A Dog Is Listening: The Way Some of Our Closest Friends View Us - Hardcover

Caras, Roger A.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0671702491 ISBN 13: 9780671702496

Publisher: Summit Books, 1992

Synopsis

The author of A Cat Is Watching examines the relationship between humankind and the dog from the canine perspective, discussing canine personalities, special abilities, and the history of the human-dog partnership. 45,000 first printing.

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Reviews

ABC special correspondent Caras ( A Cat Is Watching ) here offers up a valentine to canis familiaris . His detailed and energetic appraisal of the dog's conventional sensory abilities discloses such curiosities as the fact that dogs have 60 degrees more peripheral vision than humans do, and explains how these abilities help the dog fulfill its evolutionary roles (peripheral vision, for example, is "invaluable" in hunting). Dogs, according to the author, have a demonstrable sixth sense, the capacity to "taste air," and he uses anecdotal evidence to propose that man's best friend may also have sensory awareness of magnetic fields and barometric pressure, as well as a "who-knows-what earthquake detection mode." The most intriguing hypothesis, that dogs may perceive infrared radiation, is supported by the report of a mutt that invariably knows when its seizure-prone mistress is about to succumb to an attack. Caras's concluding argument that dogs can indeed think defies orthodox animal behaviorists, but, like the rest of his good-natured book, will gratify dog lovers. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Amiable companion volume to A Cat Is Watching (1989), explaining just what goes on in Rover's head, and why. Caras, who puts up 12 dogs on his rambling farm, mixes personal anecdote, fact, and speculation in this chatty rundown of a dog's life. Despite the title, listening is only one of many dog senses he elaborates on; of the ``conventional'' senses, in fact, it's smell that impresses him the most--if a small drop of butyric acid were released in a Philadelphia-sized city, he tells us, a dog could detect it anywhere in the city up to an altitude of 300 feet. Dog taste, touch, and sight also reveal their wonders through Caras's admiring pen, as does the ``less-conventional'' sense of the Jacobson's organ, which allows dogs to ``taste air''; but more marvelous still is a seventh sense that Caras, bucking traditional science, writes of here. This includes not only dogs' fabled ability to predict thunderstorms and earthquakes but one that Caras has no name or explanation for, revealed to him in ``the closest thing to a miracle I have ever seen,'' in which he observed a dog anticipate its master's epileptic fits. As if emboldened by this discussion, Caras goes on to explore another scientific mine field- -that of canine feelings and thoughts--mostly by drawing on his own pets' behavior (e.g., their ability ``to come to sensible solutions'' to life's problems, as in dealing with a new family member). A recap of dog evolution follows, concluding with a brief summary of breeds and some dos and don'ts--especially, don't cross dogs with wolves, which, Caras says, produces a ``messed-up'' version of each. Charming dog lore for dog lovers, not on a philosophical par with Vickie Hearne's work (Bandit, etc.) but just right for reading by the fire, Rover curled up at your feet. (Twenty-five b&w photographs--not seen.) -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Summit Books
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0671702491
• ISBN 13: 9780671702496
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 239