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A Dog's World: Imagining the Lives of Dogs in a World without Humans
From two of the world’s leading authorities on dogs, an imaginative journey into a future of dogs without people
What would happen to dogs if humans simply disappeared? Would dogs be able to survive on their own without us? A Dog’s World imagines a posthuman future for dogs, revealing how dogs would survive―and possibly even thrive―and explaining how this new and revolutionary perspective can guide how we interact with dogs now.
Drawing on biology, ecology, and the latest findings on the lives and behavior of dogs and their wild relatives, Jessica Pierce and Marc Bekoff―two of today’s most innovative thinkers about dogs―explore who dogs might become without direct human intervention into breeding, arranged playdates at the dog park, regular feedings, and veterinary care. Pierce and Bekoff show how dogs are quick learners who are highly adaptable and opportunistic, and they offer compelling evidence that dogs already do survive on their own―and could do so in a world without us.
Challenging the notion that dogs would be helpless without their human counterparts, A Dog’s World enables us to understand these independent and remarkably intelligent animals on their own terms.
What would happen to dogs if humans simply disappeared? Would dogs be able to survive on their own without us? A Dog’s World imagines a posthuman future for dogs, revealing how dogs would survive―and possibly even thrive―and explaining how this new and revolutionary perspective can guide how we interact with dogs now.
Drawing on biology, ecology, and the latest findings on the lives and behavior of dogs and their wild relatives, Jessica Pierce and Marc Bekoff―two of today’s most innovative thinkers about dogs―explore who dogs might become without direct human intervention into breeding, arranged playdates at the dog park, regular feedings, and veterinary care. Pierce and Bekoff show how dogs are quick learners who are highly adaptable and opportunistic, and they offer compelling evidence that dogs already do survive on their own―and could do so in a world without us.
Challenging the notion that dogs would be helpless without their human counterparts, A Dog’s World enables us to understand these independent and remarkably intelligent animals on their own terms.
240 pages, Hardcover
Published October 26, 2021
21 people are currently reading
345 people want to read
About the author
Jessica Pierce
22 books34 followersBioethicist Jessica Pierce, Ph.D., is the author of the book The Last Walk: Reflections on Our Pets at the Ends of Their Lives (University of Chicago, 2012). Some of the questions she explores are: Do animals have death awareness? Why is euthanasia almost always considered the compassionate end point for our animals, but not for our human companions? Is there ever a good reason to euthanize a healthy dog? Why do people often grieve more deeply for their pets than they do for people? What is animal hospice?
Her other books include Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals, Morality Play, Contemporary Bioethics: A Reader with Cases and The Ethics of Environmentally Responsible Health Care.
Her other books include Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals, Morality Play, Contemporary Bioethics: A Reader with Cases and The Ethics of Environmentally Responsible Health Care.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
November 17, 2021
If you have a dog or like dogs, you will likely enjoy this book very much. I did. If not, this may not be for you.
The authors, two academics in the field of ethology (animal behaviour -- I learned a new word!), do a thought experiment: What if all humans disappeared tomorrow? Would dogs survive and even thrive? The answer they give is: yes, they would. Dogs would in fact be better off without humans.
My main take-aways:
Dogs have evolved an eyebrow muscle that doesn't exist in foxes or wolves. It gives them that special puppy-dog look and has evolved with the sole aim of being lovable for humans. This will likely disappear after a long time without humans as it has no effect on any animals. So now when my puppy looks at me with those big adorable eyes, I just say, "I know it's just evolution. Underneath there are actually the beady eyes of a beast."
There is distress which is bad stress, and then there is eustress which is good stress.
Even now only a minority of dogs are what the authors call homed. 80% of dogs currently living in the world already live as strays or ferals or just roaming free (they 'belong' to a household but can come and go as they please). Studies of these dogs can give us a clue about dogs in a future without us. But scholars study these dogs rarely as they focus on 'pure' species, i.e. species that were selected for naturally. Dogs have been subject to human selection for upwards of 20k years.
