The Truth About Dogs : The Ancestry, Social Conventions, Mental Habits and Moral Fibre of Canis Familiaris

by Stephen Budiansky

Stephen Budiansky holds that virtually everything previously written about dogs is either wrong or misguided. Instead he maintains that to understand the true nature of dogs we need to stop interpreting their behaviour in the human terms of loyalty and betrayal. We think we understand how our dog makes sense of the world, that we know what he feels, what he wants and why he wants it because so much of what he does is familiar. But this familiarity can fool us. The truth is far more complex and surprising. Canine behaviour has its roots in the wolf pack, so a society that places a premium on staying out of trouble. Wolves - and, by extension, dogs - know their place in the social order and give way to superiors to avoid conflict. In other words, they are very good at working out what is necessary and doing it. But there is more to canine behaviour than evolution and survival. The Dog Genome Project is currently laying the groundwork for identifying the genetic basis of why our dogs behave in the way they do. Other research investigates canine intelligence, and some remarkable experiments reveal what dogs can and cannot see.

Genres: Nonfiction, Dogs, Animals, Nature, Science, Reference, History

Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Historian and journalist Stephen Budiansky is the author of twelve books about military history, science, and nature.

His latest book is The Bloody Shirt: Terror After Appomattox, which chronicles the struggles of five courageous men in the post-Civil War South as they battled a rising tide of terrorist violence aimed at usurping the newly won rights of the freedmen.

Reviews

[Trang Tran]

This is a really good book about the dogs. The main purpose of this book is talking the truth about the dog. You can also learn a lot about the dog. In this book, I can also know the different between whines and growls. I learned dog barked when they feel hungry and bored, the amount of dog barking is phenomenal. The thing that I learned and I really like it was they said train dog is easily than study another language of human. If someone read this book, I hoped them will really like it, too.

[Shay · Rating 4 out of 5]

A clever read about the parasitic qualities of domesticated doghood (informative indeed)... a good read for all us anthropomorphizing dog owners who have been completely taken advantage of by our beguiling, opportunistic, evolutionarily advanced canines.

[Alan Hughes · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you decide to read this book, and I suggest that you do, then prepare to become quite annoying. This book is so packed full of interesting facts that it is likely that on every second page you will be nudging your partner and saying "Did you know that dogs .. .. ?" The facts will range from their skills smelling and seeing, through their social behaviour and cognitive structures, to their morals and their very genetic makeup. This is a wide ranging scientific book which attempts, and largely succeeds, in giving a potted summary what we know about 'the dog'. Despite the scientific slant this is, however, a very easy book to read and at times can be quite humorous.

It is surprising that there are not more books on this subject. This symbiotic relationship between two different species is quite unusual and very special. The length of time that our species have cohabited is stunning and it appears that both ourselves, and the dogs, evolved together and we both influenced the development of the others evolution. The fossil evidence for dogs dates back around 14000 years; a burial site in Israel (Ein Mallaha) which was dated at around 12000 years ago shows that man and dog are well acquainted from the start. The burial site contained the remains of an elderly man, curled up, with his hand resting on the skull of a young puppy.

Not only is our relationship with the dog one of our earliest relationships it is also part of a very small and select group. Of the thousands of animals and birds which have inhabited the earth alongside us only about a dozen species have entered into a domestic relationship with man. It is probably fair to say, though a few weird cat people might disagree, that the relationship mankind has with the dog is of a magnitude greater than with any other animal.

It is not that there are not a lot of books about dogs, there are. But these are often 'how to' books ("How to train your Alsatian"), encomia to various breeds ("For the love of Spaniels") or pop-psychology about the dogs' mental state or yours ("What your dog is saying to you" or "How to live as an alpha male; being a wolf in a man's world"). This book is not like these, it is a measured review of our current scientific knowledge and it tends to puncture quite a few commonly held myths about dogs especially in the area of language and dog psychology. However, as someone who has always lived with dogs, and whose dogs grace this page, I found this more hard-nosed approach all the more interesting.

