friends and family generously shared photos of their dogs to inspire this book. Each original dog portrait is 2.5 x 3.5 inches and was made by hand using ink and gouache on board. The finished print book is 6 x 9 inches and as faithfully as possible reproduces the colors and details in the original artwork.





Some of the original artwork for The Professional Dog and copies of the printed book at the Aurora Gallery www.auroragalleryonline.com



The Professional Dog released as a free ebook on Storyberries.com https://www.storyberries.com/bedtime-stories-the-professional-dog-abc-alphabet-books-for-kids/

https://www.storyberries.com/bedtime-stories-the-professional-dog-abc-alphabet-books-for-kids/


An art print of a selection of the alphabet from The Professional Dog. https://society6.com/product/the-professional-dog_print?sku=s6-22451868p4a1v45

The Professional Dog – art print


A Professional Dog mug big enough for soup. https://www.zazzle.com/the_professional_dog_mug-168548600521756889



Here’s a Professional Dog puzzle with 30 oversized pieces for little hands to play with https://www.zazzle.com/professional_dog_puzzle-116286674063120123

https://www.zazzle.com/professional_dog_puzzle-116286674063120123


For those who like sewing or having things sewn for them here’s some fabrics with The Professional Dog artworks as a fabric pattern – https://www.spoonflower.com/en/fabric/12418133-professional-dog-by-sueclancy

https://www.spoonflower.com/en/fabric/12418133-professional-dog-by-sueclancy

Ready to wear face masks for adults and children with a pattern of The Professional Dog artwork https://www.zazzle.com/professional_dogs_face_mask-256801690799168038

https://www.zazzle.com/professional_dogs_face_mask-256801690799168038


One of the owners of a dog featured in The Professional Dog did a blog post about the book and the real dog is shown with the portrait. https://lizgauffreau.com/2021/12/08/who-is-that-famous-dog/

From https://lizgauffreau.com/2021/12/08/who-is-that-famous-dog/

19 thoughts on “The Professional Dog

        1. I’m glad you learned! We all find what we most enjoy doing by trying different things and finding what goes far and what doesn’t – then we know – and this world needs all of us and all of our various interests and abilities!

            1. Me too! Compared to centuries or even decades ago we now have that most wonderful embarrassment of luxuries in that we’re able to dabble in so many areas of interest to our hearts content, starting and stopping them as we wish!!

Thank you for reading and sharing encouragements!