Dogs have evolved to occupy the niche 'living with humans'. They are not dependent on us; they exploit us for shelter, food and care. However, there's a cost: almost total lack of autonomy in where to go and when; inability to roam and find a sexual partner; inability to parent, especially for male dogs; absence of a pack; the stress of living with a human (e.g. homed dogs experience stress, too, such as when their human goes away to work or when their human expects un-dog-like behaviour and metes out punishments).
All dogs currently living survive on anthrogenic food (genereated by humans -- I learned another word!), be it kibble or what they can dig up from rubbish bins.
I liked the categories of transition dogs (the ones who grew up with humans; they will disappear after around 15 years which is the life span of a canine generation), first-generation dogs (born to transition dogs) and post-human dogs. This is a lot like generation-space ship stories in science fiction.
In fact, I wished for a bit more science fiction here. There is only one sentence that mentions how many dogs will perish because they won't be able to escape from the homes in which they have been locked. This was my first thought: oh no, what will dog do? Door locked, can't get out! (Trapped with cats who will escape via the cat flap.)
Also, there was a lot of talk about dogs' interaction with wolves and coyotes. How, where, what? The dogs I know live in a fenland market town. Not a wolf in sight. There is also talk of predators. Who will prey on dogs? Squirrels? Escaped lions from the zoo? Ferocious felines?
I was also getting curious about the dogs' habitat. The authors talk of geography and availability of prey but I'm thinking: empty streets, rusting cars, possibly carcasses of rotting humans everywhere, fires breaking out as gas is left burning, buildings toppling -- I don't know! I wanted more apocalypse!
Format: lovely dark green cover with bright yellow writing. A US hardback, which manages to be floppy even in hardback form: I love it.
The authors, two academics in the field of ethology (animal behaviour -- I learned a new word!), do a thought experiment: What if all humans disappeared tomorrow? Would dogs survive and even thrive? The answer they give is: yes, they would. Dogs would in fact be better off without humans.
My main take-aways:
Dogs have evolved an eyebrow muscle that doesn't exist in foxes or wolves. It gives them that special puppy-dog look and has evolved with the sole aim of being lovable for humans. This will likely disappear after a long time without humans as it has no effect on any animals. So now when my puppy looks at me with those big adorable eyes, I just say, "I know it's just evolution. Underneath there are actually the beady eyes of a beast."
There is distress which is bad stress, and then there is eustress which is good stress.
Even now only a minority of dogs are what the authors call homed. 80% of dogs currently living in the world already live as strays or ferals or just roaming free (they 'belong' to a household but can come and go as they please). Studies of these dogs can give us a clue about dogs in a future without us. But scholars study these dogs rarely as they focus on 'pure' species, i.e. species that were selected for naturally. Dogs have been subject to human selection for upwards of 20k years.
Dogs have evolved to occupy the niche 'living with humans'. They are not dependent on us; they exploit us for shelter, food and care. However, there's a cost: almost total lack of autonomy in where to go and when; inability to roam and find a sexual partner; inability to parent, especially for male dogs; absence of a pack; the stress of living with a human (e.g. homed dogs experience stress, too, such as when their human goes away to work or when their human expects un-dog-like behaviour and metes out punishments).
All dogs currently living survive on anthrogenic food (genereated by humans -- I learned another word!), be it kibble or what they can dig up from rubbish bins.
I liked the categories of transition dogs (the ones who grew up with humans; they will disappear after around 15 years which is the life span of a canine generation), first-generation dogs (born to transition dogs) and post-human dogs. This is a lot like generation-space ship stories in science fiction.
In fact, I wished for a bit more science fiction here. There is only one sentence that mentions how many dogs will perish because they won't be able to escape from the homes in which they have been locked. This was my first thought: oh no, what will dog do? Door locked, can't get out! (Trapped with cats who will escape via the cat flap.)
Also, there was a lot of talk about dogs' interaction with wolves and coyotes. How, where, what? The dogs I know live in a fenland market town. Not a wolf in sight. There is also talk of predators. Who will prey on dogs? Squirrels? Escaped lions from the zoo? Ferocious felines?
