Raymond Coppinger > Quotes

“More importantly, modern dogs simply don’t behave like modern wolves. Popular dog “experts” like Cesar Millan may tell you that a good dog owner needs to play the role of the alpha wolf, the dominant pack leader. But the fact is that dogs don’t live in hierarchically organized packs. Indeed it’s doubtful that most wolves live this way.”
― Raymond Coppinger, How Dogs Work

“Moreover, like eyes and arms, the fundamental structures of the mind (and the informational capacities they support) aren’t acquired through experience: the pioneering ethologists realized that behavior in general must be understood in the light of evolution, and this same conviction is held by the new wave of cognitive ethologists. Whatever else may be said, we expect to find that many (if not all) of the critical properties of animal minds are—like motor patterns—intrinsic traits of an organism that are adaptive consequences of evolution.”
― Raymond Coppinger, How Dogs Work

“The simple fact is that domestic dogs and wolves are different animals, adapted to different environments, and cannot live (well) in the other’s niche. Wolves are consummate predators, but it’s rare to find a dog that can hunt down and kill a moose for food. Dogs will track deer or chase wild hogs as they “hunt” with humans for sport, but it’s highly doubtful they could ever earn a living by hunting on their own. For their part, wolves rarely become tame enough to get by in the household dog’s world of human hearth and home. They may occasionally live on their own in or near human habitation, but they tend not to be able to eat in the presence of people. Whereas even free-living dogs that are raised in garbage dumps or just outside town are able to dine in the company of humans.”
― Raymond Coppinger, How Dogs Work

“Thus the behavioral ecologist wants to measure four major costs for any animal or species: the costs of design, foraging, reproduction, and hazard avoidance.”
― Raymond Coppinger, What is a dog?

“The reason the earth can support a population of 850 million “village dogs” is because human beings have—inadvertently—provided them with a niche. This”
― Raymond Coppinger, What is a dog?

“But without people, the village dog and pampered pet alike would soon disappear—dogs would become extinct.”
― Raymond Coppinger, What is a dog?

“First impression: The Tijuana dump is beautiful. Second impression: It is like a military operation. It is at the top of a small mountain. A convoy of trucks comes to the top of the mountain and dumps the refuse of a developing city. [...]
Other equipment moves mountains of dirt to cover the wastes. At intervals, standpipes are inserted into the filled spaces to allow the biogas of the rotting materials below to escape. The wind blows across these vents, creating an eerie music. When the biogas envelops you, you sense that sinking feeling of doom.”
― Raymond Coppinger

“Some of the service-dog organizations raising animals for the disabled, for example, will start five hundred to a thousand well-bred puppies a year—only to have less than 50 percent achieve an appropriate level of working ability.”
― Raymond Coppinger, How Dogs Work