Cathleen Schine, whose novel The New Yorkers was a perceptive window into the difference between a person and a-person-who-lives-with-a-dog, reviews INSIDE OF A DOG: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know for the New York Times:
Dogs are, says Horowitz, “creatures of the nose.” To help us grasp the magnitude of the difference between the human and the canine olfactory umwelts, she details not only the physical makeup of a dog nose (a beagle nose has 300 million receptor sites, for example, compared with a human being’s six million), but also the mechanics of the canine snout. People have to exhale before we can inhale new air. Dogs do not. They breath in, then their nostrils quiver and pull the air deeper into the nose as well as out through side slits. Specialized photography reveals that the breeze generated by dog exhalation helps to pull more new scent in. In this way, dogs not only hold more scent in at once than we can, but also continuously refresh what they smell, without interruption, the way humans can keep “shifting their gaze to get another look.”
Dogs do not just detect odors better than we can. This sniffing “gaze” also gives them a very different experience of the world than our visual one gives us. One of Horowitz’s most startling insights, for me, was how even a dog’s sense of time differs from ours. For dogs, “smell tells time,” she writes. “Perspective, scale and distance are, after a fashion, in olfaction — but olfaction is fleeting. . . . Odors are less strong over time, so strength indicates newness; weakness, age. The future is smelled on the breeze that brings air from the place you’re headed.” While we mainly look at the present, the dog’s “olfactory window” onto the present is wider than our visual window, “including not just the scene currently happening, but also a snatch of the just-happened and the up-ahead. The present has a shadow of the past and a ring of the future about it.”
When I got my first dog, specifically because I wanted a partner for AKC obedience training, my friends in science-fiction fandom wondered why I’d choose such a demanding and un-nerdly hobby. But the fascinating thing about dealing with dogs, for me, is that it’s as close as I’ll probably ever get to an ongoing, two-way, working communion with a non-human intelligence*. The fact that so much of the First Contact conversation is going to involve (non-verbal) dialogue like “Huh? LOLwhut?” or “Nope, don’t feel like doing that right now, get back to me later” or “Nag, nag, nag — why is this relationship never about MY needs? ! ?” is no doubt a salutary reminder about the fictitiousness of science fiction.
*(Cats are willing to deal with people, at least their personal people, but dogs have a much more human-like “need” to work out an explicit vocabulary with the animals they live with. In my experience, a cat can share a household for years with a person or even another cat without acknowledging the other’s existence; a dog living with a person or a cat who is “not a dog person” will never give up trying to make a connection, even after multiple attempts prove that any interactions are going to be unpleasant or painful.)
bizzle
That’s some top notch science writing. Within block quotes and without.
General Winfield Stuck
I am just about certain, I was a dog in some past life. And I don’t even believe in re[incarnation. I have been without one for too many years, and past experience has taught I am not a complete person without a dog to bond with, notwithstanding how good my human relationships are or have been.
Currently, I make do with surrogate dog pals from friends and neighbors, but it just isn’t the same. The apartment complex I live in hasn’t allowed cats or dogs, but lately I see a few people with them, so maybe the new owners have loosened up on the policy. I’m going to ask soon./ Or maybe move.
Keith G
Sounds like a great book. Our human relationship with dogs is so old yet there is so much we can only speculate about.
Still, the cats I have known like people, are good at reading them, and have made repeated out reach to a recalcitrant human or two. But not being pack animals, cats are also willing to walk away as if to say, “Big deal.”
Bill E Pilgrim
Continue reading New Dog Book I’m Looking Forward to Reading
The click-for-more tag line has a nice unintentional meta quality on this one.
Litlebritdifrnt
Ditto – dogs have to be with you, every second of the day, you can be sat watching tv, just drinking a cup of tea and the dogs will immediately feel the need to sit on you, not just BY you but ON you. The cats however pick their times and their spots, usually the most inconvenient moments EVER. My cats, for whatever reason, decide that the best time to sit on owners lap is when owner IS ON THE TOILET, I have ten cats, and almost every single one of them decide that this is the best time EVAH to sit on owners lap. Most of my cats will ignore me for the most part, in fact they will treat me with utter distain, until that particular moment when they decide that attention is required, at which point all human activity must cease until cat’s needs have been taken care of. The dogs however, well ya know, there is that absolutely brilliant dog’s diary
Day number 181
8:00 am – OH BOY! DOG FOOD! MY FAVORITE!
