Tales of Two Species: Essays on Loving and Living with Dogs

How well do you and your dog understand each other?Have you ever caught yourself wondering what your dog is thinking when he rolls in something stinky? Do you wonder how much of your emotional life is like that of your dog's? What about life from your dog's perspective? Join best-selling author and ethologist Patricia McConnell in pondering these questions in this thought-provoking collection of essays about people and dogs. Written for every dog lover out there who wants to know more about their canine companion.Gain insight into the dog-human relationship-What does the name given to a dog say about the owner and the future relationship between the two of them?-Humans are experts at using words. Dogs are experts at body language. How can we use these talents to better communicate with each other?-We have bred dogs for many different purposes over thousands of years to hunt, to herd, to provide protection, even to cuddle. How has this process impacted a dog's ability to learn and be trained?-Why getting "dominance" over your dog isn't the answer to having a more obedient dog.What other dog experts say about Tales of Two SpeciesIt's rare for someone with so much scientific knowledge to have her feet so solidly planted in the real lives of dogs. This book is a gift to those of us who want to understand dogs better, to communicate with them more clearly, and perhaps most importantly, to help dogs understand us!Sue Sternberg, author of Great Dog Adoptions and A Guide to the Inducive RetrieveIn Tales of Two Species Patricia McConnell gives us a thoughtful and glowing picture of how the lives of dogs and people have become entwined. Some of these essays will make you laugh, others will bring a tear, but all will make you think more closely about your relationship with your own dog.Stanley Coren, author of The Modern Dog and Why Does My Dog Act That Way?Plato, Socrates, Descartes, McConnell those are the great philosophers. Truly no one in our time asks the questions McConnell does about why dogs act as they do. For anyone interesting in going beyond training, to truly begin to understand how the canine mind ticks, this book is a must.Steve Dale, My Pet World, Tribune Media Services; Pet Central, WGN Radio, Chicago; and nationally syndicated Steve Dale's Pet World