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THE IMPORTANCE OF MORNINGS
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Acknowledgments
Of the following dogs:
No one who knew Pumpernickel will be surprised that my most ardent thanks go to her, for choosing us at the shelter and for allowing me the incredible pleasure of knowing her. I have thanked her many times since, with cheese taking over where words failed me. Thanks to Finnegan, for being his own dog, and for being such an utterly doggish dog. Every day is improved to have him come running madly toward me. Thanks to the dogs of yore: to Aster, who endured a lot of childhood foolishness and taught me how to be less foolish; to Chester, who could grin and growl at the same time; to Beckett and Heidi, who in death highlighted what is precious; and to Barnaby, who in catness highlighted what is dog.
Of the following people:
One hears that books are difficult to write. If so, this is not a book, for it was a delight to write, as it is delightful to observe and be with dogs and think dog-thoughts full-time. I was even more pleased that I would be handing the book over to the people at Scribner, whom I could count on to make my bagful of chapters into an actual book. I am indebted to Colin Harrison for his tireless reading of drafts and for being open to just about anything. Had I turned a book about dogs into one about cats I suspect Colin would have acceded to it … as long as it was still a good read. Many thanks to Susan Moldow for her enthusiasm from the very beginning.
Before I had an agent I scanned acknowledgments pages for those that included words that would send me scurrying to shine up a proposal to their agents. Sorry, Kris Dahl, in advance, for this: she is the very person you want representing you and your book; and I thank her.
My graduate school advisors and mentors, Shirley Strum and Jeff Elman, were willing to consider how an abstruse theoretical question about cognition could be addressed by observations of dogs—and they improved the theory and the practice. I was and am still appreciative. Thanks to Aaron Cicourel, who is also, as he says, one of those folks who try to saw through wood the hard way. Marc Bekoff was one of the first to treat dog play as biologically interesting. It was his writing (with the very keen Colin Allen), and later his advice, devotion, and friendship that led me to pursue my own research.
I owe thanks to Damon Horowitz, with whom I hatched the plan to write this book, and who seemed to believe that it was a sage and realistic idea. His consummate skepticism about all matters is balanced by his unfettered support of all that matters to me. I owe pretty much everything to my parents, Elizabeth and Jay. They were the first people I wanted to show the book to, for all the right reasons. As
for you, Ammon Shea: you make me better with words, you make me better with dogs, and you make me better.
Index
abstraction, 253–54
adaptation, 31–32, 70–71
addictive behavior, 53–54
adoption of dogs, 47, 65, 262n, 266–67, 294, 301
adrenaline, 80
affection, dog kisses and, 29–31
Afghan hound, 49, 127
age
in dog years, 222n
hearing decline with, 93n
knowledge of death, 235–37
in wolf hierarchies, 40, 58–59
aggression
body language showing, 109–10, 112
dachshunds and, 53n
designation in dogs, 52–55
in domestication process, 35
eye contact and, 147, 148–49
hormones and, 172
play versus, 5, 61–65, 270
sounds made and, 102
touch and, 293
of wolves, 59
agility training, 288
agonistic, 102
Aibo robot dog, 276
akinetopsia, 132
Alex (parrot), 145n
allelomimetic behavior, 274–79
Allen, Woody, 264–65
American Kennel Club, 49, 50
American Staffordshire terrier, 53n
anal sacs, 84–85, 112, 117
animal cognition, 4–7
anticipation in, 166–72
attention in, 144–59, 290–91
attitudes toward studying dogs, 3–4, 6–7
begging experiments, 155–57
big-brain hypothesis and, 8–9
learned optimism and pessimism, 27–28
play in, 196–205
primates as subjects of, 4–5, 102n
subjective experiences of dogs, 241–58
theory of mind and, 190–96
video cameras and, 5–6
what dogs know, 210–41
see also
communication; physical cognition; social cognition; training
animistic, 102n
anosmia, 72
anthropomorphism
adaptiveness of, 31–32
behavior-reading versus, 18–19, 26–28, 31–32
clothing for dogs, 17–19, 29, 56
history, 15
scientific attitude toward, 3–4
temperament and, 47–48
training and, 57–61
umwelt and, 14–17, 23, 31–32, 263n, 294–96
antibiotics, 85, 86
anticipating behavior, 166–72
antidepressants, 16
antithesis, 110, 112
area centralis, 127
artificial odors, 25–26, 69, 71, 72, 86, 292
artificial selection, 6, 35–37, 41
assistance dogs, 43, 134–35, 152, 162, 240, 274
associative learning (associations), 10–11, 167–68, 182, 225, 232–33, 289
attachment
of dogs, 42–43, 63–65
greeting and, 43, 271–72
of human infants, 43
of socialized wolves, 63–64
attacks, in rough-and-tumble play, 1–2, 24, 62, 196–98, 200, 202, 205–6, 221
attention, 139–59
of animals, 144–59, 290–91
avoiding, 143, 144
baited buckets and, 150–51
defined, 139
to dogs, 290–91
joint, 58
manipulating attention, 143, 155–58
to our behavior, 140–41
in play, 152–53, 199–205
"psychic powers" of animals, 163–72
to sounds around you, 251–52
stages in child development, 141–44
types of, 139, 142–44
see also
attention-getter; eye contact
attention-getter
bark, 98, 105–8, 152, 153, 154, 171
bump, 152
exaggerated retreat, 203
in-your-face, 152, 200, 203
kinds of, 152–53, 199–200
matching level of inattention, 203
pawing, 152
used in play, 152–53, 199–205
audition
auditory attention, 139
changes in, 169
importance of, 122
range of hearing in dogs, 92, 93–94
range of hearing in humans, 21–22, 23–24, 92–94
in rats, 28
ultrasonic sounds, 91, 93, 241–43
see also
sounds made
Australian shepherd, 53
autism
lack of eye contact in, 140, 192