There isn't just one or two settings in this book. They wander, and to make it even more confusing, the dog stories aren't told in chronological order. You get glimpses of the Philippines and of street life in the U.S. He even goes to Alaska to race in the Iditarod. Most of the settings, however, are frontier, meaning Paulsen lived on the edges of civilization. He roughed it in these frontier settings, even trying to raise his own food.