Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know

by Alexandra Horowitz

To understand what your dog’s day at home without you might be like, by all means videotape it. One of the distinct pleasures I got with Pumpernickel was seeing her act without me. Despite hours of videorecording, I rarely turned my camera on to her. It was only when she didn’t expect me—when a friend had taken her out, and I arrived unannounced—that I got to see her carry on without me. It was spectacular to see.

Most dogs are simply alone all day with little to do, expected to wait it out until we return, and then act just as we want them to. And we are surprised and horrified when they actually do something in our absence! That dogs endure this (and much worse misinterpretation and neglect) is almost part of their constitution.

DON’T BATHE YOUR DOG EVERY DAY

Let them smell like a dog as long as you can stand it.

GET A MUTT

If you don’t have a dog yet, or are getting another dog, I have just the breed for you: the breedless dog, the mutt.

ANTHROPOMORPHIZE WITH UMWELT IN MIND

Even with a scientific take on the dog, we find ourselves using anthropomorphic words. Our dogs—my dog—make friends, feel guilty, have fun, get jealous; understand what we mean, think about things, know better; are sad, are happy, are scared; want, love, hope.

As we recast every moment of a dog’s life in human terms, we have begun to completely lose touch with the animal in them.

The alternative to anthropomorphizing is not simply treating animals as precisely unhuman.

Scientists anthropomorphize ... at home.

Go look at your dog. Go to him! Imagine his umwelt—and let him change your own.