Just finished "Dog On It" by Spencer Quinn.

This is book 1 of the Chet and Bernie mystery series. Chet and Bernie run the Little Detective Agency in Somewhere, Southwest USA. Chet is Bernie's dog and the narrator of the story.
I would say the two are lovable misfits. Bernie attended Westpoint and was in the army. Bernie's wife, Leda, left him and took their son Charlie with her. Bernie  likes the casual look, bourbon and his old Porsche. Chet apparently flunked out of K9 school and loves ribs, steak, beef jerky, dog biscuits...the list goes on. Chet has a dog friend named Iggy. Oh and Chet does not like cats. Chet and Bernie met in K9 school. We are promised we will hear more about that at another time.

Bernie is hired to find a missing teen age girl named Madison by her mother Cynthia Chambliss.  Madison turns up the same day only to disappear again the next day. Damon Keefer is Madison's father and divorced from Cynthia. He is a real estate developer. He blows off the whole disappearance as just a teenager needing some space and will turn up. Even the police are not too concerned about the girl after she makes a phone call home. 

Suzie Sanchez is a local reporter assigned to do an article on Bernie. She becomes an important character as the story develops. And I think she is going to continue in the other books..

Did you ever wonder what Timmy and Lassie would be like grown up? Well, make Lassie a male dog named Chet and Timmy is Bernie and this is them. Remember how you always yelled at the t.v.; "no Lassie, don't go in that building, hole, truck, cave..."

First, Bernie leaves Chet in the car at the mall while he is asking around about Madison. A man sneaks up to the car and slashes the tires. Chet jumps out of the car after him and gets clobbered by the man. Thankfully he is alright.

Next, Chet takes off one night while Bernie and Charlie are camping in the backyard. Chet in true Lassie story form, gets mixed up with some bad guys. He is dognapped by Boris, one of the bad guys.

The story continues with Chet finding clues about Madison's disappearance and helping Bernie solve the mystery after a few close calls.

Some people may think that a mystery told from a dog's point of view would be too fluffy, or light. Not this book. This is a page turner, full of "oh no's!". It is really quite exciting.  It is also a humorous story with a look into what dog's may be thinking on a daily basis. :)  I know I put human traits on my cats.

There are 7 books in this series. I intend to read more.  Here is a link to this book if you think you may be interested. I would recommend it, especially if you are an animal lover.

One recommendation for Bernie: get the fence fixed!

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5600151-dog-on-it