What I’m reading: lots of dog books
The stack of books on my bedside chest is full of new books about dogs. I bought the three books on dog behavior and the other two are thoughtful Christmas presents.
Dog Sense, by John Bradshaw, is a very well-done book by an Englishman who specializes in animal welfare and behavior. He debunks some common perceptions and attempts to put dogs in their proper place. I like this sentence from the dust jacket:
…we too often treat dogs like wolves or, just as hazardously, like furry humans. The truth is: dogs are neither.
The Fragrance of Grass, by Guy de la Valdene, is the third book of his I own now. His two previous—Making Game: An Essay on Woodcock and For a Handful of Feathers—are among my favorites. In his beautiful prose, de la Valdene reminisces about his early hunting in France, trips to the western U.S. and his 800-acre “farm” outside Tallahassee, Florida. The title of the book comes from Jim Harrison:
Between the four pads of a dog’s foot, the fragrance of grass.
On Talking Terms with Dogs: Calming Signals, by Turid Rugaas. Rugaas is a famous Norwegian dog trainer and behaviorist who seems, on the surface at least, a bit like our Cesar Milan.
Dogs, being flock animals, have a language for communication with each other…Canine language in general consists of a large variety of signals using body, face, ears, tail, sounds, movement, and expression.
Dog Language, An Encyclopedia of Canine Behavior, by Roger Abrantes, was a popular book when first published in 1986 in Denmark. I have an English version, which was first published in the U.S. in 1996. It is organized dictionary-style—an alphabetical listing of 293 expressions and postures. Very nice black-and-white drawings are included.
Everything in the way you or I, or our dogs, appear to one another is behavior.
What makes a social animal special is its ability to compromise, to win and lose and still get the best out of every situation.
Among these champions of compromise, we find wolves, geese, chimpanzees, humans and their best friends, dogs.
Canine Body Language, Interpreting the Native Language of the Domestic Dog, by Brenda Aloff, is a fascinating examination of how dogs communicate through expressions and body language. Hundreds of photographs are included to clearly show each pose. Among the entries are Curiosity, Rolling, Fear, Look Away, Tongue Flick, Yawning, Paw Lifts, Butt Sniff, Pass By, Guarding, Warning, Prey Bow and an entire section on Play.