Wonderdog, Jules Howard
Wonderdog, Jules Howard
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Wonderdog
The Science of Dogs and Their Unique Friendship with Humans

Author: Jules Howard

Narrator: Jules Howard

Unabridged: 7 hr 9 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 08/12/2025


Synopsis

Almost everywhere there are humans, there are dogs. But what do dogs know and understand of the world? Do their emotions feel like our own? Do they love like we do? What do they think of us?

Since our alliance first began, our relationship with dogs has evolved considerably. In order to gauge where our relationship with dogs goes from here, author and zoologist Jules Howard takes a look at the historical paths we have trod together, and at the many scientists before him who turned their analytic eye on their own four-legged companions.

Charles Darwin and his contemporaries toyed with dog sign language and made special puzzle boxes and elaborate sniff tests using old socks. Later, the same questions drove Pavlov and Pasteur to unspeakable cruelty in their search for knowledge. Since then, leagues of psychologists and animal behaviorists have built upon the study of dogs and their much-improved methods have fetched increasingly important results.

With the help of vets, ethologists, neurologists, historians and his own dogs, Wonderdog reveals the study of dogs to be key in the advancement of compassion in scientific research, and crucial to making life on Earth better for all species.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Brian on May 13, 2022

As Jules Howard acknowledges, there have been plenty of books about what makes a dog tick, whether they are training manuals, evolutionary examinations such as The Wolf Within or ethological studies of humans' closest animal partner such as If Dogs Could Talk. But most of Jules Howard's Wonderdog ta......more

Goodreads review by Books By Your Bedside on April 07, 2022

Thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review. I’m always wary of people who don’t like dogs. If you’re scared of them or have an allergy, then fine. But if you have chosen not to like dogs then I’m already confused by you. Not only are they fl......more

Goodreads review by Tina on August 04, 2022

Very good. The author presents their findings about how dogs have been used to further scientific research and current research into canine behaviour. Warning: The horrific use of vivisection on dogs and other animals is discussed.......more

Goodreads review by R.J. on March 11, 2023

This book is kind of the reverse of what I was expecting: rather than the science of dogs (though that is covered to a degree), the focus is more on how dogs impacted science. A lot of the subject matter is interesting, but I wasn't really a fan of the author's style; some things, like the nature of......more

Goodreads review by Christie on September 24, 2023

This was a worthwhile read for anyone interested in the history of how dogs have been viewed by science over the past 200 or so years. It’s written at a level that anyone can understand, pop science at its best. It covers Pavlov, the behaviorists, and modern-day research on dog cognition, as well as......more