Who doesn’t love dogs? Well… I guess there are a few out there. But I’ve always said, “Show me a person who doesn’t like dogs, and I’ll show you a person I most likely wouldn’t associate with.” Dog Smart explains it all.
For the rest of America and the world, the story is very different. Worldwide, it’s believed there are over one billion dogs. Eighty-five percent of them are what they call free roamers. In the US, the American Veterinary Medical Association states that 44.6% of all households own at least one dog. On average, each of these households contains 1.6 domestic pooches. This equates to 83-88 million dogs in the US. We obviously love our dogs. Or at least the good folks do.
Dog Smart
If you’re a dog lover, you’ve most likely felt, as I have, that dogs are way, way smarter than traditional thinking has given them credit for. Throughout my childhood, I had several good dog buddies who were part of our family and trained for upland game and waterfowl hunting. Dad raised golden retrievers as a boy and learned early on that a trained, obedient dog is a pleasure to be around.
Training was necessary for them to do their part in hunting and integrating into the family. My father’s training skills introduced me to the idea that these animals were very smart! Dog Smart has proven my assumptions about the intellectual capacity of these loveable animals. Knowing how your dogs think can help us make better pictures of our beloved canine friends.
Dog Behaviour
While growing up, several episodes of interesting dog behavior made me realize I was dealing with much more than a simple animal doing accidental things. One of those events happened during a duck hunt on the Missouri River in South Dakota. Jessie, our golden retriever, was told she wasn’t allowed on the hotel room bed. She was dirty from a day in the field retrieving ducks. When we left the room for dinner, Jessie was lying on her soft and cozy dog bed.
An hour or so later, we returned, and there she was, fast asleep where we had left her. Dad went over to his bed and sat down. He began to untie his boots and noticed a round, dirty circle about the size of Jessie’s body. Around the outer ring were small clumps of dog hair attached to beggars lice.
These little piles of hair were obviously removed with her teeth and left on the bed, which she apparently felt was more comfortable than her version on the floor. How did she know we were returning? Dog Smart has given me some clues.
Introducing Jennifer Holland
Jennifer S. Holland is the author of Dog Smart–Life Changing Lessons in Canine Intelligence. So, there’s a short backstory about how Jenny and I first met. I can’t say we’re best friends, but that’s most likely simply due to the many miles between Washington, DC, and Montana. That said, we’ll forever be connected. We first met doing a story on elephant seals in California for National Geographic.
I was there to take pictures, and Jenny was assigned the wordsmithing. While in California, I proposed marriage to my best friend Tanya, and Jenny signed our wedding license as a witness. Without Jenny, I may not have the amazing life I enjoy today. Jenny Holland is an exceptional writer with an intense love for dogs. I can’t think of anyone more qualified to put this information together in a fun and educational way. Jenny’s many years as a staff writer for National Geographic gave her a tremendous foundation for quality reporting. That, along with her burning love for all animals, gives her the street cred few other writers enjoy.
Dogs Aren’t Wolves
As Jenny points out in Dog Smart, many people like to equate dogs to wolves. I have to admit I’ve used this analogy myself. I even devised a humorous name to describe the breed of my last beloved pup named Dice. Dicey was a Chihuahua. My wife Tanya had convinced me, after our last golden retriever passed, to try something smaller. To conceal my unwarranted embarrassment of owning a Chihuahua, I started calling Dicey a South American Pygmy Wolf. Before Dog Smart, I thought it was an accurate comparison that also broke the ice when people inquired about Dicey’s lineage. It made people laugh, including me.
Dice was barely ten inches tall, weighed 6.5 pounds, and had a muscular build that made him look like a doggy movie star. But as good as he looked, he was all dog. He wasn’t the hard-charging lab or golden retriever I grew up with, but he had many of the same behaviors I found in all my childhood canine friends. Dicey loved the great outdoors. It didn’t matter he was a ten-inch Chihuahua. He wanted to hunt like Brandy, our 80-pound golden.
I’ve written a fair amount about Dice here on the Blog. In the post titled Our Little Buddy Dice, a tribute to my beloved friend after he died two years ago, I discuss how I became convinced to try a breed of dog I had never even considered. As a young boy being exposed to dog training, I remember how all the writers I read emphasized how dogs see themselves when compared to other dogs. In short, big or small, through doggy eyes, they’re all equals. It’s why a six-pound Chihuahua will try to run a 120-pound husky away from their dog dish. No fight is too large.
So, what’s the difference between a dog and a wolf
Jenny does an eloquent job describing the scientific differences between dogs and wolves. The current “official” taxonomy of mammals classifies dogs as a subspecies of the modern gray wolf (Canis Lupus).
As she mentions, like me, “It’s certainly popular to talk about our pets as tame wolves.” Jenny goes on to write, “Scientists have learned about physiological and behavioral differences between dogs and their wild cousins that can help us understand how they came to cross the species divide and later offered their impressive range of cognitive gifts to help humans.” Also adding, “partnering with humans is an intelligent move (one could even call it Dog Smart).”