I was also getting curious about the dogs' habitat. The authors talk of geography and availability of prey but I'm thinking: empty streets, rusting cars, possibly carcasses of rotting humans everywhere, fires breaking out as gas is left burning, buildings toppling -- I don't know! I wanted more apocalypse!
Format: lovely dark green cover with bright yellow writing. A US hardback, which manages to be floppy even in hardback form: I love it.
Read
March 17, 2023This was my first encounter with speculative biology. The book imagines how dogs would survive in a world without humans. I appreciated the authors focus on dogs as individuals and dogs as independent beings. However, I found a lot of this imagining horrific: My dogs cast out on the streets struggling to survive. And then there was the doomsday prepping chapter: preparing my dogs to survive without me. Although, again, I appreciate the authors' points about getting rid of maladaptive breeding practices and letting dogs be dogs (chew, dig, forage, explore, sniff). I would also add that many dogs survive cases of severe neglect for longer than one would expect, proving their toughness and ingenuity. Still, this was the stuff of nightmares. Not my beloveds struggling to survive. Please give them a solarpunk future with freedom and care.
November 13, 2021
I listened to the audiobook and the narrator was very flat which compounded the clinical style of the writing. There are definitely interesting bits but there's a lot of repetition and missed opportunities to capture the reader's imagination.
February 4, 2022
Reads like a scientific paper. Almost like it was written for a science journal or something. I did not make it all the way through. I love dogs, but this book was just no fun.
December 31, 2021
Full transparency: My husband I I have been breeding Bearded Collies for almost 20 years, and have been happy to help preserve the strong herding instinct, strong athletic ability, strong human-partnering, strong other-animal management capabilities, and strong executive problem-solving and agency-assuming characteristics of this particular breed of dog. Our dogs have gone on to herding, therapy, agility, rally, and other activities that I believe have offered them great stimulation and decision-making opportunities, and we've taken lifetime responsibility for every dog we've ever bred, but actually had to take back only a few dogs -- because of illness or death of their persons -- due to our very careful selection of homes. All this by way of saying that I may not seem the most likely appreciator of a book that removes human intervention from the lives of dogs, and that I also that know some people (and this book) take a negative view of breed-specific dog breeding altogether. All that said, I highly recommend this book to anyone who cares about dogs and the lives they live. Two well-said takeaways: "Dogs are not outside of nature," and "...evolution doesn't work backward. It unfolds into the future and there's no going back." Read this book, and you'll think not only about species evolution going forward, but how living with your own dog right now might also go forward in the best possible way.
February 6, 2022
You definitely have to love dogs to make it through some pretty deep musings into how generations of dogs might survive, in an imagined post-human era. At least, I hope it's just imagined. Along the way, you learn alot about genetics and evolution, and how truly quickly behaviors and traits get sent down genetic lines. It's made me look at my pups differently (alas, neither would fare well in the early days of such a disaster). More interesting, though, is the broader lens I have for how societies evolve, how preferential behavior gets rewarded and then selected for, on a genetic level. But...you need to love love dogs
July 27, 2024
This book is not as insightful as I expected but it is not a fault of the authors per se. Existing research on the ethology of dogs is limited and more focused on homed dogs, and while this research field remains vibrant, human intervention in the breeding and life-history of dogs makes it difficult for researchers to extrapolate findings from individual studies to the larger dog population as well as to the future. Instead, findings often have to be heavily contextualised and accompanied by caveats.
My key takeaways from this short book are:
1) Dogs differ much more as individuals than we think. Breeds, being a social/human construct, have little bearing on how dogs behave/think and any consideration on how adaptive dogs can be must bear in mind a high degree of individual variation. Such individual variation, alongside the various ecological niches that dogs could be found in, complicates postulations about the traits dogs will need to thrive (evolutionary biology is intrinsically laden with caveats, I feel). Hence, it is not always the case that large dogs will do better than smaller dogs. That said, some definitively maladaptive traits (e.g., everything about pugs) should go because their very survival requires human intervention and even after all possible human efforts, their quality of life remains highly compromised.
