Description: Very Good. 0684865343 light shelf wear / edge wear cover / pages very good condition//"Buy with Confidence-Satisfaction Guaranteed! Customer Service Makes All the Difference. " read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Acceptable. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Very Good. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Free Press
Date Published: 2000-04-10
ISBN-13:9780684865348ISBN:0684865343
Description: Very Good. Binding is tight and square. Text is clean, bright and unmarked. Little wear. We recommend EXPEDITED MAIL for even faster delivery! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Free Press
Date Published: 2001-04-17
ISBN-13:9780743202978ISBN:074320297X
Description: New. This is a new 2001 softcover. All clean crisp text pages with a nice tight binding. Black and white instructional diagrams throughout. Daily shipping. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Free Press
Date Published: 2000
ISBN-13:9780684865348ISBN:0684865343
Description: New. Slight shelf wear. GoodwillnyBooks is committed to providing each customer with the highest standard of customer service. You may return new items within 30 days of delivery for a full refund. read more
Description: Fine. 074320297X Very light shelf wear / edge wear cover / pages like new condition//"Buy with Confidence-Satisfaction Guaranteed! Customer Service Makes All the Difference. " read more
"Neoteny, or the retention of juvenile characteristics such as rounded muzzle, floppy ears and high pitched bark, occurs in domestic canines, unlike wild canines. Some breeds of domestic dog have also lost some of th e ability to convey subtle social messages to the pack. In all, a fascinating book with great insight as to how dogs communicate with humans, with other species, and with each other."
There is one sound that dogs make which I have not included in my discussion of Doggish vocalizations. I didn't include it because it is an automatic sound, which probbably was not intended by either evolution or the gods to be communication at all, but it has come to mean something to me. It is the sound of dogs breathing.
At night, when I lie down to sleep, myoid dog Wiz lies on the bed beside me, while Odin lies on a cedar chip pillow on the floor close by my head. Just across the room, my puppy, Dancer, who is not quite fully house-trained, sleeps in his wire kennel. In the quiet and the darkness, sounds are amplified. I can hear the low, slow breathing of the big black dog, the short breaths of the orange puppy, and the occasional sniffle and snore of the old white dog. As I listen to those soft sounds, I think of some earlier man, lying in a cave or rude shelter, resting on a bed of hides or straw. It was a hostile, dangerous world. Weapons were primitive, resources often sparse, and there were menacing things that moved in the night. That long-gone ancestor also had dogs who lay beside him as he tried to sleep. His dogs breathed these same sounds and these sounds had meaning. They were not merely part of the language of nature - they were the sounds of safety and comfort, a recitation of the dog's eternal contract with humans.
"I am here with you," the dog's breath said. "We will face this life together. There is no beast or intruder that can steal up on you undetected because I am here, and I will be your eyes and ears. No harm will come to you because I am at your side to warn you, and to defend you if need be.
"We will hunt together tomorrow. We will herd together tomorrow. We will share the sunshine tomorrow. We will explore this world together. We will laugh together. We will play together, even though neither of us is any longer a child.
"If luck turns bad, then when you grieve, I will comfort you. You will never need to be alone again. I promise this. As your dog, I will sing this promise to you, and whisper it to you at night, every night, with my breath."
I can hear these words in my dogs' soft sounds of breathhing, and, just like my ancient ancestor, I understand these words and I am comforted. In my heart I know that if the language of dogs were so limited that this was the only message they could send, it would still be enough.
The book contains much interesting and useful information for people who interact with dogs and this information is presented in a relaxed, free-flowing, easy-to-read style. But what I most value is the clear light of Stanley Coren's gentle and respectful love for dogs which illuminates every sentence he writes but which is most clearly exemplified in the closing paragraphs which I have quoted."
"If you have a dog, this is a great book. Emphasis on body language and how your dog tries to communicate to you. Good read, slow reading for me, but worth it."
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