For the Love of a Dog: Understanding Emotion in You and Your Best Friend
by Patricia McConnell
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Book Summary Information
Author: Patricia McConnellEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-08-28
ISBN: 0345477154
Number of pages: 368
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Book Reviews of For the Love of a Dog: Understanding Emotion in You and Your Best Friend
Book Review: Warmly informative - should be on every dog owner's bookshelf
Summary: 5 Stars
My partner and I have a beautiful and loving Shetland Sheepdog as part of our family. I purchased this book in an attempt to better understand him, why he does the things that he does, how to know if he's happy, and what I can do if he's not.
Patricia McConnell writes with such warm concern and intimate tone that you feel as though you're sharing a cup of coffee or tea with her somewhere. Her writing is lucid and witty, her anecdotes personal and insightful, and her level of detail and explanation show a deep, genuine passion for what she does.
McConnell addresses the question of whether dogs (and indeed animals in general) feel emotions, and if they are aware of them. While she presents both sides of the argument down to the scientific explanations either way, she is quick to share her belief and experience that dogs do feel, express, and may be aware of their emotions - though not in the same way as humans - and she devotes entire chapters to emotions such as fear, anger, happiness, and love to show exactly how that is.
She details examples of a dog's facial expressions and posture (with pictures) and then compares them to those of humans to illustrate their physical similarities and how they surface on similar occasions. From this we can argue that just as we show happiness by pulling up the corners of our mouths, crinkling our eyes, and rounding our face, so too must a dog showing these same facial features (plus the added wagging tail) be interpreted as a happy dog. The fact that a dog never exhibits all of these features together and then, say, bites a human can be submitted as proof that the dog is feeling happy. While this may seem obvious to many of us, McConnell is quick to discuss scientists of both today and centuries ago who discredited this explanation as hopelessly anthropomorphic, believing these to be simply automatic and emotionless responses to external stimuli.
McConnell also explains the important differences between human and dog behavior. I had no idea that dogs prefer not to be hugged. I never would've questioned it until seeing her pictures and reading the discomfort in her dogs' faces, and then even trying it out on my own dog and feeling him remain motionless and looking away. Indeed she argues that many adult dogs have learned that hugging is a human expression, which they'll tolerate, but caution must be had with puppies who may feel threatened by this behavior.
These kinds of differences sometimes are the cause of negative relations between a human and his pet dog. McConnell's job as an Animal Behaviorist is meant to bring both human and pet to a kind of understanding when possible, to enable the human to read his dog's signals, and, more often than not, to train the human to be conscious of his actions and movements in order not to mistakenly give off the wrong signal.
This book provides a wealth of information about these topics and more, such as how our brain differs from that of our dogs, how to train or condition your dog to be loyal and obedient, and what to do when you need help, for she reassures owners that they can't always do everything. I greatly enjoyed and recommend reading this book, and am eagerly reading her other book, The Other End of the Leash.
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Summary of For the Love of a Dog: Understanding Emotion in You and Your Best Friend
Yes, humans and canines are different species, but current research provides fascinating, irrefutable evidence that what we share with our dogs is greater than how we vary. As behaviorist and zoologist Dr. Patricia McConnell tells us in this remarkable new book about emotions in dogs and in people, more and more scientists accept the premise that dogs have rich emotional lives, exhibiting a wide range of feelings including fear, anger, surprise, sadness, and love.In For the Love of a Dog, McConnell suggests that one of the reasons we love dogs so much is that they express emotions in ways similar to humans. After all, who can communicate joy better than a puppy? But not all emotional expressions are obvious, and McConnell teaches both beginning dog owners and experienced dog lovers how to read the more subtle expressions hidden behind fuzzy faces and floppy ears.
For those of us who deeply cherish our dogs but are sometimes baffled by their behavior, For the Love of a Dog will come as a revelation?a treasure trove of useful facts, informed speculation, and intriguing accounts of man?s best friend at his worst and at his very best. Readers will discover how fear, anger, and happiness underlie the lives of both people and dogs and, most important, how understanding emotion in both species can improve the relationship between them. Thus McConnell introduces us to the possibility of a richer, more rewarding relationship with our dogs.
While we may never be absolutely certain what our dogs are feeling, with the help of this riveting book we can understand more than we ever thought possible. Those who consider their dogs part of the family will find For the Love of a Dog engaging, enlightening, and utterly engrossing.
From the Hardcover edition.
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