What do you think?
Rate this book
Dog Knows: Learning How to Learn from Dogs
Dogs are often thought of as obedient, loyal animals, but their repertoire of attributes and emotions stretches across the spectrum. They're also advanced communicators, peace ambassadors and effective thinkers, with unique avatars and identities. From their puppy eyes to their protective stance, there is a lot of fragility and balance in their communication. Written by a renowned canine behaviourist, Dog Knows navigates the journeys of several dogs through life, embraces their vulnerability, and helps us decode their nuanced communication strategies and messages. Rooted in reality and science, and woven into an engrossing narrative, the book handles the enigmatic world of dog communication and intuition with great sensitivity.
- GenresDogsNonfiction
312 pages, Paperback
Published May 17, 2021
27 people are currently reading
142 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 29, 2021
4.7/5-
In this book, she talked about Dog’s behaviour, how we should observe and analyse their behaviour and act accordingly. Just like humans, all dogs are different in their own way; they have their own likings, disliking and personalities, and this book will help you in understanding that. She talked about her personal experience with a street dog, whom she petted and later more dogs who came into her life. Having a pet, and specifically a dog in this case is a roller coaster ride, we can’t just bring up a new member in our house and expect him/her to just smoothly fill in our routine and live according to our habits. Dogs need affection, love, care and attentions exactly the way humans do, kids do. And though, this is my first read of its kind, I am assuring you this is the right book in case you are planning to have a dog.
Book is divided into chapters, each one discussing a new aspect of dogs behaviour or upbringing; be it toilet training, use of crates, or their chewing or eating inedible objects, testosterone development, jumping or biting, indigestion, anger, comfort, trust, loyalty, difference between street dogs, domestic dogs & dogs who participate in dog shows and lastly several poop stories; because no dog story ever ended without one. So many psychological aspects which effect a dog’s trust issues, even PTSD, their sleeping schedule etc.
I always loved dogs, but this book gave me million more reasons to love them and now I can just put all these facts in my mind when I meet a dog while walking down my streets, or while going to someone’s place and meeting their dog or when I will have one of my own. One can’t finish this book in one or two sitting, its like an academic book with just so many interesting revelation; but this is definitely a must read for dog parents, or those who are planning to be one and basically for all, to understand animals, to treat them with kindness and to give them love; which is deserve the most.
In this book, she talked about Dog’s behaviour, how we should observe and analyse their behaviour and act accordingly. Just like humans, all dogs are different in their own way; they have their own likings, disliking and personalities, and this book will help you in understanding that. She talked about her personal experience with a street dog, whom she petted and later more dogs who came into her life. Having a pet, and specifically a dog in this case is a roller coaster ride, we can’t just bring up a new member in our house and expect him/her to just smoothly fill in our routine and live according to our habits. Dogs need affection, love, care and attentions exactly the way humans do, kids do. And though, this is my first read of its kind, I am assuring you this is the right book in case you are planning to have a dog.
Book is divided into chapters, each one discussing a new aspect of dogs behaviour or upbringing; be it toilet training, use of crates, or their chewing or eating inedible objects, testosterone development, jumping or biting, indigestion, anger, comfort, trust, loyalty, difference between street dogs, domestic dogs & dogs who participate in dog shows and lastly several poop stories; because no dog story ever ended without one. So many psychological aspects which effect a dog’s trust issues, even PTSD, their sleeping schedule etc.
I always loved dogs, but this book gave me million more reasons to love them and now I can just put all these facts in my mind when I meet a dog while walking down my streets, or while going to someone’s place and meeting their dog or when I will have one of my own. One can’t finish this book in one or two sitting, its like an academic book with just so many interesting revelation; but this is definitely a must read for dog parents, or those who are planning to be one and basically for all, to understand animals, to treat them with kindness and to give them love; which is deserve the most.
August 6, 2021
If you have dogs or just love dogs in general, you need to read this.
Dog Knows is a very eye-opening guide to understanding how much about dogs we don’t bother to understand. Dogs have very nuanced communication skills, but for a human to pick up on them, dogs have to ‘shout’ these signals out, exaggerating them so that we finally get the gist. This probably comes from our common understanding of the human-dog relationship as being one-sided – dogs must be trained to follow our rules.
However, Pangal points out that the heart of a strong human-animal bond doesn’t lie in unquestioning obedience, but mutual understanding. This doesn’t mean we give dogs free reign over everything, but before we ‘correct’ behaviour, we must first understand where it is coming from.
After reading this book I’ve come to realise how terrible humans are at listening and observing, preferring to force our practices on others and expect them to just go with it. Classic example – have you ever seen a guest enter a house with a dog, and when that dog shows anxiety or ignores the guest, said guest keeps chasing the dog and trying to forcefully pet it?
