Reading ‘Inside of a Dog’ has made me look at dogs in a different way. I have always thought of my pets as human and hadn’t realised they have another perspective on the world that is unlike ours. The author has combined her love of animals with a scientist’s background to research dog’s behaviour. There is a lot of information packed into 301 pages of very interesting reading and the biggest revelation for me was that humans see, hear and smell very differently because of our genetic makeup. Dogs have better hearing and sense of smell and they see things faster. They are also lower to the ground so their world and field of view is much different. Therefore dogs process information in another way, but manage to live with us so easily. We are their source of food and shelter and they dedicate most of their time to studying us and our behaviours.
There were a lot of things that wowed me but one fact I found most interesting; “a dog can detect a teaspoon of sugar diluted in a million gallons of water” Think about that the next time you are walking your dog and he stops to smell a blade of grass.
I would recommend 'Inside of a Dog' by Alexandra Horowitz to all dog lovers.