How did Canis become familiaris
Kathryn Lord, a specialist in the evolution and development of animal behavior, states in Dog Smart, “No matter how intensely you socialize a wolf, you don’t get a dog.” In the following paragraph, she explains the differences between dogs and wolves.
The two canids are also unalike cognitively. “Dogs and wolves have very different kinds of intelligence,” Lord says. “A wolf completely understands cause and effect and will watch a situation and figure out what’s going on.” He’ll also persist in trying to solve a problem independently, no matter how impossible it may be. A dog? “He cheats,” Lord says. If the two were taking a test, the wolf would work its tail off. “while the dog would be glancing around the room asking, ‘Psssst, what did you get for number nine?’ And he’d cheat off the smartest kid in the class! Which is a totally successful strategy but uses a completely different kind of brainpower.”
Jenny writes, “Lord is referring in part to research in which wolves proved tenacious in trying to solve problems on their own while dogs “gave up” and looked to human observers for help.”
Dogs have the happy gene
It was 2005 when the first dog genome was completely sequenced. In doing so, Arizona State’s Clive Wynne found a trio of genes linked to an “exaggerated interest” in humans. Jenny reports, “the same genes in humans are involved in something called Williams-Beuren Syndrom (WBS). A condition that results in, among other things, hypersociability. In other words, “part of that social intelligence that lets dogs connect peaceably with other species, including us, very likely comes from this tiny section of the genome.” I saw a report on this finding in an episode of 60 Minutes, which they called the Happy Gene. It all makes a lot of sense when you see how happy your dog can be with its human.
Hunting partners
Cooperative hunting between man and dog is thought to be THE moment “when the connection between human and dog really kicked up a notch into the strong emotional bond we are accustomed to today,” explains Clive Wynne. Along with hunting, dogs eventually adapted to the agricultural diet, especially the cultivation of grains. In other words, dogs evolved the ability to digest the leftovers humans discarded. Wolves, exclusively dependent on meat, have never been able to do the same.
This part of the dog/human connection hits very close to home for me. I grew up hunting and fishing in the wild places of Washington, South Dakota, and Minnesota. My father had a deep, emotional need to use his outdoor skills to put food on the table. That burning desire is why we always had Canada Goose and/or Pheasant for Thanksgiving dinner. Little did he know he was benefiting from the earliest primordial connections between man and dog. Dad would love this idea.
I like how Jenny sums it all up: “Dogs, like other animals that have learned how to benefit from our presence, live particularly creative, thoughtful, and flexible lives. Intelligent lives.”
The doggy gaze–You Know it’s true
Those of us who’ve been blessed with a canine friend know how expressive their faces can be. Jenny describes how dogs’ facial movements can make us melt. “Dogs have the musculature to raise their inner eyebrows and create that puppy dog face,” Jenny writes.
If you’ve loved a dog, you know the face she’s describing. She goes on to report, “That’s no accident. Pups with tiny mobile muscles that power the “adore me” face likely flourished better than their less expressive kin, because humans with lots of resources to share responded to That Look. Wolves can’t produce it. Canis familaris is the master of it,” Jenny states. It makes so much sense if you’ve ever seen “That Look.”
So much more on the intelligence of dogs
Dog Smart is a wealth of information that spans numerous breeds and specific canine specialties. Jenny interviews many dog experts who share their expertise on how dogs are trained to sniff out cancer, predict epileptic seizures, smell Parkinson’s disease, guide the blind, learn to count, play games, and do all kinds of “human-like” things.
More than just good information
Finally, I want to point out how beautiful this book is in terms of build and design. For those of us who love books, the look and feel of a book are almost as important as the information it contains. Let’s start with Dog Smart’s cover.
The cover
If you frequent this blog, you know I’m a photographer. So it makes sense that the gorgeous cover (designed by Elisa Gibson), with great photography, should catch my attention. I love the collage of doggy portraits that showcase twenty-one different breeds. Many of the adorable subjects are looking straight into the camera, showcased against mostly pastel-colored backgrounds. The soft ethereal feel of the design of this book fits perfectly with Jenny’s personality. She’s warm, quiet and and most always pleasantly subtle. I’m not surprised at how the look and feel of this book reminds me of its author.
Paper weight and feel
The paper Dog Smart is printed on is substantial. It’s relatively thick and a warm-toned shade of off-white. Few people typically talk about the physical details of a good title. But for those who love books, the look and feel are important. Dog Smart exudes quality with paper that makes turning the pages a joy. I love books that make me feel positive as an artist with a curious mind. Dog Smart offers the best of design and knowledge.
Thanks to the folks at National Geographic for allowing Jennifer Holland to explore her love of dogs and share it with the masses. In taking on this review, I not only learned a lot but also got to reconnect with the special canine friends in my life. If you love dogs, you will love this book.
Get your copy of Dog Smart on Amazon. You won’t regret it.
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