This new book, The Dog Who Saved The Bees, is about Cybil starting from square one and resurrecting the Dog Inspector AFB ID Program. The book is a short fun and informative story about Cybil and her adoption of the energetic dog Mack and the time, effort and love to get Mac trained for Maryland Beekeepers. Illustrations are colorful and connecting to the story and the reader. Thanks to trainers like Major Mark Flynn who helped Cybil and Mack, Mack was certified as a Scent Detection Dog. We all know that to ID AFB requires us and or an Apiary Inspector to disassemble a beehive and look at every inch of brood comb. It takes a long time. Mack was able to use his excellent scent of smell and put his training into practice and searched more than 1,600 individual colonies in a single month! Cybil and Mack received the Customer Service Heroes Award from the Governor of Maryland. But I haven’t told you the whole story. You need to read the book and become impressed like I was with Cybil and Mack and Mack and Cybil.

Dogs can handle all sorts of jobs, but even so, Mack’s line of work is most unusual. Being chief apiary inspector for the Maryland Department of Agriculture, Cybil Preston is charged with certifying that commercial colonies of honeybees are free of the infectious disease called “foulbrood.” Visual checks are one way to do that, but because the job would go far more quickly with help from a dog trained to sniff out the malady’s distinctive smell, Mack comes into her life. This true story is partly a heartwarming tale of a lonely pooch finding a home, but, a professional animal trainer herself, Gibeault also lays out in loving, precise detail the systematic series of humane challenges and rewards that turned a rowdy, distractable dog who at first wouldn’t even sit on command into a dependable and responsive worker. A yellow Lab whose big personality shines in Hohn’s illustrations, Mack will easily win readers over as he passes each test and gets to work, then goes on with the light-skinned Cybil to earn a public service award and even enjoys a fling with media stardom. Following a final turn proudly trotting past piled-up beehives, Mack poses in backmatter snapshots using his expert sniffer and working alongside his own successor. Would-be animal trainers will find this engaging addition to the working-dog shelf of particular interest. (afterword, bibliography) (Informational picture book. 5-7)

Gibeault’s text nicely balances details about beekeeping and dog training with plenty of action and emotional appeal. Hohn’s soft illustrations in an earth palette bring dog Mack’s lovable, if at first unruly, personality to life.