2) When looking at dogs and other animals in general, we need to start "decenter[ing] the human". Dogs have shown that they can live and even thrive without direct human companionship. We should view dogs as much as possible on their own terms, not in terms of their cultural roles (e.g., pet, stray, therapist). By extension, we can then change our perception and expectations of dogs; behaviours that we label as "naughty" without thinking are often in fact typical for dogs/canines, and suppressing such behaviours can undermine the physical, social and psychological health of dogs.
3) Finally, what dogs may gain or lose as a species is distinct from what an individual dog stands to gain or lose, when considering altering or stopping human intervention in dogs. Apart from individual variations as mentioned above, some dogs simply require more/specific support from us, and any changes on our part would disadvantage this group of dogs disproportionately. However, as a species, dogs may well flourish.
This was ultimately an easy and enjoyable read, and serves as a great introduction to speculative biology and for individuals keen to better understand the ethics of owning a pet dog.
My key takeaways from this short book are:
1) Dogs differ much more as individuals than we think. Breeds, being a social/human construct, have little bearing on how dogs behave/think and any consideration on how adaptive dogs can be must bear in mind a high degree of individual variation. Such individual variation, alongside the various ecological niches that dogs could be found in, complicates postulations about the traits dogs will need to thrive (evolutionary biology is intrinsically laden with caveats, I feel). Hence, it is not always the case that large dogs will do better than smaller dogs. That said, some definitively maladaptive traits (e.g., everything about pugs) should go because their very survival requires human intervention and even after all possible human efforts, their quality of life remains highly compromised.
2) When looking at dogs and other animals in general, we need to start "decenter[ing] the human". Dogs have shown that they can live and even thrive without direct human companionship. We should view dogs as much as possible on their own terms, not in terms of their cultural roles (e.g., pet, stray, therapist). By extension, we can then change our perception and expectations of dogs; behaviours that we label as "naughty" without thinking are often in fact typical for dogs/canines, and suppressing such behaviours can undermine the physical, social and psychological health of dogs.
3) Finally, what dogs may gain or lose as a species is distinct from what an individual dog stands to gain or lose, when considering altering or stopping human intervention in dogs. Apart from individual variations as mentioned above, some dogs simply require more/specific support from us, and any changes on our part would disadvantage this group of dogs disproportionately. However, as a species, dogs may well flourish.
This was ultimately an easy and enjoyable read, and serves as a great introduction to speculative biology and for individuals keen to better understand the ethics of owning a pet dog.
Read
July 12, 2024I'm not sure what to make of this book.
I work with dogs professionally, I also live with two, and usually I devour anything written by Bekoff and Pierce. These folks helped me through my degree, with my clients' dogs, and of course my own.
The summary of the book is interesting...at first.
It feels so obvious it shouldn't be stated, but since the world still has humans very much in it, there is nothing too concrete in this book. A lot of theories, educated guesses and predictions, a lot of maybes and perhaps'. And as such it is very, very, repetitive.
I did skim read towards the end because I was struggling with it, however pages 128-9 caught my attention and my brain went into "wary behaviourist" mode. In regards to "prepping" your dog for an imaginary human-extinction, the authors suggest occasionally letting one's dog counter-surf, scavenge, get grabby with food from humans hands', as well as brain games and aerobic and resistance training etc. It irked me a little because many clients contact me because their dogs' counter surfing and scavenging behaviour is causing problems in their relationship (not to mention the dogs who have made monumental errors in what they "scavenge"). I totally understand why Pierce and Bekoff recommend these exercises(?), and in my own home I turn a blind eye to my own dogs finding street-snacks, and occasionally I'll "accidentally" leave something tasty within paws reach on the counter. I just think it could be confusing advice for someone who's having problems with these (totally normal!) dog behaviours.
(I also think the aforementioned pages were a sneaky way to fit in the 5 (or 6) freedoms the authors are passionate about).