The book tackles the idea of domestication, the idea that we tamed wolf pups to become dogs, and reveals that this is very unlikely to have been the case. We, as a species, did not domesticate the dog; the dog, as a scavenger, learnt how to carve a niche for itself and moved into our society. We may later have promoted different breeds by determined mating but prior to this there is no evidence that we created the dog by breeding from its forbearer the wolf.

The cognitive styles and communication of the dog are also considered and it is shown that it is not helpful to try and shoe-horn the dogs' actions into explanations based on human cognition or conversation. It is very rarely appropriate and very commonly leads us to errors of judgement. Dogs are not partially developed humans and is best not to think of them in these terms. It may be occasionally helpful to think of them as a form frust of wolves. But,in any event, it is better to be aware of the research that has been done and use this exciting and interesting data to understand our friends. This would stop us making the many mistakes that other books anthropomorphism lead us to (Or worse, the mistakes when we analyse our behaviour on the basis of our behaviour being related to those of the dog or wolf pack).

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There is so much information in this book it keeps the reader actively engaged. Readers who live with dogs will especially find items of interest and surprise on just about every page. Those readers will also end with a much better understanding of the dog than when they started. Those readers who are not fortunate enough to live with a dog will also find it enjoyable and may help them understand why their neighbours spend time picking up 2 millions tons of dog faeces annually in the United States or why they pay $5billion a year to feed these parasites who have moved in with them.
This is a book that explains dogs as dogs, not as some reflection of ourselves. It is important to remember this as, as the author notes, "If dogs truly were human, they would be jerks. As dogs, they are wonderful"

[Grace · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have never thrown a book away but this has gone in the bin to hopefully save a dog from anyone following this book's misinformation and the classic proliferation of the now scientifically redundant "dominance" theory in domestic dogs. Though written well (which perhaps makes it more readily accepting to uninformed minds) with reference to many scientific reports, the book actually made me feel sick by its author's assertions that physical punishment given with enough force should stop a dog "challenging an owner", its relentless assertion that dogs see us as social superiors - or should do so - and that dogs should find work in itself a suitable reward rather than "tidbits" (dude do you go to work for free?? Idiot.)

The book is 20 years old but was outdated even then. Science and behavioural understanding of domestic dogs had moved far beyond this pseudo-wolf neo-Nazi psychology of yesteryear even that long ago, nevertheless regurgitation of these principles still occurs from writers and trainers of this author's mindset even to this day (since people seem to think you need to show a dog "who's boss").

The book does admittedly contain some interesting biological science but you could easily fond that elsewhere and nothing could induce me to recommend this text to anyone; any individual who thinks that hitting a dog earns respect has no understanding of animal behaviour, no ethics, and lacks a complete true understanding of the science behind training animals. If you, like me, find this book in a charity shop, just buy it for the charity then bin it for the the sake of the dogs. If you want to read an up to date, ethical and easy to understand book about training dogs, look up Steve Mann's "Easy Peasy" books which are fun, kind and very effective.

[Victoria · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really didn't enjoy this book at all. Which is a surprise, since I adore to read about dogs. But this book didn't offer any new information (other than offering an explanation for why my dog peed around Mary D.- because she's so tall!); what was the most upsetting was that the author didn't actually seem to like dogs very much. Also, the book really discounted the connection between a dog and its owner. And, I must admit, the gene-therapy at the end, I could only skim... it was a little too boring. Oh - and this book made a one paragraph dismissal of Rupert Sheldrake's entire book, Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home: And Other Unexplained Powers of Animals, which hardly seems like a thorough rebuttal... This really just wasn’t enjoyable, as it was filled with redundant information and an underlying tone of distaste for dogs.

[Conal Cochran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the best book about these wonderful animals out there. It's taken a lot of criticism in some quarters for the decidedly unromantic, anti-anthropomorphic view it takes of dogs, but those criticisms miss the point: Dogs aren't people (if they were, it'd be pretty screwed up for us to keep them as pets), but another species that just happens to overlap in amazing ways with humans in terms of social behavior. Furthermore, many of the problematic relationships and behaviors that dogs and their owners can develop are rooted in a fundamental misunderstanding of this point. I think it's an important book for people thinking about getting a dog (or who already have one) to read--and it's funny, too!

