What's a Dog For?

Author: John Homans
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0143124129
Category : Pets
Languages : en
Pages : 273

Book Description
As dogs take their place as coddled family members and their numbers balloon to over 77 million in the United States alone, it’s no surprise that canine culture is undergoing a massive transformation. Now subject to many of the same questions of rights and ethics as people, the politics of dogs are more tumultuous and public than ever—with fierce moral battles raging over kill shelters, puppy mills, and breed standards. Incorporating interviews and research from scientists, activists, breeders, and trainers, What’s a Dog For? investigates how dogs have reached this exalted status, and why they hold such fascination for us humans.

What Is a Dog?

Author: Raymond Coppinger
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022635900X
Category : Pets
Languages : en
Pages : 292

Book Description
“An informative, well-written book on the evolution of all canids, including the wild types (wolves, coyotes, jackals, and dingoes)…Recommended.”—Choice Of the world’s dogs, fewer than two hundred million are pets, living with humans who provide food, shelter, squeaky toys, and fashionable sweaters. But roaming the planet are four times as many dogs who are their own masters—neighborhood dogs, dump dogs, mountain dogs. They are dogs, not companions, and these dogs, like pigeons or squirrels, are highly adapted scavengers who have evolved to fit particular niches in the vicinity of humans. This book present an eye-opening analysis of the evolution and adaptations of these unleashed dogs and what they can reveal about the species as a whole. Exploring the natural history of these animals, canine behavior experts Raymond and Lorna Coppingers explain how the village dogs of Vietnam, India, Africa, and Mexico are strikingly similar. These feral dogs, argue the Coppingers, are in fact the truly archetypal dogs, nearly uniform in size and shape and incredibly self-sufficient. Drawing on nearly five decades of research, they show how dogs actually domesticated themselves in order to become such efficient scavengers of human refuse. The Coppingers also examine the behavioral characteristics that enable dogs to live successfully and to reproduce, unconstrained by humans, in environments that we ordinarily do not think of as dog friendly. A fascinating exploration of what it actually means, genetically and behaviorally, to be a dog, What Is a Dog? is likely to change the way beagle or bulldog owners reflect on their four-legged friends.

Inside of a Dog

Author: Alexandra Horowitz
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1847379575
Category : Pets
Languages : en
Pages : 313

Book Description
As an unabashed dog lover, Alexandra Horowitz is naturally curious about what her dog thinks and what she knows. As a cognitive scientist she is intent on understanding the minds of animals who cannot say what they know or feel. This is a fresh look at the world of dogs -- from the dog's point of view. The book introduces the reader to the science of the dog -- their perceptual and cognitive Abilities -- and uses that introduction to draw a picture of what it might be like to bea dog. It answers questions no other dog book can -- such as: What is a dog's sense of time? Does she miss me? Want friends? Know when she's been bad? Horowitz's journey, and the insights she uncovered from studying her own dog, Pumpernickel, allowed her to understand her dog better, and appreciate her more through that understanding. The reader will be able to do the same with their own dog. This is not another dog training book. Instead, Inside of a Dogwill allow dog owners to look at their pets' behaviour in a different, and revealing light, enabling them to understand their dogs and enjoy their relationship even more.

What's My Dog Thinking?

Author: Hannah Molloy
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0744038359
Category : Pets
Languages : en
Pages : 192

Book Description
Discover the true meaning of dog behavior to form the deepest bond with your canine companion. What does it really mean when a dog rolls over and shows their tummy? They're not always looking for a belly rub... Drawing on the latest research in dog psychology, this book reveals the secret meanings behind more than 80 canine behaviors, including the seven types of dog greetings and why some dogs eat your underwear! Packed with dog watching tips and positive reinforcement training advice, this book will help you keep your dog happy, stimulated - and adorable!