Over all, this book has given me much to think about, and I'll likely read it again in the future. My opinions may change.
I'm not sure who the book is for: for the average person, it may be a bit too clinical and sciencey. For academics or professionals, the lack of solid, concrete answers to the hypothesis may be interesting if not frustrating(!).
Either way, I would still highly recommend anything that Jessica Pierce and Marc Bekoff write.
I work with dogs professionally, I also live with two, and usually I devour anything written by Bekoff and Pierce. These folks helped me through my degree, with my clients' dogs, and of course my own.
The summary of the book is interesting...at first.
It feels so obvious it shouldn't be stated, but since the world still has humans very much in it, there is nothing too concrete in this book. A lot of theories, educated guesses and predictions, a lot of maybes and perhaps'. And as such it is very, very, repetitive.
I did skim read towards the end because I was struggling with it, however pages 128-9 caught my attention and my brain went into "wary behaviourist" mode. In regards to "prepping" your dog for an imaginary human-extinction, the authors suggest occasionally letting one's dog counter-surf, scavenge, get grabby with food from humans hands', as well as brain games and aerobic and resistance training etc. It irked me a little because many clients contact me because their dogs' counter surfing and scavenging behaviour is causing problems in their relationship (not to mention the dogs who have made monumental errors in what they "scavenge"). I totally understand why Pierce and Bekoff recommend these exercises(?), and in my own home I turn a blind eye to my own dogs finding street-snacks, and occasionally I'll "accidentally" leave something tasty within paws reach on the counter. I just think it could be confusing advice for someone who's having problems with these (totally normal!) dog behaviours.
(I also think the aforementioned pages were a sneaky way to fit in the 5 (or 6) freedoms the authors are passionate about).
Over all, this book has given me much to think about, and I'll likely read it again in the future. My opinions may change.
I'm not sure who the book is for: for the average person, it may be a bit too clinical and sciencey. For academics or professionals, the lack of solid, concrete answers to the hypothesis may be interesting if not frustrating(!).
Either way, I would still highly recommend anything that Jessica Pierce and Marc Bekoff write.
November 28, 2021
3.5. This was an interesting experience into the world of speculative biology- a discipline I didn't know existed and I wish I could work in. Exploring the idea of what would happen to dogs/ what would dogs become in an imagined scenario in which all humans disappeared.
I assume most dog owners would read this book with the intention of figuring out how well their dog would fair. My pup's prognosis is probably as good as any homed dog's chances could be. Strider's an Alaskan Malamute (a 'primitive' breed closer to wolves)/ Husky (but small for his breed at 65lbs) living in Southern Canada, he's a proven killer of multiple mice and moles, highly intelligent, very social, noted memory of where he has previously found food, and numerous other traits that were identified to be beneficial. He's physically fit as we walk at least 2.5 hours per day and we're training to start cani-cross/skijoring once the snow falls. As an intact male teenager his biggest risk factor is getting into fights and his high carrying tail which can confuse dog communication.
I agree with a lot of the authors' suggestions for providing companion dogs with an ethical and mutually beneficial life. Dogs are animals and should be allowed to exhibit natural behaviours. While I have expectations of my dog to behave well I don't see the benefit in erasing all 'naughty' behaviours. He has a section of the yard he's allowed to dig in, I try and give him as much choice as possible, a selection of foods and chews, and I do research into canine cognition and behavioural science. I also strongly believe that people should stop breeding maladaptive dogs.
I assume most dog owners would read this book with the intention of figuring out how well their dog would fair. My pup's prognosis is probably as good as any homed dog's chances could be. Strider's an Alaskan Malamute (a 'primitive' breed closer to wolves)/ Husky (but small for his breed at 65lbs) living in Southern Canada, he's a proven killer of multiple mice and moles, highly intelligent, very social, noted memory of where he has previously found food, and numerous other traits that were identified to be beneficial. He's physically fit as we walk at least 2.5 hours per day and we're training to start cani-cross/skijoring once the snow falls. As an intact male teenager his biggest risk factor is getting into fights and his high carrying tail which can confuse dog communication.
