What the Dog Knows: Scent, Science, and the Amazing Ways Dogs Perceive the World

Description

What the Dog Knows: Scent, Science, and the Amazing Ways Dogs Perceive the World

by Cat Warren

*Bargain Book*

ISBN: 9781451667325

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Publication Year: 2013

Format: Trade Paperback

Pages: 352

From the back cover:

“Cat Warren had tried everything she could think of to harness her dog Solo’s boundless energy and enthusiasm…until a dog trainer suggested she try training him to be a search dog. What started out as a hobby soon became a calling, as Warren was introduced to the hidden universe of dogs who do this essential work and the handlers who train them.

Solo has a fine nose and knows how to use it, but he’s only one of many thousands of working dogs all over the U.S., a group that includes cadaver dogs; tracking, trailing, and apprehension dogs; dogs that can locate unmarked graves of Civil War soldiers; and even dogs that can find drowning victims more than two hundred feet below the surface of a  lake. These abilities may seem magical or mysterious, but Warren shows the science, the rigorous training, and the skilled handling that underlie these amazing abilities.

Through intrepid reporting and on-the-ground fieldwork with Solo, Warren discovers story after story that prove the capabilities – as well as the very real limits – of working dogs and their human partners. Clear-eyed and unsentimental, Warren explains why our partnership with working dogs is woven into the fabric of society, and why we keep finding new uses for the wonderful noses of our four-legged friends.”