Customer Reviews

The Social Lives of Dogs

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4 star:		(2)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is one woman's story of living with (besides her family) a houseful of canines, cats, and other assorted critters and how they managed to co-exist peacefully (most of the time). Basically, it is a series of revealing anecdotes and stories, most of them heartwarming, a few heartbreaking or even astonishing (including two very different accounts of encounters with large wild cats). As with Lorenz's MAN MEETS DOG or Masson's DOGS NEVER LIE ABOUT LOVE, read this for the stories and not the science.

I borrowed this from the local library thinking it would be a great and interesting book. I love reading about animals, particularly dogs, and love realizing that I am not the only 'animal-nut' out there. However....some nuts are just nuttier and I would definitely have to classify Thomas as one of them.

She talks about anthropomorphism and how it is not as negative a term as many scholarly and scientific people would like us to believe. I don't exactly disagree with her, but I do think lines need to be drawn between what is human and what is not. Dogs are not. Yes, they are living, breathing, FEELING creatures but that still doesn't make them human. I don't doubt that they, like most if not all animals, think and feel but I do think that Thomas is in great danger of doing a disservice to animals in the way that she projects onto them.

I had to stop reading the book b/c, honestly put, I felt that I was reading the diary of a kook; someone who THOUGHT she knew what she was talking about but unfortunately someone who was TOO extreme in her ideas and opinions.

I would not recommend the book, nor do I wish to read anything else by her. I feel her ideas/opinions are too clouded by emotion and a desire to see what is not/could not/should not be there. She is the reason why science has made anthropomorphism negative.

Thank god I borrowed and didn't buy.

If, like me, you were horrified by the events in The Hidden Lives of Dogs, you needn't worry about a repeat in this wonderful book. The author has embraced the joy of the human-dog bond, and in fact by allowing her dogs much more freedom than most dogs enjoy has come to understand that dogs DO chose us for their companions! Her insights show how wolf heritage combines with generations of human cohabitation to create a one-of-a-kind animal in our dogs.

Her opinion that dogs are slaves is only mildly off-putting, though her strong stance against euthanasia is sad to read. Hopefully she will continue to mature in her view of dogs and realize that it is not a betrayal to euthanize an animal whose body has so deteriorated that he spends every moment in agony. I feel that I know these dogs well, and the author a little better, and like to "revisit" them all from time to time.

I fairly consumed this book reading it from tip to tail in the course of a few days. It was so engaging in fact that I read it in between my wife's contractions while she was well under way in early labor delivering our son, Connor. One hand massaging the back, one hand keeping the pages of Elizabeth Marshall Thomas' engrossing book open. They both worked well towards wonderful outcomes.

Thomas' title to her book may be somewhat misleading. Though it does focus on the social lives of dogs, it more so focuses on the social life of her zoo-like household of a multitude of dogs both permanent and transitory, cats and more cats, parrots, macaws, oh my, and a husband thrown in there somewhere. The book is more anecdotal than scientific which makes it infinitely more readable but less studied and definitive. Her fuzzy science pleases though drawing you in to her mixed-species household and you find yourself pulling for Sundog the ever-obedient confident alpha, Misty the wary, Ruby the jester, and Pearl the ebullient life-affirming lost car-finding heralder of all things barkable.

It's just hard to not love a dog, the wolves among us. Reading Thomas' book will cause you to love and appreciate them that much more.

Elizabeth Marshall Thomas answers many qustions about dogs, cats and birds in this book. Her observations are phenominal. She is a pure genius story teller. This is a must read for anyone, who feels that he or she is a loving and caring being. The book is well written, to the point and well researched. Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy as soon as possible. Guaranteed enjoyment.

This book is for anyone who likes animals and enjoys reading musings on what dogs/cats/birds... are thinking at any given moment. Thanks to her incredible descriptions and anecdotal tales, you may find yourself starting to think like a dog -- after reading about the white dog, Sundog, I wished I could have met him. She has a great eye for detail and has the ability to make anyone appreciate the complex canine world. I thought her dog fascist musings were funny, but I guess not everyone did. She is opinionated, but based on the inordinately high number of pets she has had over the years, I think she's earned that right. And if you were ever thinking of getting a parrot, read the parrot chapter!

The first 3/4 of the book was more absorbing in some ways than the final 1/4 which got into ESP and some other funky areas. I think she probably hit on the main point that probably dogs (and even humans) pick up different clues that account for the supposed coincidences. A very enjoyable book that will help you appreciate our canine friends.

Other reviewers have done a good job covering what the book is about. I just thought some people might like to know that the dogs on the cover are not the dogs talked about in the book. The main dogs in the book are a mixed breed of uncertain heritage, a Belgian Sheepdog, a 3/4 Australian Shepherd 1/4 Chow mix, a mixed breed which resembles a small German Shepherd, and an Australian Cattle Dog mix.

For those who are already fans of Elizabeth Marshall Thomas and her fine anthropologist's approach to studying animal culture, THE SOCIAL LIVES OF DOGS may be the finest jewel in her crown of works. This book chronicles an approximate fifteen-year study which included, in the order that they came to live in the Thomas household, Sundog, Misty, Pearl, Ruby, and Sheilah--dogs of varying breeds and mixes. Thomas tells, in her own beautiful and compassionate way, the story of each dog's incorporation into the lives of the other dogs, people, cats, and birds in her home. She succeeds beautifully in her sincere effort always to explain her animal observations and then to try to understand and interpret from the animal's point of view. What more could one ask of an anthropologist/ethologist?