[Whusky Words · Rating 3 out of 5]

I took a shot every time I read the word "dominance", and now I have liver failure.

I read this book to help with an assignment I'm working on, and overall it's a good book if you want to reference anything to do with "intelligence" in dogs.

I also appreciated Budiansky's snarky wit.

HOWEVER.

The chapter "Troubled dogs, troubled people" is one I found a little troubling. I read it from the POV of a professional who has studied dogs at a higher level, and has worked with them for years. I could take the "instruction/advice" (for want of a better term) in regards to dealing with a "dominant" 🤦‍♀️ dog, with a large helping of salt. I do wonder (re: FEAR) for anyone who reads that chapter and enacts it with a dog in real life.

[Lyn Elliott · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating summary of research across a huge range of disciplines, all concerned with the evolution of dogs, their social world and their interactions with humans. I enjoyed Budiansky's asides on human behavior and expectations just as much as I did his discussions of essential dogness. A small masterpiece.

[Amanda Borys · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have read all the information in this book before, where it was better presented. And the author's attempts at humour fall flat.

The questions I did come away from this book with were what happens to puppies that are used in an experiment to see how long they can go without human contact before they can't adjust to being with humans? How can those puppies not be euthanized? Or poodles that are allowed to run feral to see how their 'wild' behaviour differs from wolves?

Apparently, the animal behaviourists discussed in this book are lacking some human emotions.

[Alan Dean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Objective assessment of dogs

An enjoyable, informed and comprehensive overview that embraces all the characteristics of dogs. Challenges many of the misconceptions held by dog 'experts'

[L.J. Monier · Rating 5 out of 5]

For anyone who loves dogs, especially those who think dogs are humans

An interesting, well-written, highly engaging book recommended to anyone and everyone who loves dogs and wants to know more about them (the reality of it, NOT what SOME humans would like to hear).

[Lora · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pret-ty boring.

[Jessye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting read. Of course, it is almost 20 years old so a lot of the scientific data (and opinion) is outdated, but I still learned some things anyway.

[Aidan S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was good, it stored lots of information and in my opinion it teaches valuable information.

[Josh O’Connor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not really what i was expecting. Some bits are interesting and worth knowing, especially the middle chapters. But claiming dogs don’t understand emotions is a crazy claim.

[Francesco · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nuova edizione di un classico per cinofili.

[Ashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one started off great - the author was backing up his claims with decent data and relying a lot on science for his arguments - things were going swimmingly.

And then I got to the chapter on troubled dogs. Having a troubled dog, I may be slightly partial, but I also feel I'm pretty well-informed; we've been working with our vet and a behaviorist a lot and I'm not 100% convinced that dominance is always the key issue with dogs, as the author tends to suggest is the driving force behind everything dogs do. I could have overlooked this, as everyone is entitled to their opinion and the issue is still up for debate. But he closes this chapter with an exhortation against "savage attacks" and "silent, predatory aggression" and uses as his example pit bulls. He does mention this is sometimes a result of deliberate breeding by humans, but nonetheless his stereotypical example left an extremely sour taste in my mouth. Frankly, I was surprised someone is such an avowed dog lover and who did such extensive research for this book would succumb to such a novice mistake.

