Doc Vampire-Hunting Dog

"Doc Vampire-Hunting Dog" (no articles or colons needed) is a 2011 young adult novella by J.A. Campbell, about a border collie who hunts vampires.

Doc is at home watching sheep herding on television when a vampire breaks in and tries to kill his master. Doc stares at the vampire, and finds that his steely border collie command can momentarily freeze vampires. After Doc saves his life, his master Kevin decides to make him a regular part of vampire-hunting expeditions. They are joined by a werewolf, and quickly become a potent vampire-hunting force. However, the vampires take note of this new threat, and they seem to have some secret weapons of their own...

I got this book from the library simply because of how ridiculous it looked, being one of many recent works about an unlikely protagonist being a vampire hunter. But when I read it, I found that the seeming "gimmick" of having the story narrated by a dog actually contributes a lot to the suspense. We see the book through a dog's eyes, which means that we only see and understand what a dog (albeit a very intelligent dog) would see and understand. Vampires smell like death, and their blood tastes sour. Werewolves smell like wolves, and respond to hierarchy and threats like a dog would. Although written without much gore (its a young adult book), the book does have a tension and seriousness to it beyond what I expected.