The Sneezing Dog and other stories by Enid Blyton is a collection of seventeen short stories titled The Sneezing Dog, Wagger Goes to the Show, Paying it Back, Boom-Diddy-Boom-Boom!, Brer Rabbit's Strange Flower, Benjy, Benjy, Benjy!, The Cat Who Cut Her Claws, The Five Bad Boys, Big-Foot is Very Clever, Boo! Boo! Boo!, Adventure in the Woods, Spears for Impies, Two Good Turns, He Was Much Too Clever, Peter's Good Turn, The Girl With Whiskers and The Angry Puppy.
Adventure in the Woods begins with a description of a boy named Johnny who lives on a beautiful farm in the English countryside and decides to go for a walk on the hills with his dog Shadow on a moonlit night. As they pass through the farmyard and approach the hills, Johnny and Shadow meet the sheep dogs Rafe and Tinker who tell them that a dog called Dandy is missing. Shadow wonders where Dandy has gone and why he has not returned but soon forgets about it and enjoys his walk with Johnny.
Then suddenly Shadow hears a sound in the distance which is that of a dog in pain and guesses that it must be Dandy and decides to find where the sound is coming from. Shadow runs down the hill and into the valley and to the woods that are on the next hill. He finds Dandy injured in the woods and sees that the poor dog has his foot caught in a steel trap. Shadow tries to release Dandy’s foot from the trap but realises that he cannot do it on his own and goes back to the farm to fetch Johnny. Shadow takes Johnny to the woods and Johnny who knows how to open the trap frees Dandy’s foot.
Dandy who has escaped from the trap goes to the farm with Johnny and Shadow, and Johnny wakes his father who bathes and treats Dandy’s injured foot. Johnny’s father tells Dandy that he must learn a lesson from this incident and that when he goes off on his own he must learn to be vigilant for traps in order to escape from them.
Reviewed by Hannah William