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How Dogs Think: A Guide to a Beautiful Relationship
A guide to a beautiful relationship.
- GenresNonfiction
94 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
3 people are currently reading
42 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 11, 2024
I liked this little book! I learned some new things from it. Sure, there will be some things you know just from watching the behavior of your own dogs, but this book tries to show with research and experimentation the claims it makes in a concise fashion.
The book also has lots of tests laid out with steps to test your own dog:
The color test (dog can learn the color bowl food is under)
The distance test (dogs can recognize people far away, but only if they move)
The salami test (dogs can track a smell like salami)
The human scent test (dogs can recognize your scent out of others)
The sound test (dogs can recognize a specific sound)
The clue test (dogs can learn to recognize clues you give them)
The smelling test (dogs can recognize and distinguish between scents.
There are more of those types of tests, but they don't use the word 'test'. Each still gives preparation and performance details, for example to show recognizing symbols, and following pointing, etc.
So some things as I said or more obvious than others, but enough new to me, and I read a lot of dog books, that I found the book worthwhile. And it is a quick read. if you could find it at your library, you can probably easily read it in one sitting.
Below I will give a few excerpts that I found new or interesting:
'A dog’s retina, in contrast to a human retina, has two favored areas where the sensory cells are densely packed. One is called the area centralis. Here, the sensory cells are arranged in circles. This is in contrast to the horizontal bands, where the sensory cells are placed tightly next to each other, like paving stones on a sidewalk. Until recently, that was the extent of our knowledge. In the past few years, however, Australian researchers have gone a bit further down the path of revealing this mystery.
Alison Harman, a neurologist, made a surprising discovery. After examining the retinas of different dog breeds she found out that many short-muzzled breeds don’t possess any horizontal bands with rods, Long-muzzled breeds, on the other hand, had the horizontal bands. This was an enormous surprise, and it explained why some dogs have a wider field of vision than other dogs.'
'Short-muzzled dogs “see” better
What does this mean, practically speaking? Dogs with long muzzles and horizontal bands can see peripheral objects more easily. That’s why they’re also better hunters, since they can recognize prey on the horizon. It’s also no coincidence that hunting dogs have a longer muzzle.
However, dogs without these bands (1.e. with only an area centralis) are able to recognize better the nuances in the faces of their owners, That’s because the area centralis of a short-muzzled dog contains a great deal more sensory cells than that of a long-muzzled dog. Perhaps that’s the reason why we find bulldogs, boxers and other short-muzzled dogs so attractive. , They just have to look us in the eyes and, our hearts melt. ' This also incidentally answers an old question, namely: Why do some dogs like watching TV, while others don't? It’s a lot more fun for our cuddly bulldogs because they can see television images much better. '
I have read before that dogs learn something like four times faster when they see another dog do something, (wish I had saved the quote from where), but here is a nice application that I thought should be used more in training for specific types of work for dogs:
'Puppies born to a drug detecting female were allowed to participate in her tracking work instead of being sent to training. The results were astonishing: Learning at their mother’s side was just as effective as the tough training with humans. The young dogs had indirectly learned their mother’s work, and then imitated it with playful ease.'
The book also mentions Rico, a 'superstar' border collie that has learned to pick out the correct toy out of 100 stuffed toys and bring it to it's owner. Apparently this book was written before Chaser, or the author was not aware of Chaser who learned 1000 words. The book 'Chaser: Unlocking the Genius of the Dog Who Knows a Thousand Words' by John W. Pilley is one I recommend every dog owner read.
Finally, if you want to do this kind of mental work, I liked this bit of advice:
'Thinking takes energy.
Each series of tests should not rake more than an average of 90 minutes. The dog is then exhausted. You should allow the dog at least a one hour break between the series of tests. More than two test series is too many.
If the dog refuses to work, you know it’s time to stop. Let him then choose if he’d like to go for.
So this quick read i think is a good book to recommend to pick up more understanding on how dogs think.
The book also has lots of tests laid out with steps to test your own dog:
The color test (dog can learn the color bowl food is under)
The distance test (dogs can recognize people far away, but only if they move)
The salami test (dogs can track a smell like salami)
The human scent test (dogs can recognize your scent out of others)
The sound test (dogs can recognize a specific sound)
The clue test (dogs can learn to recognize clues you give them)
The smelling test (dogs can recognize and distinguish between scents.
