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Books about Dogs

  • Jan. 4th, 2013 at 8:02 PM

eglantine_br
"You may not think of deer as dangerous predators, but that is because you are not a cabbage."

This is one arresting line from 'For the Love of a Dog' by Patricia McConnell

In this book and in 'The Old End of the Leash' she teaches about dog behavior. The titles sound fluffy but the books are not. She is an animal behaviorist who has studied dog body language, and psychology. She also has sheep and working sheepdogs.

The science in her book is interspersed with examples of her experiences with her own dogs, and dogs that come to her as clients. A lot of the books are devoted to dog body and facial expression. I have lived with dogs all my life, but these books gave me a new understanding.

It gave me a new insight into the possible thoughts of my shy and meek (If large, Hazel.) I still have to make sure that Lyra the kitten does not crowd Hazel away from the dog dish, and take her food. 

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Comments

( 7 comments — Leave a comment )
mylodon
Jan. 5th, 2013 12:50 pm (UTC)
Off on a tangent, but deer are an absolute pain in the bum. Wreck my plants, gambol all over my lawn, grumble grun=mble.
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anteros_lmc
Jan. 5th, 2013 01:06 pm (UTC)
I am much more familiar with cats than dogs, though we did keep a small white terrier when I was younger, he was a character and a half! Small dog, huge personality! My father also had several random sheepdogs over the years but I never really got to know them.

Oh and I agree with mylodon, deer are a menace in the garden, regardless of whether or not you are a cabbage!
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eglantine_br
Jan. 5th, 2013 03:18 pm (UTC)
When I was a kid we had a garden-- I remember we hung pie plates on the fence to scare the deer away. I guess it must have worked. We had trouble with rabbits though.

I do remember my goats eating all the bark off of my aunts fruit trees. (After devouring the fruit of course-- which they must have had to stand on hind legs to do,) killed the trees. She was pretty mad.
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serge_lj
Jan. 5th, 2013 03:39 pm (UTC)
I remember reading the suggestion that dogs are descendants of the wolves that couldn't make it in their own packs. In other words, dogs are nerds.
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eglantine_br
Jan. 5th, 2013 11:37 pm (UTC)
That makes some sense to me. Dogs certainly used brains to get us to do things for them, that wolves have to do for themselves. There is a certain nerd flair to that.
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vespican
Jan. 6th, 2013 06:38 am (UTC)
Someplace I heard/saw/read that dogs never advance beyond the canine equivalent of adolescence. They mature physically but mentally remain puppies, when compared to the wolf.
Dave
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eglantine_br
Jan. 7th, 2013 02:16 am (UTC)
Yes, it is true. I think we had a hand in that. We bred them for neotony from prehistory.

The dogs that have a more wolfish look, (German Shepards, Huskies, etc,) have a more adultish behavior too.
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( 7 comments — Leave a comment )