Cover, Wonderdog
Jules Howard’s Wonderdog: The Science of Dogs and their Unique Friendship with Humans is a science book for animal lovers. Looking at evolution, animal behavior, animal neurology, veterinary science, and history, Howard reminds viewers of all that is loveable about humankind’s “best friends” — even though they are, really and truly, nothing more or less than domesticated wolves, however cute and adoring.
Howard’s narrative begins with a historical look at the companionship of humans and dogs. With what will prove to be characteristic dry humor, Howard refers to the timeline he creates as a 500-sheet roll of toilet paper. He asks readers to imagine that the first sheet of freshly unwrapped toilet paper would have images of hominins about 5 million years ago. This would have been fewer than 2 million years after hominins deviated genetically from the great ape ancestors that they shared with chimpanzees. On the first roughly 250 sheets of the roll, images would show that humans looked and behaved like pretty much like chimps. At that 250-page mark, sheets would show people looking more human. Many would use stone tools. The very last sheet on the big roll would portray the Neolithic Period, the last part of the Stone Age. It extended from about 12000 BCE to 6500 BCE. That last sheet of toilet paper would contain images from the invention of agriculture, the foundation of villages, the creation of written language, and the domestication of animals. This is the period in which some dogs and humans became friends.
Howard explains that he titled his book Wonderdog because significant passages relate the lives of specific, real-life dogs with names like Oreo and Flip. According to Howard, their performances in tests or in real life have taught scientists volumes about the intellectual and social capabilities of dogs in general. Oreo, Flip, and friends live now or in the relatively recent past. While their stories fill much of the book’s narrative, early in the first chapter the book begins a deep look at Charles Darwin and what he presented to the world about dogs.
According to Wonderdog, Darwin mentioned dogs fifty times in On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. Howard attributes these many reprises partly to Darwin’s easy access to and fondness for his own dogs, but also to a calculation on Darwin’s part that writing about dogs would help his book appeal to the public at large. Without dumbing down his message, Darwin used dogs to make it reader-friendly.
Which is what Howard appears to have done, as well. Wonderdog is an avenue for him to talk about dogs. Clearly, they number among his favorite love objects and preoccupations. But it’s also a way for him to write a “for everyone” book about ideas like consciousness, the history of sensory knowledge, attachment, cognition, neuropsychology, social sensitivity, and the theory of mind. Who among us would read a book titled Science Topics You’ve Long Avoided Because You Didn’t Know They Have Anything To Do with You? Nah. But Wonderdog? Well, yeah, sure.
Wonderdog succeeds in drawing readers in and delivering reliable scientific information packaged in compelling and sometimes heart-warming anecdotes. I have no doubt that even the science-phobic among dog lovers can find Wonderdog exhilarating
Wonderdog: The Science of Dogs and their Unique Friendship with Humans
By Jules Howard
Pegasus Books
ISBN 978-1639362622
November 2022
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