Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” and White Fang are among his most popular texts; they have stayed in print for over a century and are often taught in schools and at universities. I assign them in my English courses at a Swedish university and find that students usually appreciate both the stories and the discussions they invite. Since my own research in the last fifteen years has been mainly in literary animal studies and since these stories offer interesting representations of canids, I take an animal studies approach in my teaching. This enables me not only to discuss significant aspects of the stories, but also to introduce my students to Naturalism as a literary movement, and to foster transferable skills like academic reading, writing and reasoning. Following a short introduction to animal studies and my teaching context, this essay is divided into two main parts, one on “To Build a Fire” and one on White Fang. I aim to show how my students and I usually approach these works, and what animal studies can offer, analytically and pedagogically.