Customer Reviews

The Truth About Dogs

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Stephen Budiansky has written the smartest book about dogs to come out in years. Rather than simply make observations about the relationships he has witnessed between people and their pets, he assembles decades of scientific research and archaeological evidence to explain how the deep bond between people and animals came about, how dogs and their owners have helped each other for tens of thousands of years. Although the story is not always warm and fuzzy (people have put dogs to many unsavory uses over the millennia), Budiansky still makes the strongest case I've seen for the unique nature of the human-dog bond. A terrific read, and incredibly informative.

Stephen Budiansky has written good books on various aspects of nature before, and he brings nature into the home in his most recent one, _The Truth About Dogs: An Inquiry into the Ancestry, Social Conventions, Mental Habits, and Moral Fiber of Canis Familiaris_ (Viking Press). This is a fine book about viewing dogs in a scientific light, but as such, it will offend those who love dogs because they think that dogs provide unconditional love or because they view dogs as people or because they are convinced that dogs understand the thoughts of humans and can equally with humans experience such things as guilt and affection. Dogs, Budiansky says, do what dogs do because they are their own species, not because they are "almost human." Dogs get along with us because dogs are parasites.

Now, Budiansky says he keeps dogs, and it is obvious he loves and appreciates them and that his dogs have a perceptive and caring owner. But he points out that as dogs, dogs are wonderful, but if they were humans, they would be jerks: they compete for our food and other resources, they spread disease, they bite and cause injuries, they relieve themselves where we do not want them to, they chew up valuable items, and they behave in countless other ways that would turn humans who so behaved into enemies very quickly. Dogs exploit the "Awww Effect" and we can't help but look at them as something like human. Dogs have our number. Dogs are on our side just as tapeworms are.

That's a bit too strong, of course, since we do get something back from dogs. I think we get more than the cool scientific appreciation of a living, breathing bundle of conditioned reflexes which Budiansky encourages, but even if it is only that, dogs and we have more of a symbiotic rather than parasitical relationship. Seen this way, his book cannot make us appreciate them any less. He describes very well their evolutionary history, their peculiar ways of looking at the world and how they got them, their uncanny ability to respond to stimuli that will please us, the peculiar deviancies of aggressive or hypochondriacal dogs (and how we encourage such behaviors), and the dangers and cures of inbreeding. There is much to learn in this amusing and well informed book, and this is a scientific view that admirably encourages delight: "[Dogs'] enrichment to us is visceral and cerebral - the joy of touching and feeling the mind of another so different, the awe, even, of contemplating the sublime forces of evolution that have fashioned such a wondrous array of life on Earth. Dogs are a constant reminder that we are just one species among many, and that our automatic and daily assumptions about the set nature of society and the rules of the world are the height of parochialism for all that evolution cares about it."

Both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal gave this book rave reviews and I couldn't agree more. Calling on the latest scientific studies on dog genetics, evolution, and psychology, The Truth About Dogs is both fascinating for its insights into what makes your dog tick as well as (VERY unusually for dog books) extremely humorous and well written. Though Budiansky does not set out to write a training manual, and tries to stick to what we really know from science, no dog owner can read this book without coming away with many practical insights into how to better handle--and better understand and enjoy--his or her dog. I especially liked the sections dealing with why dogs bark, whether some breeds are really smarter than others, and why dogs invent the incredible variety of attention getting devices that they do. Reviewers often say that this or that book is a "must" but this one REALLY is a must for all dog owners and dog lovers.

If you are looking for warm and fuzzy stories about the mystic bond between man and dog, don't look for them in Stephen Budiansky's excellent, scientifically oriented book on the evolution of the dog, its behavior, and relationship with man. Budiansky is so critical of "Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul"-type stories that he may leave some readers with the impression that he does not love or even appreciate dogs. That is certainly not the case, from both the evidence of his own statements and the time and effort he spent to write the book. As other reviewers have noted, Budiansky wants us to appreciate dogs as they really are. Painful though that may be in puncturing our fantasies about these wonderful creatures, it is almost certainly better for both them and us. Budiansky falls short in only one respect. For a book that seeks to be scientific and objective, some of his assertions seem rather opinionated. And the passages on genetics probably could have been written in Greek for all that many scientifically challenged readers will get from them, but that of course is a failing of us readers rather than of the author.

Partial kudos to Stephen Budiansky for this look at the supposedly true nature of man's best friend. On the one hand he easily dispels many of the common myths that most (if not all) of the famous so-called dog experts out there still cling to. On the other hand he should take a harder look at the real causes of aggression (it's always based on fear). And he should especially re-examine the alpha theory, which he's totally in love with.

Don't get me wrong. It's great that he's put the Bar Harbor experiments into perspective. Too many breeders are now sending puppies home way to early. And far too many puppies and dog owners are still suffering from the myth of the "critical socialization window" by putting their dogs into training before the pups are emotionally developed enough for learning. Even though the idea that there are "critical windows" has been thoroughly de-bunked (as Budiansky rightly reports they're now called "sensitive periods"), puppy classes continue to be a bustling business, and the trainers who run them either don't see the disservice and potential harm they're doing to these lovely little animals, or they just don't care because such classes make for a good, steady flow of revenue.

For the most part Budiansky does a first-rate job of whittling down canine intelligence to its actual level, particularly when it comes to the kinds of "signals" dogs deliver through vocalizations and body language (Budiansky, who's careful not to mistake these signals as use of actual language, calls them hints, which I think is still too anthropomorphic). It's very helpful for dog owners to know that the so-called signals their dogs make aren't about what the dog MEANS, they're about what the dog wants to ACCOMPLISH. In other words, your dog isn't trying to TELL you anything, he's trying to get you to DO something.

On the other hand, he's way off-base when he says: "A great many of the touchy-feely therapeutic types declare that physical punishment is never `appropriate' or that `aggression only creates aggressiveness.' The fact is dogs who are given one swift whack the first time they try to assert themselves in a menacing manner will often never try it again."

First of all, "touchy-feely?" Is that a scientific term I'm unaware of? And secondly, while it's true that dogs who received such an aggressive form of punishment may not "try it again" with the person who whacked them, it practically guarantees that they'll do it again with someone they perceive as weaker, such as a child. (Unfortunately the dogs may also feel less interested in playing again because there's a direct correlation between sociability and rough play, which is a means of reducing aggressive feelings.)

Budiansky makes matters worse when he goes on to say: "Dogs respond to aggressiveness from someone they perceive as dominant not by becoming more aggressive, not by becoming fearful, but rather by immediately and lavishly demonstrating their submissiveness."

The fact is what he's describing isn't submission at all; it's a sublimated form of aggression. (See Rudolf Schenkel's commentary below.) And since all aggression is based on fear, it's also a fearful response. So he's just contradicted himself. Whacking a dog actually does cause him to demonstrate both fear AND aggression.

It seems to me that the clue to the brutal mindset that Budiansky exhibits here is his complete, blind devotion to the now discredited alpha theory. He completely misses the boat on how and when and why this theory was misconceived. Nor does he give more than a passing thought to the kinds of intelligence this theory would require dogs and wolves to have. The simple, unathrompomorphic fact is that dogs with strong, assertive temperaments, who end up in a constant state of anxiety (generally due to mistreatement of some kind), will exhibit the same kinds of stress-related behaviors that captive wolves did in the initial studies (done in the 1930s and 40s) that gave us the alpha theory. A lot has changed since then. Just read the studies of wild wolves done by L. David Mech and others. Read Alexandra Semyonova's study on the self-emergent nature of a dog's social instincts. Budiansky gives one paragraph to Mech (in which wild wolf packs are seen to be more of a cooperative system than a linear hierarchy), but spends half of this book glorifying the old mythology.

Another mythology-based quote: "Dogs are easily trained to sit, lie down, and stay because those are precisely the sorts of postures or actions that subordinate wolves display toward dominant individuals."

The "down" used in obedience isn't remotely similar to the so-called submissive posture exhibited by dogs and wolves. And even that posture has been mis-labeled as submissive. Rudolf Schenkel, a contemporary of Konrad Lorenz who disagreed with the alpha theory from its inception, made a very important observation: "It is always the inferior wolf," Schenkel wrote, "who has his jaws near the throat of his opponent." So the apparent posture of submission is actually one of readiness to attack. Schenkel and others go on to point out that submission is actually a way of winning such confrontations without violence, and of controlling the other wolf's behavior. If so, then who's really in charge of things? The dominant loser or the submissive winner?