9:30 am – OH BOY! A CAR RIDE! MY FAVORITE!
9:40 am – OH BOY! A WALK! MY FAVORITE!
10:30 am – OH BOY! A CAR RIDE! MY FAVORITE!
11:30 am – OH BOY! DOG FOOD! MY FAVORITE!
12:00 noon – OH BOY! THE KIDS! MY FAVORITE!
1:00 pm OH BOY! THE YARD! MY FAVORITE!
4:00 pm – OH BOY! THE KIDS! MY FAVORITE!
5:00 PM – OH BOY! DOG FOOD! MY FAVORITE!
5:30 PM – OH BOY! MOM! MY FAVORITE!
Day number 181
8:00 am – OH BOY! DOG FOOD! MY FAVORITE!
9:30 am – OH BOY! A CAR RIDE! MY FAVORITE!
9:40 am – OH BOY! A WALK! MY FAVORITE!
10:30 am – OH BOY! A CAR RIDE! MY FAVORITE!
11:30 am – OH BOY! DOG FOOD! MY FAVORITE!
12:00 noon – OH BOY! THE KIDS! MY FAVORITE!
1:00 pm OH BOY! THE YARD! MY FAVORITE!
4:00 pm – OH BOY! THE KIDS! MY FAVORITE!
5:00 PM – OH BOY! DOG FOOD! MY FAVORITE!
5:30 PM – OH BOY! MOM! MY FAVORITE!
Day number 182
8:00 am – OH BOY! DOG FOOD! MY FAVORITE!
9:30 am – OH BOY! A CAR RIDE! MY FAVORITE!
9:40 am – OH BOY! A WALK! MY FAVORITE!
10:30 am – OH BOY! A CAR RIDE! MY FAVORITE!
11:30 am – OH BOY! DOG FOOD! MY FAVORITE!
12:00 noon – OH BOY! THE KIDS! MY FAVORITE!
1:00 pm OH BOY! THE YARD! MY FAVORITE!
1:30 pm – ooooooo. bath. bummer.
4:00 pm – OH BOY! THE KIDS! MY FAVORITE!
5:00 PM – OH BOY! DOG FOOD! MY FAVORITE!
5:30 PM – OH BOY! MOM! MY FAVORITE
We all know how the cat diary reads.
Steeplejack
Schine’s book The New Yorkers is funny and well written. Recommended.
scarshapedstar
I will note one exception to the antisocial cats thing: my black cat, Spooky. He’s very social, whenever there’s company he comes out and jumps from lap to lap. Also, if you say something to him, he will meow back. Cat just loves to talk. He even comes when called.
He doesn’t leave as many bird and squirrel parts on the doorstep as he used to, but still a very cool cat.
Rochelle Lesser
I have communicated with the author and am now reading and then reviewing the book. I have a few more chapters to go but just love it. Although she is preaching to the choir for dog folks, I have gained a few new insights.
It is a definite must for anyone who wants to get a dog or loves them like we do.
Gina
Yes, my dog Mo keeps attempting some sort of connection with the old man cat of the house, and it keeps ending up with amateur plastic surgery attempts on Mo’s nose from Eric the cat.
Our cat Tim is most dog-like, she demands attention from people, and is very sociable. She’s a weird one, she left her original home and family and just moved onto our deck one summer. We posted signs, left notices at vets, the local security office, police, but no one claimed her. A year or so later, she was outside, her former owner noticed her and came to see about getting her back, but she took off and ran into my husband’s arms. She just liked us better, so she stayed.
Mo is my shadow, and I expect Lily will be too once she’s less into the crate thing (still potty training for perfection).
Glad to have another good book to add to my list.
Dave Trowbridge
For dogs, God would be conceived of as, not invisible, but eternally downwind.
It’s fun to watch our German Shepherd Dog, Oka, a Schutzhund dog with an insanely-high prey drive, learn to live with two new cats over the past year (he’s already made peace with the old lady cat). One of the cats won’t have anything to do with him, and he winces every time he gets too near her.