Some factoids I found interesting, despite the lack of icky lack of judgment on the breed stereo-typing issue.
* Dogs consume about twice as much food per pound of body weight than humans. For the 55 million dogs in the US, this means they eat about as much as the human population of the LA metro area, at a cost of $7B a year.
* Dogs cannot adjust the lens of their eye to accomodate for distance when trying to focus on an object in close range (i.e. less than 3" away). Essentially, anything less than 1 foot away from a dog's face is nothing but a blur.
* Dogs have a wider field of vision than humans do, but the range of overlap of the two eyes is smaller, limiting their 3D vision to a narrower sector.
* Dogs - and most non-primate animals - have only two kinds of cones, whereas humans have three. Having three cones allows us to see all 3 wavelengths of light that essentially yellow, green, and blue. Whereas dogs only have 2 kinds of cones, they can only see yellow-green and violet. The way dogs can see color is fairly analoguous to color-blind humans.
* Dogs can hear sounds up to about 65k Hz; humans can hear up to 20k Hz. To produce the top note a person can hear, you would have add 28 extra keys at the right-hand end of a standard piano or about 2.33 octaves. To get to what a dog can hear, you would need to add 48 keys or a full 4 octaves.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book,albeit dated by now and underestimates dog's consciousness as a result. Adds to info found in Coren's book, "How Dogs Think, the Canine Mind". It's a faster read and I'd recommend it to get a bit more of a stereoscopic view of the subject. The color plate on how dog's see the world in color using two types of rods, rather than our human three types of rods, makes that much clearer for me. I enjoyed the writing style he used in his passage about a car trip with a border collie who "turned his head the 127th time to follow the most recent car that passed by", in his discussion of genetic traits and how they related to historical associations with "intelligence". Written in 2000 he underestimates dogs conscious awareness, see Time Magazine Aug 16 2010 for update on this.

An interesting aspect is his discussion of dog's awareness of coincidence as opposed to cause and effect; and what he suggests is going on with the dog regarding what I would call the love of a dog for its human.

He mentions that his sheep dog stands by the door for it to open, not clearly aware of the connection with what the human thinks and reacts, but simply because that action makes the door open sometimes. Chalk this up to lack of his information in 2000 and addressed in the 8/16/10 Time mag article. For example when either of my dogs stands by the door and/or touches the door, they often obviously turn their head toward me as if to say "Don't you get it?" or "are you going to open the door?". My sense is that Budiansky misses that; I'd be glad to have someone point out that he didn't,since that's a bit unnerving in a body of otherwise insightful info.

I am thankful for the education he provides on the area of training.
His section on the need to catch a dog in the moment of an undesirable action, not 3 seconds after, the futility of punishment after the fact, as well as his confirmation that emotional punishment is rarely a good idea, and physical punishment reserved only for dangerous activity like biting where physical dominance is the issue. His explanations of the "
Why" help back his suggestions for the "What" allowing the reader to make an informed decision.

[Ash · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of my family members had gotten me this book because they knew I loved dogs and liked to learn about them... and when I saw it, I thought it was just going to be an average little piece of nonfiction and hoped to learn some new, interesting things about dogs.

I was surprised however, just how terribly BORING this book was. And that word right there just kind of explains all the problems with this book. Boring. That's all it was.

The way the writer writes is almost pretentious in a way. Granted, you get that he is very smart and well-worded, but that's what it seemed like. All the wording in this book felt more like the author was trying to shove down your throat that he can write big and smart words to make himself seem more legitimate. I of course don't think that was his original intention when creating this book, but that certainly what it came across as.

Plus, to add to that, his writing style was not anything to exciting. It was just basic facts mixed in with big words and nothing more.

I think the voice of all the wording got messed up too because the author, like people have mentioned before, seems to not like dogs very much. I don't think this is true (as I don't see why he would have dogs or dedicate time writing about dogs if he didn't like them), but the whole time, it felt like he was just insulting them under his breath.

The content isn't very much either. It basically tells some basic facts about dogs (in some long, drawn out ways) and a lot of it was just going back to the fact that the root to all dogs behavior was the social construct and dominance and etc, etc, which, while I do think that plays a big role... the author seems to lack any feeling on human intervention and bonds.

But maybe I am just one of the overly-attached, emotional people with their dogs, who knows?

I will give this book credit that it wasn't too long and if you want to learn some things about dogs, this book will probably give you a bit of information on a thing or two...

But I recommend you skip this one. Or if you're going to read it, be prepared to skim some chapters.