For me, Thomas taps into something very deep and important--something that's difficult to find words for. But I know that it has to do with a message that says it's okay to feel deep emotions about your animals, to talk to them and hear their answers, and to sense and acknowledge their deep feelings. Even though many of us have known and felt this intuitively, it is neither the message that our Judeo/Christian tradition nor our Linnean <I> scala natura</I> science of classification has wanted to deliver to us.

In the introduction she poses the questions: "Can we understand the mind of an animal? . . .[do] animals have consciousness?" and then proceeds to say that for some scientists . . . "the view that animals are incapable of conscious thought, or even of emotion, has acquired an aura of scientific correctness, and at the moment is the prevailing dogma, as if some very compelling evidence to the contrary was not a problem." This reader is happy to say that her own experiences with animals have certainly provided "compelling evidence to the contrary."

On a final note, THE SOCIAL LIVES OF DOGS, even though written around the lives of the canines concerned, reads a little bit like Thomas's personal memoir. She puts a lot into perspective in the excellent epilogue, which I found to be the real icing on the cake. Even as Thomas finds "grace" in canine company, so does she tell their story with much grace. This book is a wonderful read!

Dogs, cats, birds and humans all co-exist in relative harmony in Elizabeth Marshall Thomas' household. Although the humans are the dominant species in the home it seems to be the dogs who orchestrate much of the social interaction. By so eloquently describing how her dogs interact in her home and by describing the history of the dog she shows us what an amazing creature the dog truly is, and how truly blessed we are as a species that they have chosen to associate with us.

A savvy TV producer once invited New Hampshire author Elizabeth Marshall Thomas to host a local cable show for the Humane Society. Her job was to introduce four animals in need of homes; an unruly dog with an incontinence problem, two feral kittens and one normal cat. Thomas adopted all four of them.

Anthropologist, novelist, and animal lover, Elizabeth Marshall Thomas writes of dog behavior with sympathy, insight and considerable humor. Following her bestseller, "The Hidden Life of Dogs" (which explored dog-with-dog culture), "The Social Life of Dogs," examines dog adaptation to human households, or, in the Thomas case, a multiple-species household.

At the time the book opens, Thomas and her husband, Steve, had three old dogs left from "The Hidden Life of Dogs" pack and didn't want any more. Steve "didn't want another animal of any description" and Elizabeth, while "always open to another dog," plans to wait until the old dogs died before getting an adult dog she can learn from, an Indian dog from Northern Canada, say, or a pariah dog from a Third World village. What she doesn't want is the white dog who quietly appears and won't leave - an American purebred cross.

Thomas does not approve of purebreds. "The important features of a dog are his brains and his persona," not looks. Still, unable to find the dog's owners, after a few days Thomas begins to ask herself, "what, after all, is really so wrong with a few purebred strains?"

And so begins her relationship with Sundog, the animal whose ashes will someday be mingled with her and Steve's. Her descriptions of Sundog's adoption of human mannerisms (the three old dogs rejected him totally) - his sharing of food, for instance, are touching and fascinating. Although Sundog did not like popcorn, the ritual of sharing was important to him - a kernel for Sundog, a kernel for Steve - until the bowl was empty. One evening Steve wanted to read without interruption. When Sundog took his usual chair at the table, Steve said "no" and put a handful of popcorn on the floor. Sundog, hurt, left the room. Although they swiftly followed him with the bowl, entreating him to return, Sundog never touched popcorn again and never returned to the table to share.

The next dog was a purebred (for what reason Marshall does not explain) purchased as a companion for Sundog. Having spent her first year of life without stimulation in a crate, the dog is a mess and Thomas buys her out of pity. Sundog rejects her. Misty's difficulties teach Marshall a great deal about the importance of early learning and Misty's insecurities about keeping "place two" lead to behavioral difficulties with visitors (canine or human), incoming cats and, especially, incoming dogs.

The third dog, Pearl, came from Marshall's son in Colorado and furnishes much of the book's hilarity and color. Protective, kindly and dignified, she disarms aggressive Misty by respectfully ignoring her furious antics. Over a period of four months she trains Marshall to rise at 4:30 am. She barks at everything and on a trip to the city barks herself hoarse at the strange cars until forced to take refuge on the floor. Distracted by the barking, late for a book signing, Marshall parks on an unfamiliar street and dashes to the bookstore, asking directions on the way. Only afterwards does she realize she has no idea whatsoever where the car might be. Marshall's description of Pearl's quick grasp of the situation and her take-charge solution is second only to the story of Pearl's knocking her headlong down a flight of stairs which ends, "Who could resist such a dog?"

When Marshall uses radio collars to find out what the cats are hunting (one is hurrying each morning to harrass a housebound cat through a window), Pearl accompanies her. When a radio collar fails, Pearl somehow deduces the problem and leads Marshall to the unappreciative feline.

The fourth dog is the incontinent, cat-chasing, chicken-killing Ruby, rescued from the Humane Society. Since her behavior is primarily unbearable to the other animals, Rajah the alpha cat and Rima the macaw train her swiftly, with none of Marshall's inexhuastible patience.

But Marshall delivers more than a collection of fascinating, poignant, hilarious anecdotes (though there is the rabbit who hunts squirrels with its dog companion, the birds who scold the dogs and summon the cats in Marshall's voice). A thoughtful, meticulous observor, she shares compelling insights into animal behavior, the social workings of groups (her own menage breaks down into smaller, multi-species units), and common difficulties with training.

So who is this book for? Dog lovers, obviously. But even dog fascists (her term) will appreciate the scope and grace of Marshall's writing, her abundant personality and forceful, controversial opinions. While focused primarily on dog behavior, the book is a delightful memoir of a very large, multi-species family, complete with belly laughs and tears.