The other, a more confident male, is beginning to warm up to Oka, and one can see them learning each others body language: Shakir standing up on his hind legs to swipe playfully at Oka’s nose, and Oka opening his mouth partway in dog play and gently nosing the cat–sometimes even falling over to invite play. I expect they’ll be cuddling together in a couple of months.
Jason Bylinowski
Read an article the other day which surmised that dogs were the first domesticated animal because we wanted an easy food source. Gotta say, I believe every word of that, but it’s funny how things change over time, isn’t it, because now it’s like we are in thrall to them.
I’ve never owned a dog since being out on my own. I think that will change if I ever become a property owner, but that’s probably at least five years away or so, so I’ll have to content myself with good memories of when I was a boy. And some not so good ones too, as I can remember we had a bad spell of bad luck ther for awhile. I think we got a german shephard, a beagle, and a golden lab, and all of them were dead within a few months of having gotten them. One died by car, one by heartworms or some other sort of worm infestation, and one I think just turned up dead in the backyard one morning for no particular reason we could see….but then my sister got this little Shih Tzu when I turned 16, and I hated it to pieces. It just wasn’t the sort of dog we would normally have and it wasn’t many enough for someone my age to really get into. In my view, it was good for nothing, but everyone just loved this dog’s personality. To top it all off, my sister named this dog Prissy. I rest my case.
Anyway, ten years later I find myself back home, dealing with a depression of the worst kind, the kind you have no reason for, the kind that has no trigger other than a bad family history of depression, by the time I got back home I had been out of commission for going on a year, and it was another year before I got properly better…..but, being home, for the first time I could see what everybody else was seeing about this dog. She had a real knack for playing off of other people’s emotions or something….I really credit her with being a very effective sort of therapy for me, because even when I couldn’t interact with anyone else at all or even come out of my room for weeks on end, this dog was there for me, seemingly just content to lay beside me and just watch TV, play silly little doggie games, or whatever. Among other things, what helped was that she had simple needs that even I could meet easily, and believe it or not, she really helped me to get my mojo back.
Another few years after I got better, mom called saying that Prissy had not left her bed that morning. She was taken to the vet, and the doctor pretty much just said forget about her ever getting up again…..she had quite simply gotten very old, important organs were failing left and right and for us it was just a question of “how much pain do you want her to go through to keep her alive for another few weeks?”. They had to put her to sleep before I could get down there from Morgantown, where I was living with my wife at the time, and the whole family was just distraught over her death. And lo and behold, I was too. Because I still hadn’t ever really admitted to anyone else that I had any affection for her, this was quite a surprise to the family, but I’ve long since gotten over my old masculine habit of emotional distance – well I’m trying anyway, ask my wife about that – and truth be told, I still miss having her around. She started out being a joke to me, but slowly became a fixture in the family and in the end she was a great and unforgettable part of our family, such as it was in those days.
Linkmeister
There’s a good article about the social intelligence of dogs in the current Time magazine, too.
For one thing, there are only two species which can interpret a pointed finger. Humans and canines.
rachel
Day 1 of my captivity…
Linkmeister
@rachel: I rarely feel compelled to type LOL, but you got me.
rachel
@Linkmeister: What? Why? That’s what it says!.
Linkmeister
@rachel: Grins. Now I’m disillusioned. I thought you’d got that up all on your own.
Still funny, no matter the source.
Michael G
FYI, that title is a reference to this quote: “Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read”. – Groucho Marx
Jason Bylinowski
….and, er, by the way, the book sounds fascinating as well. (Didn’t really mean to start Sharing Time with that last post. Heh. It’s just been on my mind since the kids are starting to get to that age where they want puppies and kittens and so on.)
Billy K
Never liked dogs. I don’t understand the fever that’s engulfed this site. Do I need to own a dog to “belong” here? Can me, my cat and Tunch go elsewhere?
Anne Laurie
@Billy K:
I live with 3 cats & 3 small dogs & one Spousal Unit. Proprietor & founder J.G. Cole has one cat & one dog. Balance is good!
Part of the problem, maybe, is that it’s easier to write about a dog without sounding twee. Cats are so Zen, they can be so perfectly “within the still center”, that it takes a small child or a poet to describe them properly.