There are more of those types of tests, but they don't use the word 'test'. Each still gives preparation and performance details, for example to show recognizing symbols, and following pointing, etc.
So some things as I said or more obvious than others, but enough new to me, and I read a lot of dog books, that I found the book worthwhile. And it is a quick read. if you could find it at your library, you can probably easily read it in one sitting.
Below I will give a few excerpts that I found new or interesting:
'A dog’s retina, in contrast to a human retina, has two favored areas where the sensory cells are densely packed. One is called the area centralis. Here, the sensory cells are arranged in circles. This is in contrast to the horizontal bands, where the sensory cells are placed tightly next to each other, like paving stones on a sidewalk. Until recently, that was the extent of our knowledge. In the past few years, however, Australian researchers have gone a bit further down the path of revealing this mystery.
Alison Harman, a neurologist, made a surprising discovery. After examining the retinas of different dog breeds she found out that many short-muzzled breeds don’t possess any horizontal bands with rods, Long-muzzled breeds, on the other hand, had the horizontal bands. This was an enormous surprise, and it explained why some dogs have a wider field of vision than other dogs.'
'Short-muzzled dogs “see” better
What does this mean, practically speaking? Dogs with long muzzles and horizontal bands can see peripheral objects more easily. That’s why they’re also better hunters, since they can recognize prey on the horizon. It’s also no coincidence that hunting dogs have a longer muzzle.
However, dogs without these bands (1.e. with only an area centralis) are able to recognize better the nuances in the faces of their owners, That’s because the area centralis of a short-muzzled dog contains a great deal more sensory cells than that of a long-muzzled dog. Perhaps that’s the reason why we find bulldogs, boxers and other short-muzzled dogs so attractive. , They just have to look us in the eyes and, our hearts melt. ' This also incidentally answers an old question, namely: Why do some dogs like watching TV, while others don't? It’s a lot more fun for our cuddly bulldogs because they can see television images much better. '
I have read before that dogs learn something like four times faster when they see another dog do something, (wish I had saved the quote from where), but here is a nice application that I thought should be used more in training for specific types of work for dogs:
'Puppies born to a drug detecting female were allowed to participate in her tracking work instead of being sent to training. The results were astonishing: Learning at their mother’s side was just as effective as the tough training with humans. The young dogs had indirectly learned their mother’s work, and then imitated it with playful ease.'
The book also mentions Rico, a 'superstar' border collie that has learned to pick out the correct toy out of 100 stuffed toys and bring it to it's owner. Apparently this book was written before Chaser, or the author was not aware of Chaser who learned 1000 words. The book 'Chaser: Unlocking the Genius of the Dog Who Knows a Thousand Words' by John W. Pilley is one I recommend every dog owner read.
Finally, if you want to do this kind of mental work, I liked this bit of advice:
'Thinking takes energy.
Each series of tests should not rake more than an average of 90 minutes. The dog is then exhausted. You should allow the dog at least a one hour break between the series of tests. More than two test series is too many.
If the dog refuses to work, you know it’s time to stop. Let him then choose if he’d like to go for.
So this quick read i think is a good book to recommend to pick up more understanding on how dogs think.
December 9, 2023
I did find the book very interesting but knowing that I am no good at writing especially with English being my worst subject even now. Between the double spacing on some of the paragraphs to going back to single spacing and how some sentences sound wrong as all can be, very off putting when reading books that tend to teach. If I am wrong, I'll admit it, but I also want the proof from actually evidence to admit how wrong I was. Till then the book was a great learning adventure but it was very irritating to see such mistakes especially when books that are published should have been proofread before so.
Currently reading
April 21, 2010Just received this in the mail and had to start reading it right away - will let you know
May 20, 2011
A slim, easy to read book that contains practically nothing of interest. It has many tests to show how dogs think but I learned more from watching my dogs just be dogs.
July 16, 2011
Still working on this dog training book. I'm training as I read, so this one may take a while. But I've already taught my dog (and myself) a few new tricks!
Currently reading
December 14, 2009Do I really want to get inside Wishbone's head???
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews