At the Bob Bailey seminar last spring I heard that Raymond Coppinger would have a new book out. I was very excited. His 2001 book Dogs: A New Understanding of Canine Origin, Behavior, and Evolution made a big impact on me when I first read it a year or two after it was published.
Picture taken from the publisher’s website.
This book is a really concise and dog-related version of most of what I learned in the biology/behavior/ethology classes in college. In short – both ‘nature’ (genetics) and ‘nurture’ (environment) really, really important in the how-what-why for so many things about behavior and structural development.
Not all of the examples are dogs – but most examples and concepts are related back to dogs. The behavior sections are especially relevant for my work and while most of it was a review, it gave me a lot to think about and in some ways makes some training challenges seem almost hopeless – some behavior patterns may be so strongly genetically predisposed that behavior change plans may not be realistic, efficient, or even possible.
Definitely more of a sciency and ethology book, almost textbook-like than how many general dog behavior books. Some of the analogies didn’t seem as strong (and may even be confusing) but if you haven’t read much about ethology and biology this could be a good introduction to many concepts. Most of the chapters were about behavior (foraging, play, etc) but there were quite a few side trips about structure/form and other topics. These are ultimately relevant – different shapes of dogs will result in different physical abilities and dogs who are better for various functions.
I’m not entirely sure who the intended audience is. Like his first book, I don’t know that many dog trainers or dog enthusiasts will be able to appreciate it. I don’t think most of the general public would pick it up for some reading even though there are so many science books written for the ‘average person’ now. I’m really glad this was put together – and I’m interested to hear what other dog enthusiasts think.
Note: Coppinger has a fiction/humorous book called Fishing Dogs about aquatic dogs (which aren’t real and don’t exist). It’s written in a sciency-way of someone who would observe these dogs and study them. My local library has this book in the non-fiction section.