“I and Panghur Ban, my cat / ‘Tis a like task we are at / Hunting mice is his delight / Hunting words I sit all night… “
Sm*t Cl*de
If, on the other hand, the animals to which you relate to most closely are naked mole rats, then you’re probably better-off over at Sadly,No!.
Lesley
I have always been drawn to dogs and elephants. Dogs because I grew up with them, and elephants I just happened to stumble across and develop an interest in that deepened over time.
I had the amazing experience of being hugged once by an elephant I helped rescue from a horrible zoo (she went to the Tennessee Elephant Sanctuary). It wasn’t a trick or the result of a command, but the decision of the elephant. Tina wrapped me in her trunk and gazed into my eyes with such gentleness and kindness I started tearing up because it was overwhelming. If she’d wanted to she could have snapped my spine like a toothpick. I quickly stopped crying because someone who works closely with elephants told me they are very sensitive to the feelings of others and I didn’t want to alarm her or make her think I was sad.
I was so very glad she got out of the hellhole she’d been imprisoned in for 35 awful years, though by the time she was rescued she was palliative and only lived a year in the Sanctuary.
I don’t believe animals are simple or “dumb” as humans are inclined to believe. Experience teaches that every animal has its own unique personality even as it shares characteristics with its breed or species. I don’t feel superior or better than any of them. They are not replaceable or expendable. The world without them would be intolerable.
Lesley
@Billy K: I’m not drawn to cats but I’m a fan of Tunchster, as I am NTodd’s cats.
If a few days go by without a Tunch (or Lily) update, people here get angsty and demanding. Me included.
I wager there’d be demonstrations at TBogg’s (outside his house) if he stopped Thursday Basset Blogging.
WereBear
I love both cats and dogs, but my circumstances dictate only cats, so I have three. Which is probably the limit of the landlord’s permission and our small apartment.
Dogs love you no matter what, while a cat offers a different, yet equally deep, relationship; once we earn it.
On the third floor, with a person who can’t get out much, I find cats to be so undemanding with their daily care, which is a plus in their favor.
But here is a favorite dog story:
I had a complete life meltdown, and discovered that the home I had gotten into was inhabitable in the winter. When the winter reaches -40, it’s a serious consideration.
I had gotten me & my remaining two cats into something with heat, and fixed up the insulated porch (new construction) with a heater and a dog door and food and water and visited the two boys twice a day. But it wasn’t going to work long term; I was going to school and was poor and they needed more attention and fussing than I was going to be able to provide. So I started on a search for the right homes; I’d spent 18 years in rescue, so it was simply a case of my being on the other end, now.
And the Universe answered.
For Teddy Bear, a Newfie-Chow mix who was only a year old, it was a challenge. He was 120 pounds and hadn’t stopped growing yet, and he need a home who understood him. I called the closest Newf rescue (hours away,) explained he wasn’t purebred but was 90% Newf, and in a week they had a lady who wanted to drive up with her purebred female and see how they got along.
We met in a park along a lake, and as we approached I realized two things in about a nanosecond. Her Newf was All Newf; even bigger and blacker and more massive than Teddy. And she didn’t want a mix; she was already walking away, despite my apologies that I had told the rescue he was a mix and I had sent pictures.
So Teddy and I started walking back to the car. As we wended through a big crowd on the sidewalk, a station wagon pulled over and poured out a Mom and a Dad and two little boys. They had come to town to look at Jack Russell puppies, but were so impressed with Teddy’s behavior in the crowd that they felt compelled to pull over and meet him.
And they became his new family.
It just about killed me to give up my dog boys. Yet, when the new family can make them happier than I can; it was love that let me let them go.
redbeardjim
“Dogs are not like cats, who amusingly tolerate humans only up to the point when someone invents a can opener that can be operated with a paw. Men *made* dogs, they took wolves and gave them human things — names, unnecessary intelligence and a crushing inferiority complex.”
— Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms
zadig
Sounds a lot like the excellent How Dogs Think by Stanley Coren. Wonder what this one brings to the party that How Dogs Think didn’t already?
Skepticat
On the pet front…
After my daily vote for Bitsy, I did my daily clicks at http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com and noticed that they’re starting another of their challenges, much like Bitsy’s. You can vote for your favorite animal shelter in hopes of their winning cash.
If none of you has a local favorite, may I suggest North Shore Feline Rescue in Middleton, MA?