In that scenario, the dog is trying to peacefully show the guest that they aren’t comfortable with their presence yet, but did the guest listen and respect the dog’s space? No. And sometimes this lack of listening can lead to the dog resorting to more aggressive behaviour because they need to exaggerate their communication so the human understands – but the human then reads this as problematic behaviour (thus creating a vicious cycle of misunderstanding).
I have two dogs, and this book has definitely made me stop and think about a lot of things I assumed I understood about their behaviour (mind you, I did my research before adopting my dogs and I still learned something new).
Dog Knows is a very eye-opening guide to understanding how much about dogs we don’t bother to understand. Dogs have very nuanced communication skills, but for a human to pick up on them, dogs have to ‘shout’ these signals out, exaggerating them so that we finally get the gist. This probably comes from our common understanding of the human-dog relationship as being one-sided – dogs must be trained to follow our rules.
However, Pangal points out that the heart of a strong human-animal bond doesn’t lie in unquestioning obedience, but mutual understanding. This doesn’t mean we give dogs free reign over everything, but before we ‘correct’ behaviour, we must first understand where it is coming from.
After reading this book I’ve come to realise how terrible humans are at listening and observing, preferring to force our practices on others and expect them to just go with it. Classic example – have you ever seen a guest enter a house with a dog, and when that dog shows anxiety or ignores the guest, said guest keeps chasing the dog and trying to forcefully pet it?
In that scenario, the dog is trying to peacefully show the guest that they aren’t comfortable with their presence yet, but did the guest listen and respect the dog’s space? No. And sometimes this lack of listening can lead to the dog resorting to more aggressive behaviour because they need to exaggerate their communication so the human understands – but the human then reads this as problematic behaviour (thus creating a vicious cycle of misunderstanding).
I have two dogs, and this book has definitely made me stop and think about a lot of things I assumed I understood about their behaviour (mind you, I did my research before adopting my dogs and I still learned something new).
February 26, 2025
Must read voor elke hondenouder, of toekomstig hondenouder.
December 14, 2024
The book is easy to read and flows well. The author doesn’t judge, but shares her experiences and realizations, with a genuine desire to improve. It’s refreshing because there’s no bashing of others. I felt the author is truly a kind person.
The insights shared are eye-opening, reminding us how we often forget our connection to nature—and dogs are a part of that. This book emphasizes that dog training isn’t just about having a well-behaved dog, but about ensuring they’re happy and healthy.
If you combine the best parts of this book with other dog training methods, it can be a valuable tool.
I’d definitely recommend this to every dog trainer. It’s a great read for pet owners, too. The main story keeps you interested, and you’ll pick up a few useful tips along the way.
It’s a shame this book isn’t more popular on Goodreads. I’m not sure how it ended up in my Amazon cart, but I’m glad it did. I believe it will help guide the next phase of my dog training career in a better direction!
The insights shared are eye-opening, reminding us how we often forget our connection to nature—and dogs are a part of that. This book emphasizes that dog training isn’t just about having a well-behaved dog, but about ensuring they’re happy and healthy.
If you combine the best parts of this book with other dog training methods, it can be a valuable tool.
I’d definitely recommend this to every dog trainer. It’s a great read for pet owners, too. The main story keeps you interested, and you’ll pick up a few useful tips along the way.
It’s a shame this book isn’t more popular on Goodreads. I’m not sure how it ended up in my Amazon cart, but I’m glad it did. I believe it will help guide the next phase of my dog training career in a better direction!
July 2, 2021
This book is a must read for everybody who has a dog at home and also for people who are animal lovers in general. Having 2 dogs at home, Sindhoor Pangal’s book was an eye opener for me from page one.I feel like I can understand my dog much better now, and I will definitely put in more efforts to improve their lives and our relationship from now on.
The book made me realise, how much I have been ignoring what my dogs have been trying to communicate with me through their body language, their eyes, their barks, etc through the years! But now I am going to use all the knowledge that I acquired from this book to understand not just my dogs, but all the animals all around me.
And I am very sure, this is going to be one of those books, that I will take up time and again and learn something new every single time.
The book made me realise, how much I have been ignoring what my dogs have been trying to communicate with me through their body language, their eyes, their barks, etc through the years! But now I am going to use all the knowledge that I acquired from this book to understand not just my dogs, but all the animals all around me.
And I am very sure, this is going to be one of those books, that I will take up time and again and learn something new every single time.
October 19, 2024
Sindhoor Pangal’s book urges a shift in perspective on understanding dog behavior and on the strategy that dog owners adopt with their pets.
A friend had recommended Turid Rugaas’s book, Calming Signals, and I’d been really impressed by Rugaas’s respect for dogs’ skills and knowledge, especially in complex social behavior. She struck a chord with me as a dog-owner with a dog who had struggled with aggression, anxiety, and the whole works. What she taught mirrored what my own dog had done — his learning had far surpassed my own abilities to teach or train him.