What It's Like to Be a Dog

Author: Gregory Berns
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0465096255
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 260

Book Description
"Dog lovers and neuroscientists should both read this important book." -- Dr. Temple Grandin What is it like to be a dog? A bat? Or a dolphin? To find out, neuroscientist and bestselling author Gregory Berns and his team did something nobody had ever attempted: they trained dogs to go into an MRI scanner -- completely awake -- so they could figure out what they think and feel. And dogs were just the beginning. In What It's Like to Be a Dog, Berns takes us into the minds of wild animals: sea lions who can learn to dance, dolphins who can see with sound, and even the now extinct Tasmanian tiger. Berns's latest scientific breakthroughs prove definitively that animals have feelings very much like we do -- a revelation that forces us to reconsider how we think about and treat animals. Written with insight, empathy, and humor, What It's Like to Be a Dog is the new manifesto for animal liberation of the twenty-first century.

What Is a Dog?

Author: Chloe Shaw
Publisher: Flatiron Books
ISBN: 1250210755
Category : Pets
Languages : en
Pages : 224

Book Description
On the heels of her family’s beloved dog’s death, one woman returns to the canines of her past in order to imagine the human she hopes to become in the future in her memoir, What Is a Dog? Chloe Shaw is in a dog house of her own choosing. A married mother with kids, the death of Booker, her children’s eldest family pet, has left her reeling and reckoning with her lifelong relationship with dogs. Unable to shake the feeling a year later, she asks her family for some time alone to be with nothing but her thoughts and remaining canines, Safari and Otter—only to find the dogs of her past pawing at her every memory and running, sticks in mouths, back into her life. What follows is a meditation on one woman’s life through the dogs she's loved and lost. Since she was a child, Shaw had learned to escape the hardest parts of being human by immersing herself in the lives of her canine companions, an adaptive attachment that carried her to adulthood. Yet, in marriage and motherhood, Shaw finds herself facing her most human struggles yet. Her old ways of “being the dog” in the face of hardship prove destructive, and it’s not until she’s able to love herself and learn from the dogs of her past and present that can she truly thrive as a person, and show up for the family who needs her to be their person. With artful prose and a philosophical touch, Shaw takes us on an emotional journey anyone who has ever loved and lost a dog will connect with—and discovers dogs do more than just make our lives better—they quietly (and sometimes loudly) pull us boldly toward the person we were always meant to be.

What's Wrong with My Dog?

Author: Jake Tedaldi
Publisher: Fair Winds
ISBN: 161673423X
Category : Dogs
Languages : en
Pages : 306

Book Description

Meaning

Author: Paul Horwich
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019823824X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 258

Book Description
What is meaning? Paul Horwich presents an original philosophical theory, demonstrates its richness, and reconciles his theory with a rational view of meaning derived from its use, thereby vindicating his standpoint.

What Is Truth?

Author: Joseph Erban
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1435720091
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 117

Book Description
From Plato until now, thinkers throughout history inquired the nature of truth and its attainment. In a world where many allege to possess the "ultimate" truth, the book examines if a claim to truth is ever certain. Why question beliefs? What counts as evidence? What are credible beliefs? Is science true? Can the future be predicted with certainty? These are some of the questions Joseph Erban investigates in his latest book that explores What is Truth?

Rule-following and Meaning

Author: Alexander Miller
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317489659
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 313

Book Description
The rule-following debate, in its concern with the metaphysics and epistemology of linguistic meaning and mental content, goes to the heart of the most fundamental questions of contemporary philosophy of mind and language. This volume gathers together the most important contributions to the topic, including papers by Simon Blackburn, Paul Boghossian, Graeme Forbes, Warren Goldfarb, Paul Horwich, John McDowell, Colin McGinn, Ruth Millikan, Philip Pettit, George Wilson, Crispin Wright, and Jose Zalabardo. The debate has centred on Saul Kripke's reading of the rule-following sections in Wittgenstein and his consequent posing of a sceptical paradox that threatens our everyday notions of linguistic meaning and mental content. These essays are attempts to respond to this challenge and represent some of the most important work in contemporary theory of meaning. With an introductory essay and a comprehensive guide to further reading this book is an excellent resource for courses in philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, Wittgenstein, and metaphysics, as well as for all philosophers, linguists, and cognitive scientists with interests in these areas.