Go now and click.
monad
Getting a bit OT, but if you’re generally interested in animal behavior of all sorts, Through the Fish’s Eye and To Know a Fly are both classic.
Scott P.
I will note one exception to the antisocial cats thing: my black cat, Spooky. He’s very social, whenever there’s company he comes out and jumps from lap to lap. Also, if you say something to him, he will meow back. Cat just loves to talk. He even comes when called.
That’s very odd. I have a black & white cat named Spooky who is very talkative as well. Although she doesn’t make friends easily and is not a lap cat.
This is also a good opportunity to state my #1 motto: The world would be a much better place if it were run by cat people instead of dog people.
tom.a
I’m a beagle owner and when we first got him we noticed he never looked for us, rather he smelled his way around for us. So I tested him one day by waiting until he almost found me then started walking around our kitchen island in circles staying just on the other side of the island. His nose to the floor trotting behind me we did 13 laps before I gave up. It’s quite amazing, we can weave an intricate path around the house and as long as he can easily get his nose to where our feet were he’ll following in our exact footsteps, and he’s not fooled by back-tracking.
bedtimeforbonzo
“In my experience, a cat can share a household for years with a person or even another cat without acknowledging the other’s existence; a dog living with a person or a cat who is “not a dog person” will never give up trying to make a connection, even after multiple attempts prove that any interactions are going to be unpleasant or painful.)”
I like this observation more than any I read in the Book Review’s passages.
I mentioned the other day how my beloved Golden Retriever mix, CoCo, snapped one day in 2008 and damn near killed my old Beagle, Hamilton. She had periodically nipped him during their four-plus years together. But Hamilton constantly tried to buddy up to her during that time, leaving me to let my guard down by thinking he had won her over. She’d lick his ears. She’d coax him to play chase. Not to overdue the analysis, but he clearly wanted her approval.
I never had a pure bred, or a Beagle. They say Beagles, stubborn, persistent, noisy, aren’t for everyone, and I can see where that’s true. But even though he did not win CoCo over for good, he won me over for life.
Woody
I have had dogs forever. My folks also always had multiple dogs
One thing our personal animal companions do for us–dogs and cats, of course, but other species, too–is to give us the opportunity to weep unashamedly when we lose them.
Julia Grey
Jason, I liked your story. Very much.
bedtimeforbonzo
Julia, you beat me to saying how touched I was by Jason’s story. My dad — actually my stepmom — had a poodle mix that I never imagined becoming attached to, which Cricket made easy because she was distrustful, a growler and just seemed miserable.
Then I moved in with them for a spell after college. The other dog they had, a Beagle/Collie mix that was a beloved family fixture, Cleo was my shadow. Since I was the only person who ever walked her, I was her hero. She’d sleep with me, insist on coming in the car with me, lick my face until I couldn’t take it enough. Cricket observed all of this. It took what seemed like a long time, a couple months, before Cricket knew I was the dog person in the family and loved me every bit as much as Cleo. The older she got, the more affectionate she got.
They both loved late-night walks around a huge neighborhood block. The setting was safe enough where they’d go off the leash and act like a person who just won the lottery.
(Cleo was the only dog I ever had whose vision took a bad turn as she aged. But she knew that late-night route by heart and it was the one thing that would make her young even as senility set it.)
Mary
@Scott P.:
I have to object. There is a distinct difference between true “dog people” and people who happen to own dogs. I think the world is likely run by the latter, but definitely not the former, which is a damn shame.
Germane Jackson
Not a dog lover here. I live in an apartment complex where the new vogue is apparently to let one’s dog run around for a bit unleashed in the parking lot. I’m sure all the dogs are nice and harmless but it still makes me furious when people do this b/c it operates on two faulty assumptions. 1) That everyone loves your dog as much as you and is just fine with it nosing and licking them, and 2) That everyone is totally at ease with dogs and likes seeing a boxer barreling toward them at 20 mph. Put a leash on your fucking animal.
Maybe it’s just me, but although all pet owners are to some forgivable extent guilty of thinking their animal is God’s gift to the world, dog owners often seem particularly incapable of imagining someone not loving dogs and especially their dog.
bedtimeforbonzo
A slightly different Cat Diary than the one mentioned above that really cracks me up.