I agree with a lot of the authors' suggestions for providing companion dogs with an ethical and mutually beneficial life. Dogs are animals and should be allowed to exhibit natural behaviours. While I have expectations of my dog to behave well I don't see the benefit in erasing all 'naughty' behaviours. He has a section of the yard he's allowed to dig in, I try and give him as much choice as possible, a selection of foods and chews, and I do research into canine cognition and behavioural science. I also strongly believe that people should stop breeding maladaptive dogs.
November 25, 2022
Described as a thought experiment of what dogs would be like in a post human world.
It’s a bit dry in places but an interesting read highlighting the difficulty in predicting evolutionary biology. which traits would be helpful are hard to predict and probably different in different ecosystems.
While over the first half is dedicated to discussing the physical and behavioral traits that may possibly help dogs survive the last part of the book certainly was probably more interesting if not short.
This discussion logically moves from what will dogs be without us to what are dogs . What are the qualities of these social and flexible animals that help them thrive in our homes and adjacent to us?
Finally when thinking of a humanless world we must come to terms that while there are cons, there are clearly positives for the the dogs for us to be gone . Without us dogs would be dogs and not discouraged from doing natural canine behaviors. they’d have freedom and autonomy. Tails would not be docked, ears would not be closed, leading to difficulty expressing self to other animals . There also wouldn’t be maladaptive qualities bred into purebreds to meet breed standards - there’s been no breeds that required c sections, population issues brought on by breeders wouldnt happen. they would no longer be shocked by collars when acting like a dog or face other more standard forms of abuse or possibly be bored in homes with little enrichment and lots of times on their own…
It’s a great reflection of how we negatively effect dogs despite loving our furry companions . Hopefully it makes the reader think of incorporating more canine interesting activities to their schedule and not breeding dogs for human aesthetic.
It’s a bit dry in places but an interesting read highlighting the difficulty in predicting evolutionary biology. which traits would be helpful are hard to predict and probably different in different ecosystems.
While over the first half is dedicated to discussing the physical and behavioral traits that may possibly help dogs survive the last part of the book certainly was probably more interesting if not short.
This discussion logically moves from what will dogs be without us to what are dogs . What are the qualities of these social and flexible animals that help them thrive in our homes and adjacent to us?
Finally when thinking of a humanless world we must come to terms that while there are cons, there are clearly positives for the the dogs for us to be gone . Without us dogs would be dogs and not discouraged from doing natural canine behaviors. they’d have freedom and autonomy. Tails would not be docked, ears would not be closed, leading to difficulty expressing self to other animals . There also wouldn’t be maladaptive qualities bred into purebreds to meet breed standards - there’s been no breeds that required c sections, population issues brought on by breeders wouldnt happen. they would no longer be shocked by collars when acting like a dog or face other more standard forms of abuse or possibly be bored in homes with little enrichment and lots of times on their own…
It’s a great reflection of how we negatively effect dogs despite loving our furry companions . Hopefully it makes the reader think of incorporating more canine interesting activities to their schedule and not breeding dogs for human aesthetic.
