“The Genius of Dogs, How Dogs Are Smarter Than You Think”, by Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods

Review by Pam Marr Rybinski

This book was compiled and researched by a husband/wife team in the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology and the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at Duke University. They have accomplished what few scientists do: they’ve written a research document that interlaces accurate evolutionary and scientific data with life-and-death human history. The authors met as scientists, researched as scientists, and married as mutual dog-lovers.

Hare and Woods have also, along with other world-leading experts, developed “a ground-breaking canine assessment tool” that functions as a “citizen science” project to aid scientists in obtaining data about dogs.

Careful research tests proved what some dog-owners know, that in some ways our family canines are similar to our human babies. Read this interesting book of research, special dogs, and the brave scientists who risk their lives and livelihoods to ascertain the paths of animal domestication. Along the way, discover the existence of the New Guinea Singing Dog, the fascinating society of the Bonobos, and the radical evolution of some Siberian silver foxes.