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The Genius of Dogs: How Dogs Are Smarter than You Think Hardcover – February 5, 2013

256 customer reviews

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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Dutton Adult; First Edition edition (February 5, 2013)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 9780525953197
  • ISBN-13: 978-0525953197
  • ASIN: 0525953191
  • Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 1.3 x 9.3 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (256 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #60,626 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

75 of 84 people found the following review helpful By movingwordsandimages on April 7, 2013
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
I bought this book because Victoria Stilwell recommended it. In fact, treat trainer that she can be, I'd love to read her honest and full review of this book if one is available...

This book is really quite engaging from the beginning through halfway into the read. The essays build a case, chapter by chapter, towards the most fascinating part (in my opinion) called "Survival of the Friendliest," which looks at the evolution of dogs - and humans - in a way that I've never heard of. It really is fantastic food for thought.

However, the book's title points to another supposedly revelatory finding in the area of dog cognition or "dognition." And, having finally arrived at its application for us dog owners/handlers, the section was disappointingly thin, just one chapter titled "Teaching Genius" that runs about 30 pages. And this came at the unnecessary expense of pitting itself against Behaviorism (a.k.a. reward-based training or clicker training). There's even a section very unfortunately named "The Tyranny of Behaviorism." Really, tyranny?

This poor choice of words and perspective really does the author's writing a disservice. Behavioral training has done A LOT to advance the methodologies of the everyday trainer. For generations prior, well-meaning but totally misinformed people applying Dominance theory were beating and choking their dogs half to death. The Behavioral approach has given tools that regular people (not just elite scientists and researchers) can understand and use. It's proven to work, it's safe, and has improved the relationships of many households with their pets. How is that tyranny?
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful By Max Rockbin on May 27, 2013
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
Most dog books are about picking a dog or training your dog or fixing dog problems.

This one is not one of those. It is entirely about how dogs understand their world ("dog cognition") and the experiments that reveal their nature.

You see many dog books by Ph.Ds (sometimes in a subject having nothing to do with dogs). I've read several and they tend to follow a pattern. Credentials. Some observations with experiment to back them up. Then, very quickly, they fall into conventional wisdom, anecdotes, opinions, and other "facts" that are justified not by science and experiment, but purely by the authority of the author.

Almost everything said about dogs in "Genius of Dogs" is based on rigorous, repeatable and often ingenious experiments. If there's only a single experiment backing up an observation, the authors tell you it's possibly questionable till someone else can repeat it. That's honesty! That's respect for your reader! Dog books don't usually admit to their fallibility.

The "Genius" in "Genius of Dogs" refers to those mental abilities dogs have that are truly exceptional in the animal kingdom. The two that really stood out:
1. Dogs are brilliant (compared to even primates) at recognizing human direction (like pointing and facial expression). What's truly amazing is that this does not seem to be a learned thing. As young puppies, relatively isolated from human contact, they still pick up on gestures like pointing. Wolf cubs and chimps can't without a lot of training.

2. Dogs aren't unusually gifted at solving problems like mazes or getting around obstacles or opening latches. In fact, they seem to be not all that bright in some experiments.
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Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
Wonderful book. I have little to add to the hundreds of other reviews. The authors hint that the old "mirror test" doesn't work with dogs because they smell identity rather than using vision to see "self." I can confirm that: I always test my new pups with a mirror to see what they will do. They look startled at this new "dog," sniff it, and promptly lose all interest--a mere trick of the light, obviously. They identify self by scent. Think of somebody testing your sense of self by blowing your normal scent at you. You wouldn't recognize it, or if you did you wouldn't care.
In general, dog behavior students need to be far more aware of scent than they are. Also of small cues like hair ruffling, body stance, details of tail wag, etc.
Trivial error: he has wolves chasing musk oxen in Mongolia--nope, no musk oxen within hundreds of miles of the place.
Otherwise, this is a great read, and has a lot of revolutionary findings on dogs.
I can confirm that dogs have a "theory of mind"; my dogs often trick each other, for fun (in play) or to snitch food. I had a clever but meek Sheltie cross who learned to get food in spite of our other dog, who was much bigger and greedier: she knew he was a born follower, so she would scratch to get in the house; he would follow her in; she would whirl and rush to the garage and the food dish while we shut the door on Dog 2. She did this over and over, clearly quite deliberately, and clearly with full recognition that she was small and weak but a smart leader while he was a big but slow follower. All my dogs work games of this sort, ranging from co-op hunting that depends on each knowing the differential abilities of the other to elaborate games that also depend on differences. They know each others' minds.
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