As beloved and familiar as they are, we rarely stop to consider life from the dog’s point of view. That stops now. In this latest installment of the Freakonomics Radio Book Club, we discuss Inside of a Dog with the cognitive scientist (and dog devotee) Alexandra Horowitz.
Listen and subscribe to our podcast at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or elsewhere. Below is a transcript of the episode, edited for readability. For more information on the people and ideas in the episode, see the links at the bottom of this post.
* * *
America is a dog-loving nation. Hard numbers aren’t easy to come by, but it’s estimated there are between 77 and 90 million dogs in the U.S., with roughly 40 to 50 percent of households having at least one. We also have a lot of cats, but dogs appear to be a bit more popular. The pandemic has brought even more dogs into our homes, and made us even closer. So, how well do you know your dog? We may think we know them pretty well. But the fact that they are so familiar can actually make it harder to see dogs as they really are.
Alexandra HOROWITZ: Initially, studying dogs — having a familiar species as my chosen subject — was a little bit of a deficit because people felt like dogs were already understood, right? I mean, hopefully we know something about them because they’re living in our house and they’re in my bed right now, you know? And the thought was that you don’t really need research in this field.
Alexandra Horowitz runs the Dog Cognition Lab at Barnard College in New York, which is part of Columbia University. She’s the author of several books about dogs, the best-known of which is called Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know. Here’s one brief passage that we asked her to read — page 7 of the paperback if you want to follow along.
I’ve gotten inside of the dog, and have glimpsed the dog’s point of view. You can do the same. If you have a dog in the room with you, what you see in that great, furry pile of dogness is about to change.
Inside of a Dog was Horowitz’s first book. It was published in 2009 and it was a significant best-seller; now it’s considered a classic. At least I consider it a classic.
Go look at a dog. Go on, look — maybe at one lying near you right now, curled around his folded legs on a dog bed, or sprawled on his side on the tile floor, paws flitting through the pasture of a dream. Take a good look — and now forget everything you know about this or any dog.
Today on Freakonomics Radio: we will take a good look at dogs, try to forget everything we know — and try to understand them from the inside out. It’s another installment of the Freakonomics Radio Book Club, in which we interview the author of a noteworthy book and hear some of the best passages read aloud. You’re going to like this one, I promise. Even if you are a cat person.
* * *
Alexandra Horowitz grew up in Colorado and always loved dogs, but it...
Read the Original Article on Source Page
#Forget #Dog
0 Post a Comment:
Post a Comment