Unleashing Your Dog: A Field Guide to Giving Your Canine Companion the Best Life Possible

by Marc Bekoff, Jessica Pierce

Overview

No matter how cushy their lives, dogs live on our terms. They compromise their freedom and instinctual pleasure, as well as their innate strategies for coping with stress and anxiety, in exchange for the love, comfort, and care they get from us. But it is possible to let dogs be dogs without wreaking havoc on our lives, as biologist Marc Bekoff and bioethicist Jessica Pierce show in this fascinating book. They begin by illuminating the true nature of dogs and helping us “walk in their paws.” They reveal what smell, taste, touch, sight, and hearing mean to dogs and then guide readers through everyday ways of enhancing dogs’ freedom in safe, mutually happy ways. The rewards, they show, are great for dog and human alike.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781608685424
Publisher:	New World Library
Publication date:	03/05/2019
Pages:	216
Sales rank:	683,556
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

The author or editor of thirty books, Marc Bekoff, PhD, is professor emeritus of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and a former Guggenheim fellow. The author of ten books and hundreds of articles, Jessica Pierce, PhD, is faculty affiliate at the University of Colorado Center for Bioethics and Humanities.

Table of Contents

Part One: Canine Captives

What Does “Being Captive” Mean?
Unleashing Dogs, Enhancing Freedoms
Becoming Fluent in Dog
Walking in Their Paws
Giving Dogs the Best Possible Lives

Part Two: The Field Guide to Freedoms: Exercising and Enhancing the Senses

SMELL

Sniffing
Peeing
Rolling in Stinky Stuff
Scent Identity: Dog perfumes, shampoos, deodorants
Olfactory Overload: Can there be too much of a good thing?
Butts: A critical canine communication center
Burps, Gas, and Dog Breath

TASTE

Let Them Eat Pasta
A Detour into the Dog’s “Second Nose”
Eating Gross Stuff: Tasting the Wild
Drooling
The Joys of Working for Food
How Food Is Offered
Obesity
Chewing

TOUCH

Mediating How Dogs Sense the World Through Touch: Walking, Collaring, Leashing
Walking as Shared Time, Mutual Tolerance, or Power Struggle
Off Leash Time
Friends
Petting
Hugging and Licking
Whiskers
Together Time
Alone Time

SIGHT

Dog-Dog Interactions
Tales about Tails
Losing a Tail
Speaking with Ears
Emotionally Intelligent Dogs
Your Dog Is Watching You

HEARING

Barks and Growls
Whining and Whimpering
Baby-talking Our Dogs
Quiet Time
Noise Phobias
Audible for Dogs

Play: A Kaleidoscope of the Senses
The State and Future of Dogs
Acknowledgements
Bibliography
Notes

Editorial Reviews

Imagine having dogs stand up and tell you how to give them their best lives. While they can’t (or, at least, it can be tricky to translate what they’re saying), Marc Bekoff and Jessica Pierce can. This book beautifully uses the science of dogs to help dog people bring compassion to our lives with them.”
— Alexandra Horowitz, head of the Dog Cognition Lab at Barnard College and author of Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know and Being a Dog: Following the Dog Into a World of Smell

“This is not just another dog book. It’s a dog manifesto! Written by two supremely gifted experts, Unleashing Your Dog reveals not only what your dog wants but why. You owe it to your dog to read this book!”
— Sy Montgomery, author of The Soul of an Octopus and How to Be a Good Creature

“As always, Marc Bekoff and Jessica Pierce champion the dog’s point of view. Unleashing Your Dog is a scholarly book that is also a delightful must-read for dogs’ human companions. It will enrich their dog savvy and improve their dogs’ quality of life by giving them the opportunity to experience life through their dogs’ eyes — well, actually, their noses and ears. I loved this book.”
— Dr. Ian Dunbar, author of Before and After Getting Your Puppy

“A must-read for all dog owners. We could all do with understanding our canine companions a bit better.”
— Modern Dog

“This insightful and thought-provoking book offers information about the inner lives of our dogs that educates while being immensely readable. Marc Bekoff and Jessica Pierce debunk myths (such as that dogs don’t experience jealousy — yes, they do), and explain why off-leash time and opportunities to use their extraordinary senses are so vital to the well-being of our canine friends who are, essentially, living in captivity. This book is a must-read for everyone who wishes to understand dogs and build harmonious relationships with the dogs in their lives.”
— Lisa Tenzin-Dolma, author and principal of the International School for Canine Psychology & Behaviour

“In this remarkably informative, inspirational book, ethologist Marc Bekoff and ethicist Jessica Pierce explore ways we can improve the lives of the dogs we claim to love but too often hold in virtual captivity. Everyone who shares their life with a dog or is thinking of doing so will benefit from this book, as will the dogs. In unleashing their dog, readers might find that they have liberated themselves to once again take joy in small pleasures, like a dog running freely.”
— Mark Derr, author of Dog’s Best Friend, A Dog’s History of America, and How the Dog Became the Dog

“In our modern times it is so easy to forget that, despite all our efforts, our best friends have remained dogs! Marc Bekoff and Jessica Pierce provide a powerful eye-opener on this fact for all dog owners.”
— Dr. Ádám Miklósi, head of ethology at Eötvös Loránd Universityand director of the Family Dog Project

“Marc Bekoff and Jessica Pierce — both superbly savvy, super dog-knowledgeable and dog-friendly PhDs — make a great team when it comes to helping us understand and provide properly for our dogs. In this glorious book, they urge us to consider dog ownership from the dogs’ point of view, to ‘walk in their paws,’ so to speak. This book will ultimately ensure that your dog has a home for life and you have a much-loved and properly understood canine companion. Two paws up for this great work! Designed to inform and educate in an entertaining and easy-to-read format, it will help dogs and dog owners everywhere live richer lives.”
— Dr. Nicholas H. Dodman, professor emeritus at Tufts Universityand author of The Dog Who Loved Too Much and The Well-Adjusted Dog

“Unleashing Your Dog is the go-to book for enriching the lives of dogs. With practical suggestions based on cutting-edge scientific research, Marc Bekoff and Jessica Pierce show how dogs can exercise their senses and bodies to enjoy life to its fullest in a human-dominated world. This easy-to-read guide will enlighten and entertain dog lovers everywhere.”
— Dr. Marty Becker, DVM, author of Your Dog: The Owner’s Manual

From the Publisher