A celebration of dogs, the scientists who've lived alongside them, and
how canines have been key to advancements in science for the betterment
of all species.
Almost everywhere there are humans on planet Earth, there are dogs*.*
But what do dogs know and understand of the world? Do their emotions
feel like our own? Do they love like we do? What do they think of us?
Since our alliance first began on the hunt and on the farm, our
relationship with dogs has evolved considerably. And with domestic dog
population rising twenty per cent in the last decade alone, it is a bond
that will continue to evolve. In order to gauge where our relationship
with dogs goes from here, author and zoologist Jules Howard takes a look
at the historical paths we have trod together, and at the many
scientists before him who turned their analytic eye on their own
four-legged companions.
Charles Darwin and his contemporaries toyed with dog sign language and
made special puzzle boxes and elaborate sniff tests using old socks.
Later, the same questions drove Pavlov and Pasteur to unspeakable
cruelty in their search for knowledge. Since then, leagues of
psychologists and animal behaviourists have built upon the study of dogs
and their much-improved methods have fetched increasingly important
results: dogs have episodic memory similar to ours; they recognise
themselves as individuals; and, in addition to their expert sense of
smell, dogs' noses can even detect thermal radiation.
With the help of vets, ethologists, neurologists, historians and,
naturally, his own dogs, Wonderdog reveals the study of dogs to be key
in the advancement of compassion in scientific research, and crucial to
making life on Earth better for all species.