Sindhoor Pangal is a student of Rugaas, and she builds her book, and her own story, around that same central message. Pangal strongly emphasizes respect for dogs, their autonomy and learning skills. She contrasts that emphasis with the belief that well-behaved, “good” dogs are above all, obedient dogs, over whom we need to exercise control and dominance.
Pangal writes, “The concept of using dominance to get a dog to fall in line is now considered an outdated one that does more damage than good.”
The book is as much autobiography as essay on dogs and the dog-human relationship. Pangal was a naive dog owner when she and her husband first adopted their dog, Nishi. Some of her anecdotes about their mistakes are downright disturbing — for example, a pretty extreme overfeeding on the very first day because Nishi ate however much they put in front of her! There are other incidents related throughout the book that may make you wonder, “Really??? Should I listen to this woman?”
But I think you should. You may not be convinced by everything she says. But that central message — that dogs do not so much need to be trained as they need the opportunity to learn (and to do so safely). As she says, “A decade of life with Nishi, and I have now learnt that the skills she really needed were not how well she obeyed us.”
Given that opportunity to learn, dogs will learn, as dogs have evolved to do, to get along with us, their human environment, and with other dogs. That’s what they have evolved to do, that’s what they naturally learn if given the opportunity, and that’s what they teach each other.
The most important skills that Nishi learned were not skills she could have learned from her owners or trainers. Those things — especially skills for interacting with other dogs — are skills that dogs already understand much better than humans do. What’s more, social skills that Nishi and other dogs learn through their own experiences and interactions are more reliable and lead to less stressful lives than skills at doing what we tell them to do.
You may feel reticence to go as far as Pangal goes on some points. As a professional researcher and dog behaviorist who works with problem dogs and their owners, as well as with the street dogs of India (“streeties”), she emphasizes that she does not “train” dogs. I get it — again the emphasis is on the dog’s own ability to learn from his own experiences and from other dogs. You, as the dog’s owner, have responsibilities to understand your dog’s learning experiences and to guide her safely through those experiences, but it is not a matter of, as Pangal says, controlling or dominating — it’s a matter of letting your dog learn what she needs to learn, relying on her own capabilities.
Pangal says, “When I talk about not training my dogs, people assume I mean that there are no boundaries in my home and that it is pure chaos.” We are not all tyrants with our dogs, but we, at least I, feel the draw to command and control. Good behavior is obedient behavior. Pangal is urging us to take a different perspective.
She stresses, following Turid Rugaas’s repeated message, giving a dog choices. Choices regarding when and what to eat, where to sleep, the pace and direction of walks, who to make friends with and who to avoid, how to learn to behave toward strangers, . . . anything within the bounds of safety and practicality. Dogs who learn from their own choices and who feel in some measure of control of their lives and circumstances are likely to shed the stresses and anxieties that can otherwise produce problem behaviors, as well as physical ailments.
While Pangal’s stance is an ethical one, it is also one informed by observation and study. She has learned a great deal not only through her mentorship by Turid Rugaas but also through her experience with those “streeties." In India, around Bangalore where Pangal lives, street dogs are common — dogs that no one owns, that live in small groups, and that nevertheless rely on their relationships with humans for food, safety, and shelter.
No one trains the streeties, but, as Pangal noticed, they don’t commonly exhibit the kinds of problem behaviors we associate with “untrained” dogs. They get along with the humans around them, they don’t typically fight with one another, they don’t run in front of moving cars (or all the other vehicles that move through Indian streets). So how did they learn, apparently on their own, the kinds of behaviors we try to train our pet dogs into?
The answer goes back to that central message. Dogs know how to learn. They know how to learn to get along with their human environment, how to get along with each other, and how to fend for their own welfare. As dog “owners” our job is to give our own pet dogs the chance to do that.
I didn’t find myself convinced by everything Pangal says (e.g., her criticism of games of fetch), but the shift of perspective she urges is one that I carry with me, and my dog, more strongly now every day.
A friend had recommended Turid Rugaas’s book, Calming Signals, and I’d been really impressed by Rugaas’s respect for dogs’ skills and knowledge, especially in complex social behavior. She struck a chord with me as a dog-owner with a dog who had struggled with aggression, anxiety, and the whole works. What she taught mirrored what my own dog had done — his learning had far surpassed my own abilities to teach or train him.
Sindhoor Pangal is a student of Rugaas, and she builds her book, and her own story, around that same central message. Pangal strongly emphasizes respect for dogs, their autonomy and learning skills. She contrasts that emphasis with the belief that well-behaved, “good” dogs are above all, obedient dogs, over whom we need to exercise control and dominance.
