Understanding a dog’s perspective—through understanding his abilities, experience, and communication—provides that vocabulary. But we can’t translate it simply through an introspection that brings our own umwelt along. Most of us are not excellent smellers; to imagine being a smeller, we have to do more than just think on it. That kind of introspective exercise only works when paired with an understanding of how profound the difference in umwelt is between us and another animal.