December 31, 2024
Vad skulle hända med alla hundar i världen om alla människor helt plötsligt försvann? Det tankeexperimentet ägnar sig den här populärvetenskapliga boken. Hur kan man ens tänka sig något så dumt, kanske du tänker? Men värt att nämnas är att den här boken gavs ut 2021, dvs den skrevs i samband med pandemin. Just saying…
Hur som så visar det sig att det är jätteintressant att fundera på. Inte så lätt, med tanke på att hundar ser väldigt olika ut och lever under väldigt olika omständigheter i dagens värld. Det finns därför, naturligtvis, inget enkelt svar. Men genom detta tankeexperiment upptäcker jag ändå att jag lär mig en hel del om vad det innebär att vara hund och hur och i vilken omfattning deras hundighet får ta plats i deras liv tillsammans med oss människor. Tänkvärt, mycket tänkvärt.🤎🐶
Hur som så visar det sig att det är jätteintressant att fundera på. Inte så lätt, med tanke på att hundar ser väldigt olika ut och lever under väldigt olika omständigheter i dagens värld. Det finns därför, naturligtvis, inget enkelt svar. Men genom detta tankeexperiment upptäcker jag ändå att jag lär mig en hel del om vad det innebär att vara hund och hur och i vilken omfattning deras hundighet får ta plats i deras liv tillsammans med oss människor. Tänkvärt, mycket tänkvärt.🤎🐶
June 16, 2024
This is an entertaining and informative piece of speculative biology, breaking down dogs’ lives in a possible world without humans. Although I knew most of the canine fun facts Pierce and Bekoff provide, it was great getting a sense of who dogs might become without us. Although this work is meant for both academic and popular audiences (and thus holds back on fictionalizing possible futures too much), at times I felt as if there was too little “meat on the bone” here. A longer journal article on the topic might have sufficed. The more significant interventions of this book, in my opinion, involved ethical considerations about providing current dogs with fuller lives, including abolishing kill shelters, dog farming, laboratory exploitation, and breeding for maladaptive traits.
January 15, 2024
For some reason, I thought this book would paint the picture of a dog utopia. But in actually, it was a nightmare. I got only 1/3 of the way into it before I had to quit because it talked about several ways that a dog's life and health would be complicated--and the dog would die-- because humans couldn't take care of it any longer. This book haunts me, honestly, and I shouldn't have picked it up.
October 11, 2024
4.5
I found it pretty good. I definitely agree with the statement, that dogs(and probably all animals) would be better off without humans. I also strongly agree, that every dog is different personality wise and we should see them as individuals. I already had these opinions before reading the book but I don't think most people are sharing them. It was a nice thought experiment, but in a scientific setting
I found it pretty good. I definitely agree with the statement, that dogs(and probably all animals) would be better off without humans. I also strongly agree, that every dog is different personality wise and we should see them as individuals. I already had these opinions before reading the book but I don't think most people are sharing them. It was a nice thought experiment, but in a scientific setting
December 17, 2021
In no way do I want a world without dogs. This book is eye opening in how much influence we have over dogs, their reproduction, their play time, and their overall health and wellness. Is it fair to keep them as pets? I'm not sure after reading this, although there are dogs who in our current culture would be killed if we did not, so for that reason, I will continue to have pets.
March 24, 2022
A highly readable thought experiment on what would happen to dogs if humans ceased to be. Not a fun scenario to contemplate, but Pierce and Bekoff—both incredibly knowledgeable about dogs and dog research—do a great job speculating on dogs survival without us. I learned a lot about dogs and how they fit into the canid species. If you like dogs, you will find this an interesting read.
May 31, 2023
Exploring in all earnestness the question of how dogs would fare in a world without humans, A Dog's World is an intriguing thought experiment that draws valuable ethical lessons for dog owners. Read my full review at https://inquisitivebiologist.com/2023...
December 3, 2021
This is a really thoughtful experiment in what would happen to our most familiar domesticated species. I wish the authors would have spent a bit more time on the impact of "fixed" animals during the transitional phase as animals learn to parent as communities, but it was really well done overall.
February 23, 2022
A line in the book, "...a thought experiment in imaginative biology," sums this up perfectly. I very much enjoyed the thought science behind wondering how dogs would do without us and realizing that many are likely not all that dependent upon us. Many of us depend upon them, though.
November 2, 2024
The concept is an interesting thought experiment and I was looking forward to reading this, but the delivery was dry and not engaging at all. I kept trying and was so bored, it was a real struggle to finish.
February 27, 2022
I was underwhelmed. There's some interesting info in here but I felt majority of the book could be summarized as one giant shrug. How would dogs survive without us? Could they? Don't know!
December 20, 2023
A thought-provoking book about the true nature of dogs and worth reading by every dog owner.
June 15, 2025
A very important perspective we need to consider.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews