In the book Soldier Dog by Sam Angus, Stanley’s brother goes to France to fight in WW1. Stanley is left alone with his mad and explosive father and when his father does something truly terrible, he decides to go find his brother and enlists in the army to join him. He trains dogs to be messengers, but along the way he hits some trouble, at one point he feels so down that he just wants to go home, and although he feels like this sometimes, everything turns out to be OK in the end.