Books

If Dogs Could Talk: Exploring the Canine Mind
Hands-On Horse Care: The Complete Book of Equine First-Aid
Your First Aquarium
Your First Cockatiel
Your First Finch
Pot-bellied Pigs as Your New Family Pet
Your First Tropical Fish
The Dalmatian
Tropical Fish: A Complete Introduction
Complete Guide to Koi and Garden Pools
The World of Catfishes
Hamsters as a Hobby (Save Our Planet S.)
Guinea Pigs as a Hobby (Save Our Planet S.)
The Professional's Book of Conures
Step-by-step Book About Guinea Pigs
Your New Garden Ponds
Dwarf Rabbits as a New Pet
Aquariums for Your New Pet
Discus: How to Breed Them
Fish Diseases Handbook
Book of the American Pit Bull Terrier
Conures
Persian Cats
All About Breeding Cockatiels
All About Iguanas

If Dogs Could Talk: Exploring the Canine Mind

Average customer rating:

Not a bedtime book!
Interesting, but flaky
Excellent Book

If Dogs Could Talk: Exploring the Canine Mind
Vilmos Csanyi
Manufacturer: North Point Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Care & Health | Dogs | Animal Care & Pets | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

General | Dogs | Animal Care & Pets | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

General | Animal Care & Pets | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Home & Garden Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

How To Speak Dog: Mastering the Art of Dog-Human Communication
The Truth about Dogs: An Inquiry into Ancestry Social Conventions Mental Habits Moral Fiber Canis fami
How Dogs Think: Understanding the Canine Mind
How Dogs Think: What the World Looks Like to Them and Why They Act the Way They Do
The Intelligence of Dogs: A Guide To The Thoughts, Emotions, And Inner Lives Of Our Canine Companions

ASIN: 0865477299
Release Date: 2005-12-27

Book Description

“This book is endlessly enlightening and entertaining . . . will appeal to all dog owners.” —Ann LaFarge, Taconic News

How do dogs think? Short of breeding a talking dog (not as impossible as it sounds), the best we can do is to carefully observe and record their behavior. And after a decade of research, the internationally renowned ethologist Vilmos Csányi has brilliantly captured the high degree of mutual understanding and empathy that exists between humans and their proverbial best friends.

Drawing in part on close observations of his own dogs, Flip and Jerry, Csányi argues that the long-standing alliance of dogs and humans arose from the problem-solving and communications skills evident in wolves, from which all modern dogs are descended. These basic intellectual skills were refined and enhanced as dogs and humans evolved together over tens of thousands of years. And because dogs were bred to be mankind’s helpmates, the dog owner who knows what to look for can interpret their thoughts, desires, and motivations.

Customer Reviews:

Not a bedtime book!.......2007-04-04

I have to say that I enjoyed this book even though it was not an "easy read". The stories of Csanyi's own dogs were amusing - and he pointed out reasonable explanations for their behavior. I agree with some of his theories such as: Dogs were domestically bred to understand and communicate with humans. Makes sense although he does go a bit too far. The experiments were interesting, the study of ethology being what it is. Interesting book but not for the novice.

Interesting, but flaky.......2005-08-04

This book is by a top ethologist (one who studies behavior and thought processes, as far as I can gather) and gives insight into the minds of dogs. The author is careful to tell us that the many anecdotes he tells about his own dogs should be interpreted with caution, but that anecdotes can lead to careful scientific experimentation, which can give more substantial information.

The work is largely pretty scholarly and goes into the way other animals, including humans, Alex the parrot and the clever Hans (a counting horse), think and reason. The author makes compelling arguments, using both anecdotes and experiments, for dogs' being able to show empathy, ask questions, respond, and perform several other high-order cognitive functions normally associated with only humans. This makes sense when you realize that among all animals, dogs are the species that has been most influenced by human tinkering. Dogs truly are adapted to living with us and being true companions.

And that was all well and good and very interesting. But sometimes, the author makes some pretty wild stretches in interpreting his dogs' actions, for example, and states his interpretations as unambiguous, when they really didn't seem that way to me. For a scientist, he doesn't always seem all that rigorous when it comes to his own dogs (who, by the way, as he himself admits, are ill-mannered).

Then right at the end he goes off on a wild tangent of how breeders should intentionally breed hybrid dogs from purebred stock (I'm a fan of the mixed breeds, but I've never heard anyone propose such a deliberate program to breed them) and even proposes developing talking dogs. He didn't seem to be kidding!

At the very end, he goes on a rant about using dogs in laboratory experiments. I don't like it much myself, but he makes several misstatements about the practice. Maybe in Hungary laboratories use dogs from shelters or stolen from loving families, but in the developed world, dogs for experimentation are bred for that purpose.

Finally, the translation from the Hungarian was often a bit stilted and odd. Still, there was a lot of interesting information among the flakiness.

Excellent Book.......2005-03-28

Learned a great deal about the mental abilities of dogs. The book gets into great detail with experiments that are not easy to follow for the non-science reader. I gave it 5 stars because I learned so much more from this book than anywhere else.

If Dogs Could Talk: Exploring the Canine Mind

Average customer rating:

If Dogs Could Talk: Exploring the Canine Mind
Vilmos Csanyi
Manufacturer: North Point Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000N2ZVSQ

Books: