I'm on way to Bethesda MD to speak at NIH at a forum about the Human-Animal Bond, I'll write about the other speaker's talks when I get back later in the week. The talks promise to be very, very interesting. But today I wanted to alert those of you who are interested in animal behavior and animal cognition in general to a new book that has just come out: Alex and Me. It is written by Irene Pepperberg, and is about her relationship with the African Grey Parrot, Alex. Alex is the internationally famous parrot who Dr. Pepperberg taught to use words, not just to describe objects or actions, but to label concepts, like bigger or different. Many had argued that non-human animals were unable, cognitively, to understand something as abstract as a concept (you can't pick up a "bigger," now can Read More
Boys, Girls and Forever Dogs
I am fascinated by your posts about differences in training with male and female dogs (or not.) I'll keep reading, and in a few weeks I'll summarize what you've all said on another post. But just to add to the fire, I want to ask another question about male and female dogs, but this time about the sex of your "forever" dog. Here's the question: If you have, or have ever had, a one-in-a-million dog, a dog who who you think of as our soul mate or your "forever dog," was he or she the same sex as you, or the opposite? Again, I'm not saying nothing til I hear from you. A related question is: do you think you have a different social relationship with same sex and different sex dogs? Does sex have any role in how you feel about dogs? I will tell you some thoughts of mine about this one: It Read More
Tales of Two Species, Essays on People and Dogs
It's a wonderful thing to hold a book you wrote in your hand, long after the writing and the editing and the discussions with the publishers about cover photos and who to ask for quotes on the back... My new book, Tales of Two Species: Loving and Living with Dogs just came from the printers, and I have to admit it feels good to see it. It's a collection of essays written over the years for Bark magazine, published by Dogwise (who I call the Amazon of dog books). Working with the editors of Bark has been a joy, and collaborating with the folks at Dogwise has been equally delightful (I presume you are not shocked to learn that this is not always the case between author and publisher? I have been exceptionally lucky with my national books, having wonderful editors at Ballantine who have Read More
The miracle of our relationship with dogs
I'm off in an hour to Virginia to do the For the Love of a Dog seminar on Saturday (about emotions in people and dogs) and a half day version of Both Ends of the Leash (focusing on how OUR behavior influences that of our dogs). Both seminars are fulfilling to do, I love doing them both. Spending a day on emotions---the basis of our bond with dogs if you think about it---is always wonderful for me. Every time I give the seminar I learn something new, and every time I end the day overwhelmed at the miracle of our relationship with a entirely different species. Think about it: two very different species with individuals who will risk their life for a member of the other species. That's amazing, truly amazing. On Sunday we'll become field ethologists observing the always interesting Read More