Making sense of dog senses: how our furry friends experience the world

"The book's introduction puts canine senses into evolutionary perspective and includes theories about the origin of today's dogs. Each of the following five chapters opens with a real-life canine anecdote and goes on to examine one of the five main senses, explaining canine senses from both an evolutionary and scientific perspective. A concluding chapter explores whether or not dogs have senses that people do not and includes a round-up that compares the performance of dog and human senses. Sidebars throughout the book feature additional interesting facts and hands-on activities that let readers experience a dog's sensory abilities for themselves. The backmatter includes suggestions for further reading, a glossary, and an index. And of course, Raz's bright and incredibly cute illustrations strikes just the right balance of humorous delight in our dog friends with clear, solid science illustrations. Written in a super approachable tone and loaded with fascinating facts, Making Sense of Dog Senses presents readers with both curious and practical insights into their canine pals' behavior. For example, early dogs likely survived as scavengers that ate waste left behind by humans, so a taste for garbage and, yes, poop comes naturally to them. (This might still be a gross behavior but framed that way, it does makes sense.) And did you know that dogs have millions more olfactory receptors than humans and that their noses are built to reserve some air that they breathe in just for smelling? So why the butt sniffing? Dogs actually discern a lot of information about another dog from a whiff of that region, including the dog's health, eating habits and readiness to mate. A playful yet scientifically precise exploration of how dogs see, hear, taste, touch, and smell that will help readers better appreciate the canine point of view - and even explain all the butt sniffing."--