The first thing that must be said about this book is that it was obviously written by someone who loves dogs, and opened my eyes to truly interacting and living with a dog as a friend, rather than as a being to be taken care of and trained like a child, as someone to be understood and developmentally enhanced.

It was a little challenging to really get engrossed in at the beginning, and was much more scientific than the anecdotal adventure I was expecting when I selected this book off the shelf at the bookstore. (It must also be said that the adorable doggie face on cover completely sold me on the book in the first place – yes, I judged a book, at least partially, by its cover.) Despite this, I am glad I stuck with the book until the end. I learned some interesting facts about the dog species, such as their unique visual perception (far-sighted vs. near-sighted, blurry vs. sharply focused, and more subject to see moving objects), and how smell and taste actually provide a richer and more informative experience for dogs than vision.

Despite the wealth of information provided, the manner in which this information was delivered left something to be desired. The author completely shifted narrative from the interspersed storytelling about her experiences, interactions, and memories of her own dog, Pump, into a scientific, fact-spewing voice that twisted various facts and experiments to prove her points. Sources were not cited in a scientific or academic manner, and the sheer number of variables in some of the experiments were not taken into consideration as possible weaknesses in the research, but rather, encouraged as an added bonus. Additionally, the author took on a holier-than-thou, this is how you should raise and interact with your dog approach. Her advice on how to “train” a dog by incorporating the dog’s umwelt (and therefore, the understanding of his/her goals, motivations, method of communication) was much more effective and enjoyable to read.

The strongest part of this book was the last chapter, “The Importance of Mornings,” which really served to summarize the authors main points and messages in a clear, concise and passionate manner that illuminated how much she really cares about dogs and what she really wanted to pass along to readers of her book. That being said, stories, facts, and perspectives presented in the main body of the text added a depth of specifics to this summary chapter, and added to its strength – a reader would not have had the same experience or gotten as much out of it if he/she had just read the last summarizing chapter.