an inquiry into the ancestry, social conventions, mental habits, and moral fiber of Canis familiaris /
Stephen Budiansky
New York :
Viking,
c2000
263 p. :
ill. (some col.) ;
23 cm
Includes bibliographical references (p. [241]-255)
"The Truth About Dogs offers an iconoclastic reappraisal of accepted ideas about canine intelligence and emotions. Budiansky draws upon new psychological and neuroscience research to show that the seeming intelligence differences between different dog breeds have much more to do with temperament and training than true differences in brainpower. He also explores what we really know about the emotions of dogs, showing how canine feelings are strikingly similar to our own, yet extraordinarily different, too. The way dogs see, hear, and smell - and the social rules that they have evolved to obey and understand - create for them a world-concept that is beyond anything in our everyday experience. This original and insightful reexamination of an animal at once so familiar and so mysterious tells us, for the first time ever, what it truly is to be a dog." --Book Jacket