Finally, when Budiansky asserts that the sit, and stay, and down are reflective of submissive behaviors observed in captive wolves he's dead wrong. They're actually based on the predatory motor patterns of wild wolves: The down and the stay are part of the eye-stalk. The heel mimics the way wolves travel together when searching for prey. Even coming when called mimics a part of the hunt. Nearly everything a dog does is related to his inherited version of the wolf's prey drive. And when dogs aren't given a proper outlet for that drive, yes, they exhibit the same kinds of stress-related behaviors seen in those captive wolves. But these are abnormal, unnatural social behaviors that have been misperceived as dominance, submission, and hierarchy for the last 60 years. It's time to move on, away from the old era, and get to the real truth about dogs.

I'm afraid Stephen Budiansky's own instincts for getting at the truth have let him down. Two stars.

As someone who cares for dogs but doesn't live with one full-time, I was hoping to learn from this book. Instead, I found that it confirmed most of my anecdotal observations and explained some formerly mysterious behavior. For example, why does the dog's digestive ailment instantly clear up as soon as he's given wet food instead of dry, or, better yet, chicken? Easy--he's a hypochondriac and a manipulator! They do it because they know it works! Dogs really are smart, but not for the reasons we think they are. I agree with Budiansky that we do dogs a disservice by expecting them to be too much like us. To say that a dog is "just" a dog does not denigrate them. Show me a neurotic dog, and I'll show you a neurotic owner every time.

Much of the book made me laugh out loud. Mostly what I ended up learning from it was the evolutionary stuff--fascinating. (A small disclaimer: I work for the journal Science, so I probably got more out of the evolution discussion than the average reader will.)

I notice that many of the reviewers have mentioned the parts of the book that deal with dog behavior, but few, if any, have talked about the part that deals with dog breeding and genetics, so I will have a go at that. Most of this is in the last chapter which is called "Brave New Dogs." As a dog breeder myself, and someone who has studied genetics, particularly population genetics, in some detail, I approached this part of the book with some trepidation (I had no prior exposure to Budiansky's work). But I was absolutely delighted with what I read. This chapter should be required reading for all dog breeders. It is quite simply the best non-technical exposition of the subject, as it concerns dogs, that I have seen. And if, as a dog breeder, you want a deeper understanding than can be gotten from a popular book like this, I urge you to get one of the standard textbooks on population genetics (Hartl and Clark and/or Hedrick, for example) and learn this stuff. In my experience, most dog breeders have only a slender grasp of basic Mendelian genetics, at best, and generally know nothing at all about population genetics. You may also want to check out http://www.magmacom.com/~kaitlin/diverse.html which is a good online resource.

An excellent Wall Street Journal review put me onto this book. If you have even a little scientific curiosity about why the dogs you've known REALLY do some of the things they do, this book will satisfy it. That's not to say it's dry or dull-it has wit and amusing stories that Dave Barry would appreciate, and the more technical issues such as some of the genetics mentioned are very readable. In the conclusion Budiansky says that real love has to do with accepting someone as they are, not as we want them to be, and the same applies to dogs. This may not be the right book for somebody who consults an "animal communicator" about what his or her dog is really thinking, but for the rest of us out there with dog hair on our clothes, it's fun, informative, and refreshing!

Just to second the opinions of several other reviewers - this is not a training manual, it's very readable and is well referenced for a work aimed at the layperson (that's 99% of us). As a long time kennel owner there were many Ah-ha moments, connections made for disparate behaviors I was already aware of and some things I wasn't totally convinced of. Although Budiansky doesn't make an airtight case for every single conclusion, the beauty of this book is in the approach and the number of times he hits his target with deadly accuracy. The underlying theme of Budiansky's book is that what was dogma 20 years ago can be examined in the light of new knowledge - and this is an ongoing process.

I have to contradict a previous reviewer - if you read the first two chapters and find yourself uncomfortable with what Budiansky has to say, you are the person that will gain the most from completing the rest of the book. So will your dog(s).

I have read many books on the subject and by far, Stephen Budiansky's The Truth About Dogs is my favorite. Budiansky's writing style is entertaining and witty so I hung on every word -scientific or not- as if it were a bestselling novel. Much of the information has been covered as another reviewer stated, but not in Budiansky's well cited and elaborate (without being long-winded) manner as far as I have seen. I highly recommend this book to anyone from complete novices and new dog owners to professionals in the dog training/behavior field. If you are looking for a training guide this book will not meet your needs, nor does it claim to in that department, however, because it is imperative to understand the way that dogs think, behave, and relate to humans in order to effectively train them, The Truth About Dogs would be an excellent supplement to training material. If your goal is to cut through the sugar coating seen in books and on television and you are interested in knowing what dogs are really about, this book is for you.