Another study showed that dogs’ brain activity went through the roof when they listened to happy sounds, like praise. The same study also showed many similarities between the way both humans and dogs process sounds. A person can learn a lot from a dog, even a loopy one like ours. Marley taught me about living each day with unbridled exuberance and joy, about seizing the moment and following your heart. He taught me to appreciate the simple things-a walk in the woods, a fresh snowfall, a nap in a shaft of winter sunlight. And as he grew old and achy, he taught me about optimism in the face of adversity. Mostly, he taught me about friendship and selflessness and, above all else, unwavering loyalty.” But although dogs have an innate predisposition for affection, it requires early life nurturing to take effect. Dogs have a truly remarkable, really quite exaggerated, capacity to form strong emotional connections." Friendly dogs are adaptable to new situations and environments. They are easy to train and not terribly excitable all the time. When a dog gets overly excited, they're no longer attentive and become challenging to reign in. An active and playful dog is wonderful, but dogs need to understand limits and play without becoming too rough. A friendly dog usually does not get fearful or anxious; they accept and follow your calm energy or leadership into a situation.

I'm a lot less cranky when it's just me and my dog." – Bob Peterson, American animator, screenwriter, director, and voice actor for Pixar Chapter One: Xephos. This is all about the author's dog, but also serves as an overview to some of the other subjects being covered later on. Lest you fear that this is an insipid reprise of MARLEY AND ME, fear not-- the author also talks about many other fascinating research expeditions, including a boarder-collie that knows several thousand words (as proved by "fetching" experiments), and his foray into a wolf enclosure. But a new book argues that, when it comes to dogs, the word is necessary to understanding what has made the relationship between humans and our best friends one of the most significant interspecies partnerships in history. If animals could speak, the dog would be a blundering outspoken fellow; but the cat would have the rare grace of never saying a word too much.” Another study of canine and human brain responses focused on sounds made by humans and dogs. The scientists observed that human and dog brains react similarly to emotion-laden sounds. For example, happy sounds light up the same area of the brain – the auditory cortex – in both. These similar reactions seem to indicate a strong ability to communicate types of emotions across species. Love HormoneIt also defends dogs against the contention that they are not as intelligent as we believe. Wynne explains in his book why it isn't a dog's intelligence that make it exceptional (although that's not to say they're stupid), it's their emotional capacity and hyper-sociability where they stand out in relation to other animals, and us. I loved reading about what makes dogs love humans, both genetic (Williams syndrome, I had no idea) and hormonal, and about how dogs did and didn't evolve from wolves. But the ending made me laugh out loud. A man and his dog are silhouetted against the rising sun amid dense fog on a cold winter morning on the outskirts of Chandigarh on February 9, 2020 Lively and fascinating ... The reader comes away cheered,better informed, and with a new and deeper appreciation for our amazing canine companions and their enormous capacity for love.”—Cat Warren, New York Timesbest-selling author of What the Dog Knows

Intelligent dogs rarely want to please people whom they do not respect." – W.R. Koehler, author of The Koehler Method of Dog Training The poor dog, in life the firmest friend. The first to welcome, foremost to defend." – Lord Byron, poet of Epitaph to a Dog Whether you’ve been gone for five minutes or five hours, one of the best parts of being a doggy parent is having that excited face greet you every time you reappear. We’ve been able to identify the genetic changes that took place in the journey from wolves to dogs thousands of years ago."

It’s In Their Genes

I liked the depth and range of the book as it traversed many scientific paths, from the evolutionary origins of canine development to the latest in genetic and neuroscience research- including looking at wolves and Belyaev's and Trut's domesticated fox experiment (insert squeeee of happy memories of former readings here). Pigeons can identify different kinds of objects in 2D images; dolphins have shown they understand grammar; honeybees signal the location of food sources to each other through dance; all feats that no dogs have ever been known to accomplish.

Summaries of some of these research findings are included below. They may or may not tell you whether dogs are capable of feeling this strong emotion, but the answer for every dog owner lies in your own personal definition of love. Is love defined as a strong bond, a show of affection, the desire to be with you always? My idea of absolute happiness is to be in bed on a rainy day with my blankie, my cat, and my dog." – Anne Lamott, American novelist and political activist Is there a way I can reduce this time? Could I wank him of for a bit beforehand to reduce the time? Did you know that there are over 300 words for love in canine?" – Gabriel Zevin, author of Margarretown

Williams syndrome gene

It's tough to stay married. My wife kisses the dog on the lips, yet she won't drink from my glass." – Rodney Dangerfield, American stand-up comic, actor, producer, screenwriter, musician, and author Thank you to Prof. Clive Wynne for the interview, and to the book club members who asked questions. Did you ever walk into a room and forget why you walked in? I think that is how dogs spend their lives." – Sue Murphy, American comedian Zazie: Okay, another question from a book club member, Jessica Ring, who says “In chapter 6, you write “It seems to me that the rapidity with which dogs can form new bonds implies that old bonds must fade, but presently this is entirely speculation…”” She says, “I’m curious why you think this, rather than dogs having the capacity to form additional bonds while maintaining existing ones.” It’s worth noting that which love language your pet speaks can influence the way they show their love for you. So while one dog may bring you household items and toys as gifts to demonstrate their affection for you, others may prefer to curl up next to you on the couch.

Zazie: That’s really nice. And one of the things you discovered is a genetic link between dogs and some of the same genes involved in Williams Syndrome in people. Can you tell me a bit more about that? Science Direct: “Scent of the familiar: An fMRI study of canine brain responses to familiar and unfamiliar human and dog odors.” Zazie: Exciting! I’ll look forward to hearing about that. The next question is from book club member Melinda Robbins. She says, she really enjoyed chapter 4 on the biological evidence for dogs’ affection. She says, “I’m a biology and genetics nerd. My question is in regard to the foxes that were domesticated in Russia through selective breeding over a short period of time. Do you think their genetics also show these markers of gregariousness?” It is amazing how much love and laughter they bring into our lives and even how much closer we become with each other because of them.”Chapter Five: Origins. This chapter is about some of the author's travels to look for early dogs, as well as his visits to fox and wolf shelters, and he talks about the differences between the Family Canidae. This chapter made me go on YouTube to watch some adorable fox videos. So there’s a whole bunch of things. I’m always concerned to find ways of helping dogs in shelters that are easily deployed. Sometimes I worry, because I spend a lot of time talking to expert dog trainers and people who really know what they’re doing, and sometimes I worry that we tend to easily come up with solutions that are too difficult for a typical shelter to implement. There are wonderful shelters around the country, but there are a lot of shelters that just don’t have the resources to bring in experts and we need to help the dogs in those kinds of shelters, which is the larger number of dogs across the country, by coming up with solutions that are really simple, that cost as little as possible to implement. And yet not spending time trying to guess what breeds the dogs are, doesn’t cost anything, it’s not doing something. Fostering doesn’t need to cost a shelter money, and throwing in treats is also a very low cost solution. So we’re always on the lookout for those kinds of low-cost, low-effort solutions to help the poor dogs. It’s not their fault that they ended up in these places. There was so much I liked about this book's exploration into what makes dogs special and how this relates to their bond with us (and also with other species). It was a thoroughly engaging look at how nature and nurture combine to form an intense emotional attachment in dogs towards people and that, it is this extremely strong social drive, rather than intelligence, that makes them special – so even those who are not the smartest are adept at reading and fitting in with their people. This isn’t to say dogs aren’t intelligent, although some are more so than others!