The best category I can come up with for this book is: chick lit with dogs. The heroine, Dawn, on the rebound from a bad relationship, struggling with a second bad relationship and in the process of stumbling into a good relationship (finally!), discovers one day that she can understand the speech of dogs. This leads to interesting complications. Her dogs are hilarious, if somewhat foul-mouthed. And they may be good judges of character but their relationship advice is, as she discovers, often suspect. Dogs simply have different priorities than humans.
The author, an Emmy Award-winning writer with several other novels to her credit, has a wry wit and especially enjoys lampooning the Southern California lifestyle. Life coaches, goddess worshippers, fetishists, "emo" kids and the QVC channel all get their turn on the spit. Not a novel for readers who enjoy subtly-drawn characters or detailed descriptions of place - this book is all about zany situations, romantic quandaries and snappy dialogue, both human and canine.