A review by jwells
Inside of a Dog by Alexandra Horowitz
informative
inspiring
reflective
I really enjoyed this. So often our thinking about nonhuman animals falls into oversimplification. Maybe they're just little automatons, who are conditioned to try to get food from us. Maybe they're furry little human children, who need to wear clothes and shoes, and eat ice cream. Or maybe (in the case of dogs) they're wolves, who need to learn that humans are the "alpha."
Horowitz cuts through all this nonsense and gives us actual science about what it's like to be a dog. She allows for complexity: dogs are canines with instincts, and they have different sense apparatus than humans. But they've also lived closely alongside us for thousands of years, and been selectively bred to get along with humans well. A lot of the time they read us better than we read them. Ha!
I also enjoy the fact that these days, it's acceptable for a scientist to express love for the subject she's studying. Possibly we have Jane Goodall to thank for starting that turnaround, away from fake, cold "objectivity."
Horowitz cuts through all this nonsense and gives us actual science about what it's like to be a dog. She allows for complexity: dogs are canines with instincts, and they have different sense apparatus than humans. But they've also lived closely alongside us for thousands of years, and been selectively bred to get along with humans well. A lot of the time they read us better than we read them. Ha!
I also enjoy the fact that these days, it's acceptable for a scientist to express love for the subject she's studying. Possibly we have Jane Goodall to thank for starting that turnaround, away from fake, cold "objectivity."