[Christine · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had enjoyed all the other books on dogs I had read so far, and I thought this book's title might give me some further insight into canine mentality. What I found was a lot of discussion without direct evidence (only later does he mention a few sources). He makes big claims without directly citing where he gets his evidence, and his writing left a very unpleasant taste in my mouth. His writing style is not very legible: there were many times when I read something and thought, "Huh?" But re-reading did not clarify. He's just not a concise writer, and he isn't enjoyable to read. He doesn't write as if he cares whether he is understood. He writes as if he wants to punish the readers for picking up his book. He claims to be a dog lover, but you would never get that impression by this book. A lot of his big claims are just his opinion--that dogs are parasites, and are social-climbers. What he is really writing about it his own opinion about the question of motives and whether a being does something/anything out of self-interest or for love. From the title of this book I got the impression that this was not going to be a philosophical book--but a book based on research. Instead it was about his philosophy on dog nature--a dreary and unpleasant one.

[Kylie Butler · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is outdated. Dominance theory, as delivered in this book, is false and based mostly on observations of modern day wolves held in a captive environment consisting of unrelated males - of course the result were fights and displays of dominance. So no your dog is not trying to dominate you by putting his paw on your leg, but last time he did it he probably got a piece of toast you were eating or at the least some attention. And generally any attention is good attention, pushing the dog away is still attention directed at the dog, dogs do what works for them. Paw on leg = food and/or attention, of course he's going to try that again next time you are sitting at the breakfast table eating toast.
I'm surprised I read this to the end, the dominance theory guff really irked me, however there are a few nuggets of information within the pages that kept me reading. But my advice to anyone who reads this review - don't read this book, get a more recent publication.

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have a version of this book that has not yet been captured by GoodReads: ISBN 978-1-4072-2811-2

The Irredeemable Weirdness of the Dog: An Introduction

If some advertiser or political consultant could figure out just what it is in human nature that makes us so ready to believe that dogs are loyal, trustworthy, selfless, loving, courageous, noble and obedient, he could retire to his own lands in the Carribbean in about a week with what he'd make peddling that secret.

Started out in a flippant manner but soon enough settled down to an erudite explanation of pooch behaviour.

[J.M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up not because I like dogs (I really don't) but because I liked the author's book on cats (which was awesome). This wasn't quite the same ~ in fact, a lot of the things the author had to say only reinforced my own dislike for dogs, even though he proclaimed to be a dog lover. Still, it was a fascinating read. I'd recommend it to anyone with a dog who wants to know why it does some of the weird things it does.

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It gave me a lot of interesting insight into dog behaviour and psychology ie how they see, pack mentality, how good training/natural behaviours mirror things their ancestors did and we must not see them through human eyes (anthropomorphising) if we want to truly understand our canine companions.

If you like dogs, and are interested in them as domesticated wild animals rather than “fur babies” exclusively, you will enjoy this book and learn from it.

[Dark-Draco · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoy these books by Budiansky - he explores quite complex evolutionary and genetic theories behind behaviour, but writes in a simple, understandable way without talking down to you. He has a wicked sense of humour too and I laughed out loud in places. I have learnt so much about my dog through reading this and I'm sure I will return to it again many times, as I try to piece together why she has done something so strange!

[Elio · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun, quick read full of interesting science facts about dogs along with the author's peculiar point of view. Budiansky is a dog person through and through, but he is also cranky enough that the book never becomes overly cute. The book really made me rethink how dogs view humans and what it means for them to have become domesticated.

[Seana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked this book, liked the author's summaries of scientific research, liked the different perspective, made me stop and think. But there's a lot of unsupported editorializing and he's got an edge into his comments that I don't like. Enjoyed the book but would take what he says with a grain of salt. More updated books without the edge available now.

[storiwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The 4 billion gallons of dog urine generated each year in the United States could fill all the wine bottles from a full year's output of the vineyards of France, Italy, Spain, and the United States combined..."

[Courtney · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty outdated. It had some good info spread throughout, but several chapters were based on outdated theories. It was tedious figuring out what was true and what has been proven wrong since publication.

[Judith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent and entertaining summary of the current research on dogs - one of the best dog books ever.