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If Dogs Could Talk: Exploring the Canine Mind |  | Author: Vilmos Csanyi
Creator: Richard E. Quandt
Publisher: North Point Press
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
Buy New: $5.00
as of 11/21/2009 09:25 MST details
You Save: $20.00 (80%)
New (8) Used (21) Collectible (1) from $0.72
Seller: JonesBoys
Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 891378
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Pages: 352
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.5
ISBN: 0865476861
Dewey Decimal Number: 636.70887
EAN: 9780865476868
ASIN: 0865476861
Publication Date: January 12, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Every dog owner knows intuitively that there's something special about the high degree of mutual understanding and empathy that exists between humans and their proverbial best friends. Now, an internationally renowned Hungarian ethologist (a specialist in the scientific study of animal behavior) traces the roots of this unique relationship back to the unusual circumstances in which the two species co-evolved over many millennia.
Drawing in part on close observations of his own two pet dogs, Flip and Jerry, the author argues that the longstanding alliance of dogs and humans arose from behavioral traits present in the original wolves from which all modern dogs are descended. Wolves, like humans, are highly intelligent social predators, with well-developed cooperative problem-solving and communications skills, giving them distinct advantages in their developing relations with humans. These basic intellectual skills were refined and enhanced over tens of thousands of years, resulting in the enormously varied "artificial animals" we see today.
Although the book's specific focus is on dogs, it ranges far afield to discuss in an easy-going, accessible style recent experimental and theoretical work on the behavior of other animals, and especially on their interactions with humans. A highly personal work, If Dogs Could Talk makes the case that the social and emotional bonds between dogs and humans are indeed special, and that they ought to form the basis for our treatment of dogs. Moreover, the author concludes, by closely observing the cognitive behavior of dogs, we can also learn a good deal about how the human mind works.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 9
 Amazing November 15, 2009
J. Caldwell (Los Angeles)
Wonderful read. As a professional dog trainer for over 12 years, I found this book stimulating, thought-provoking, and fascinating. It is the first "dog" book in years I have read that has held my attention. The descriptions of the research studies the author conducted on dog behavior are astounding. If you are interested at all in the canine mind, buy this book. Can't say enough good things about it.
Balancing leadership and "listening" April 27, 2009
mah (upstate NY)
The author is a scientist studying dog behavior. He is also a dog-lover and dog-owner who encourages his dogs to talk to him and they do. I liked the mixture of science, research, and personal observation in this book. It also offered a small taste of dogs in another culture. The author may be asking the question "If Dogs Could Talk..." but he's also showing the reader what we know about the way dogs think and ways that dogs do talk if we're willing to learn and pay attention. Though the author doesn't appear to be someone who lets the dogs run his house, he is very attuned to the ways they speak to him. He responds to them and encourages them. I found it a very thought-provoking book about the potential for balancing "leadership and listening".
finally some personal experience and science together April 4, 2009
D. Graham (italy)
great book for learning about dogs, lots of personal experience, which is great in a sea of technical books, really enjoyed this book and learnt alot.
Interesting read not a lot of practical use January 29, 2009
J. Tew (Delaware, Ohio USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
If you are a student of canine behavior and body language, by all means but there are better books out there for those seeking practical information.
Compelling Information -- Thought Provoking March 13, 2008
Nico James (Philadelphia, PA United States)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Mostly, "If Dogs Could Talk" is book which explores many aspects of how to approach the complex issues that surround studying what dogs might be thinking and feeling. Csanyi is Hungarian, and one of the world's foremost ethologists studying canine behavior. The book is well-translated, in that it is quite readable, in spite of its many challenges.
By far, the most exciting aspect of the book concerns the examples of his own and other dogs he has known. I found that I learned to think about dogs and their behavior in wholly new ways: what they might be trying to "say" to me through their physical indications -- this was the most valuable aspect of the book for me.
On the flip side, Csanyi is dismissive in his discussion of some of the most famous ethology work done with primates and birds. I suspect that this negativity, though it is not overtly stated, seems to stem from the time that the study of individual animals takes in these cases, and that only many trials with many subjects yields real data. However, he might have explored his bias rather than diminishing the work of others and had a much better outcome.
One of the other Amazon reviewers said that even with its problems, he learned so much more than from reading anything else he had to give this book a high rating, and after all my reservations, I agree with him.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 9
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