NOW FULLY REVISED AND UPDATED! The beloved #1 New York Times bestseller that “causes one’s dog-loving heart to flutter with astonishment and gratitude” ( The New York Times Book Review ). The instant classic on the mind of the dog is now updated to include the latest results in the booming field of dog cognition. What do dogs know? How do they think? The answers will surprise and delight you as cognitive scientist Alexandra Horowitz explains how dogs perceive their daily worlds, each other, and that other quirky animal, the human. Inside of a Dog is a fresh look at the world of dogs—from the dog’s point of view. In clear, crisp prose, Horowitz introduces the reader to dogs’ perceptual and cognitive abilities and then draws a picture of what it might be like to be a dog. What’s it like to be able to smell not just every bit of open food in the house but also to smell human emotions and even the passage of time? What is it like to have such good hearing that they notice the bodily vibrations of insects and the hum of a fluorescent light? Horowitz’s engaging narrative allows us to replace our urge to anthropomorphize dogs with a true understanding of the canine experience. What’s it like to use your mouth as a hand? How does a tiny dog manage to play successfully with a Great Dane? Why must a person on a bicycle be chased? This fully revised and updated edition also reflects the latest findings on canine perception, dogs’ understanding of our emotions and of our language, and the evolving story of domestication. Some discoveries are not only informative but curiously amusing, such as dogs’ asymmetrical nostril use and their alignment with the earth’s magnetic field when pooing. Much more than a scientific exploration; Inside of a Dog is a love letter to dogs, filled with personal observations and practical advice for people who live with dogs. With a light touch and the weight of scientific authority behind her, Horowitz offers an unparalleled exploration into the minds of our beloved four-legged companions. "...causes one's dog-loving heart to flutter with astonishment and gratitude..." -The New York Times "...a thoughtful take on the interior life of the dog....long on insight and short on jargon..." -Washington Post "nearly flawless" -The Bark magazine Alexandra Horowitz is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know ; On Looking: A Walker’s Guide to the Art of Observation ; Being a Dog: Following the Dog into a World of Smell ; Our Dogs, Ourselves: The Story of a Singular Bond ; and The Year of the Puppy: How Dogs Become Themselves . She teaches at Barnard College, where she runs the Dog Cognition Lab. She lives with her family of Homo sapiens , Canis familiaris , and Felis catus in New York City. 1. Umwelt: From the Dog’s Point of Nose Umwelt: From the Dog’s Point of Nose This morning I was awakened by Pump coming over to the bed and sniffing emphatically at me, millimeters away, her whiskers grazing my lips, to see if I was awake or alive or me. She punctuates her rousing with an exclamatory sneeze directly in my face. I open my eyes and she is gazing at me, smiling, panting a hello. Go look at a dog. Go on, look—maybe at one lying near you right now, curled around their folded legs on a dog bed, or sprawled on their side on the tile floor, paws flitting through the pasture of a dream. Take a good look—and now forget everything you know about this or any dog. This is admittedly a ridiculous exhortation: I don’t really expect that you could easily forget even the name or favored food or unique profile of your dog, let alone everything about them. I think of the exercise as analogous to asking a newcomer to meditation to enter into satori, the highest state, on the first go: aim for it, and see how far you get. Science, aiming for objectivity, requires that one becomes aware of prior prejudices and personal perspective. What we’ll find, in looking at dogs through a scientific lens, is that some of what we think we know about dogs is entirely borne out; other things that appear patently true are, on closer examination, more doubtful than we thought. And by looking at our dogs from another perspective—from the perspective of the dog—we can see new things that don’t naturally occur to those of us encumbered with human brains. So the best way to begin understanding dogs is by forgetting what we think we know. The first things to forget are anthropomorphisms. We see, talk about, and imagine dogs’ behavior from a human-biased perspective, imposing our own emotions and thoughts on these furred creatures. Of course , we’ll say, dogs love and desire just like we do; of course they dream and think as we do; they know and understand us, feel bored, get jealous, and get depressed. What could be a more natural explanation of a dog staring dolefully at you as you leave the house for the day than that they are depressed that you’re go