Pangal writes, “The concept of using dominance to get a dog to fall in line is now considered an outdated one that does more damage than good.”
The book is as much autobiography as essay on dogs and the dog-human relationship. Pangal was a naive dog owner when she and her husband first adopted their dog, Nishi. Some of her anecdotes about their mistakes are downright disturbing — for example, a pretty extreme overfeeding on the very first day because Nishi ate however much they put in front of her! There are other incidents related throughout the book that may make you wonder, “Really??? Should I listen to this woman?”
But I think you should. You may not be convinced by everything she says. But that central message — that dogs do not so much need to be trained as they need the opportunity to learn (and to do so safely). As she says, “A decade of life with Nishi, and I have now learnt that the skills she really needed were not how well she obeyed us.”
Given that opportunity to learn, dogs will learn, as dogs have evolved to do, to get along with us, their human environment, and with other dogs. That’s what they have evolved to do, that’s what they naturally learn if given the opportunity, and that’s what they teach each other.
The most important skills that Nishi learned were not skills she could have learned from her owners or trainers. Those things — especially skills for interacting with other dogs — are skills that dogs already understand much better than humans do. What’s more, social skills that Nishi and other dogs learn through their own experiences and interactions are more reliable and lead to less stressful lives than skills at doing what we tell them to do.
You may feel reticence to go as far as Pangal goes on some points. As a professional researcher and dog behaviorist who works with problem dogs and their owners, as well as with the street dogs of India (“streeties”), she emphasizes that she does not “train” dogs. I get it — again the emphasis is on the dog’s own ability to learn from his own experiences and from other dogs. You, as the dog’s owner, have responsibilities to understand your dog’s learning experiences and to guide her safely through those experiences, but it is not a matter of, as Pangal says, controlling or dominating — it’s a matter of letting your dog learn what she needs to learn, relying on her own capabilities.
Pangal says, “When I talk about not training my dogs, people assume I mean that there are no boundaries in my home and that it is pure chaos.” We are not all tyrants with our dogs, but we, at least I, feel the draw to command and control. Good behavior is obedient behavior. Pangal is urging us to take a different perspective.
She stresses, following Turid Rugaas’s repeated message, giving a dog choices. Choices regarding when and what to eat, where to sleep, the pace and direction of walks, who to make friends with and who to avoid, how to learn to behave toward strangers, . . . anything within the bounds of safety and practicality. Dogs who learn from their own choices and who feel in some measure of control of their lives and circumstances are likely to shed the stresses and anxieties that can otherwise produce problem behaviors, as well as physical ailments.
While Pangal’s stance is an ethical one, it is also one informed by observation and study. She has learned a great deal not only through her mentorship by Turid Rugaas but also through her experience with those “streeties." In India, around Bangalore where Pangal lives, street dogs are common — dogs that no one owns, that live in small groups, and that nevertheless rely on their relationships with humans for food, safety, and shelter.
No one trains the streeties, but, as Pangal noticed, they don’t commonly exhibit the kinds of problem behaviors we associate with “untrained” dogs. They get along with the humans around them, they don’t typically fight with one another, they don’t run in front of moving cars (or all the other vehicles that move through Indian streets). So how did they learn, apparently on their own, the kinds of behaviors we try to train our pet dogs into?
The answer goes back to that central message. Dogs know how to learn. They know how to learn to get along with their human environment, how to get along with each other, and how to fend for their own welfare. As dog “owners” our job is to give our own pet dogs the chance to do that.
I didn’t find myself convinced by everything Pangal says (e.g., her criticism of games of fetch), but the shift of perspective she urges is one that I carry with me, and my dog, more strongly now every day.
May 25, 2022
I read this book... and felt I had to read it again, before I could do justice to reviewing it... I was wrong. I could read this book may times, and still find so much to learn and ponder over each time. It is just one of those books... an eye opener, an ode to Sindhoor's Nishi and Uttam, a heartfelt narrative of the author's journey with warm and funny anecdotes, a book that opens ones eyes to the beautiful beings that are dogs, evocative, and for a dog parent - life altering.
April 6, 2025
Beautiful perspective on co-existing and learning from our furry friends. After reading this book I am able to understand why dogs do some things the way they do. Sindhoor's perspective of treating them as our peers and offering choices is probably the simplest, but yet a radical idea with respect to dogs.
January 25, 2024
Sindhoor does an amazing job of writing this book! She brings the reader in with small stories then breaks them down into more factual evidence. These combined made for an easy yet very educational read! I would recommend dog trainer/dog lover/dog owners alike have a copy! Such great information.
January 17, 2022
Insightful and passionate about understanding dogs. Sindhoor opens your mind to a new thinking about dogs and how they learn and feel. I highly recommend this book.
July 22, 2021
A great primer on understanding dogs. I really enjoyed the honest stories.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews