Inside of a Dog by Alexandra Horowitz

I loved dogs when I was a kid. We always had a dog. In my twenties and thirties life was busy and though I still loved dogs we did not have them. However when I remarried my wife had a dog and more importantly members of her family all had dogs and thus began my reattachment to dogs. Last September I got a Corgi and I have to say that I am now a fill blown dog lover. I love time spent with him. I have trained him well although there is still room for improvement.

Alexandra Horowitz is a dog lover. She wants to know what a dog thinks, sees, and feels. Of course much of what we think we know about these subjects has to be subjective because no one is talking to any dogs that I know of. Still the book is very interesting. Horowitz talks about what a dog sees, he sees more in motion and motion attracts his attention. We talk about hearing, a dog hears many things that humans do not. Biggest of all we learn about a dogs nose. An example, dogs smell in the billionths of particles while humans are in the millions.

Expiriments done with dogs have attempted to prove many different viewpoints. I found the dog interesting, but not in the sense that I now feel like I know more than I did before about what dogs think and know. Most of what she discusses I knew, or at least had heard before.

Dogs live in the moment, but they are creatures of habit and practice. Routine is important to them. I can vouch for this, I am a very structured person and have trained my Corgi to be in a routine, or OCD as my wife calls it. Corgi's are herding dogs and he does herd us. The author talks about this, about how your dog and his breeding have made him who he is, his habits, his traits, everything.

Most affecting perhaps is the authors obvious love for her dog. We get periodoic intervals of her experiences with her beloved dog Pump. Most of us dog lovers can understand and appreciate all she talks about from the intruding into our space when they want something, to the eyes that stare at us, to the ball that gets under the couch and their insistence that we help them to the joy of having your dog curl up in the nook of your knees when you sleep on your side.

I love my dog. If you are in love with your dog and curious for an outlook on his inner workings and thoughts served up with a fair amount of admitting everything is just an educated guess but knowing no matter what we like the end result of what goes on inside our dogs this is a book you will enjoy.