Especially this: “I am convinced that the other prisoners here are flunkies and snitches. The dog receives special privileges. He is regularly released, and seems to be more than willing to return. He is obviously retarded.”
For some reason, I can imagine those thoughts running through my cat Tigers’ mind.
Hypatia
Hmm..where is the mention of the charming habit of sticking said senstive nose in the human crouch?
bedtimeforbonzo
Well, I certainly am guilty of gushing about my dogs, Germane. But I could could not imagine life without one.
I was talking to my 10-year-old the other day telling him why I really miss Bowser, the Lab/Border Collie mix we also lost last year (2008 was a BAD year).
Danny loves Hamilton, who has a food obsession. But Bowser had a people obsession. I think he could have subsisted on approval and affection. You could see it in his eyes.
Bowser knew one trick. He’d give you his paw. And when he saw how much happy this made his people, he’d give you his paw over and over and over again. And no treats were required. He just wanted a smile and a “Good, Boy.”
I realized his attachment to me was a bit over-the-top soon after getting him as not-quite-2-year-old at the pound. Instead of crate training him, I left him in the huge master bedroom I had at the time.
Big mistake. Bowser greeted me at the door and I wondered how. The damn dog chewed right through the bedroom door. It looked like a tornado had hit it.
From that day on, Bowser got the run of the house.
DanF
My last dog, a 130 lbs Newfoundland, went blind the last two years of her life. My wife and I have no idea exactly when it happened. She looked into her eyes one day and noticed that she didn’t quite look right. I did a few tests, and sure enough, she couldn’t see. It freaked us out for a day or two, but it was clear that our dog couldn’t care less. It was all about her sense of smell which was working just fine. Yeah, occasionally she’d bonk a chair or step on a kid’s toy, but sight just wasn’t all that important to her.
Gus
@WereBear:
That’s a beautiful story. I wonder if I’d be unselfish enough to do the same thing.
Nicole
I think part of the joy of animals in our lives is that they are always so completely in the moment that they bring us with them and for a while we too, can just live in the present moment. I ride horses recreationally (I’ll never be more than a decent trail rider; started learning too late), and I find an hour on the trails in Queens better than therapy. Anne Laurie’s right- there’s something about the non-verbal communication between you and another being, not of your species, that is just amazing.
serge
I could not live without my dogs. Over time…
Coquette
Puck
Thisbe
Ariel
Dustmop
Maggie the Wondrous Great Dane
Princess
Fitz
Roxie &
Barkley
They comprise my existence (which I find quite satisfying).
MattR
@Germane Jackson: I am a dog lover and owner, but completely understand that sentiment. Probably because I have a similar feeling about other people’s children. But at least we all know children are small, slow and can’t do much physical damage.
I have the sweetest, most submissive, chicken-sh*t, friendly, playful 30 pound dog. When we are on the leash, she drags me to see other dogs and people and then slinks away if they try to interract. But once she gets comfortable, or if she knows you, she wants nothing more thatn to play (if you are a dog) or be affectionate (if you are a person). I know this, and a bunch of folks in my condo complex know this, but I know the average person does not know this and it can be quite terrifying to see a mid size dog bounding at you full speed (especially for a child or someone not familiar with dogs).
On the other hand, since our condo complex does not have anywhere fenced in and there are no dog parks nearby, it was necessary to have my dog off her leash at times in order to train her while outdoors. I try to be careful about where and when I do it, but there have been “accidents” where she sees a rabbit, squirrel, etc and takes off. In those cases, I do try to warn anyone I see that she is friendly and not intentionally threatening as I chase after her with leash in hand.
Thomas Beck
My late cat Tuppence was raised by hand from birth – I’m reasonably certain her paws did not touch the ground the first six months of her life. When you raise a cat like that, what you get is a cat that needs constant human attention – that cannot live without constant attention. Until she became a cranky old lady, Tuppence was a total lap-slut – my lap if possible but any lap if necessary. After she became a cranky old lady (she died at the age of 20, on Erev Pesach 2006), she hated everyone else but me.
Admittedly, this may be rare in a cat, but they do exist.
On the other hand, this just means that it was even MORE about her than it is with the average cat. She didn’t ignore me – and God help me if I ever dared ignore her.