This is one of the most revolutionary books I have ever read on dogs. The potential for this book to change the face of dog training, and our understanding of dogs in general, is huge. If you work with dogs in any capacity, this book is definitely one you should read.
I picked up this book in the hopes of understanding the mental state of dogs a little better. I wanted to know if dogs could possibly perceive death, and if so to what extent. I did get some helpful answers in that regard, but the book had so much more in store for me than that.
A Critical Understanding of Language
If you have an interest in dog training, you probably know that dogs certainly understand some language. If you teach a dog to sit, down or come, they learn to associate the verbal word with the action. They clearly have some understanding that words have meaning.
Dr. Berns, through his MRI project, also discovered that dogs can understand symbolism. A signal can mean a treat, even if no treat is present.
An interesting experiment he tried later though, discovered something rather unique about dogs that I think is very pertinent. Dogs do not seem to think in terms of nouns like humans do. If we were to teach someone a language, we’d probably start by showing them a cup and repeating the word.
We’d do this many times until our fellow human knew “cup” “house” “dog” and so on. Don’t get me (or Dr. Berns) wrong, dogs can assign words to objects and can even be surprised when a word is said but the wrong object shown. Some dogs can even learn as many as a thousand words, but the majority of dogs think better in terms of verbs.
Think for a moment about all the things you communicate to your dog about. This might be going for a walk, dinner time, chasing squirrels, or playing fetch. Most of the things we talk to our dog about involve actions. We seldom ask them to differentiate between two plushies and bring us a specific one.
Although for all intents and purposes, I seldom need to talk about objects with my dogs, if I did I think it would be worthwhile to assign an action to each object to help my dog understand the difference.
I may set up some experiments with my dogs to see if action-based object selection is easier for my dogs than simply learning a name. That would be a fascinating thing to explore, and I bet my dogs would love to give it a try.
Confirming What We Knew
Another big portion of the book confirms what most of us who own and love dogs already knew. Dogs do love us. They love us even when our pockets aren’t stuffed with hotdogs. They have personalities, and they have most of the same thoughts and feelings we do.
Although they aren’t capable of advanced thought, this doesn’t mean they don’t have a full range of emotions including love, anger, jealousy and fear. They can feel pain. They can feel sorrow. They can even have FOMO (Fear of missing out.)
Dr. Berns even created a really nice representation for “Semantic Space” showing what a dog knows, what a human knows, and where they intersect. It also illustrates there’s a lot a dog knows that we probably don’t, and things we know that dogs don’t. (Being Catholic, for example, is probably a human-specific experience. I imagine the joy of rolling in cow pies is probably a dog only experience, but it’s not listed.)
Rethinking Animal Relationships
As Dr. Berns explores not just dog brains but thylacine, dolphins and sea lions, it becomes very apparent that we are not the only thinking, feeling animals on the planet.
I feel this was somewhat obvious before, but many scientists of the past believed that animals were little more than robots, incapable of feeling pain or doing more than react to stimulus. This was the justification for many cruel experiments.
It’s likely that in order to continue justifying awful experiments, they had to tell themselves it is okay because they’re not people. They don’t have souls, so it is fine to be as cruel as you like because they’re just animals.
This isn’t a call for us to stop eating meat or using animals to benefit science. It’s a call to be mindful that the other 2.16 million other species on the planet aren’t just biological robots. They have thoughts, feelings, emotions too, and these should be taken into consideration when ever our lives intersect.
Highly Recommended
This book was wonderful. It is thought provoking, it reveals so much about animal thoughts and minds. It shows the latest in science, and will serve as a good road marker down the road when new technologies reveal new information, of where we are now.
If you haven’t read this book yet, you definitely should add it to your reading list. It is quite a good read.
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