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Key points
- The nature of dogs is complex: They're neither "the better humans" who understand a human's every word, nor silly creatures who just want food.
- Dogs are especially good at communicating with humans compared to other animals.
- Regarding physical cognition, dogs do not perform better than other social mammals.
I'm interested in all things dog, and am pleased to see that a new book titled What Dogs Know by dog experts Juliane Bräuer and Juliane Kaminski has recently been published.1 As these researchers point out, while we know a lot about the minds and hearts of dogs, there still is much we don't know. Thus, it's essential to distinguish myths from facts and it's perfectly okay to say, "I don't know" or ask, "What do all these dog studies really mean?"2,3 This is what the Julianes' new book nicely does, and I'm pleased both could take the time to answer a few questions about it.
Marc Bekoff: Why did you write What Dogs Know?
Juliane Braeuer: When we started the first version of the book (in 2007) we were quite impressed by many new studies on dog cognition that came out and changed the view on dogs in general. We felt that there are a lot of dog books, but most of them are not scientific. We wanted to inform non-scientists/normal dog owners about the new findings, and in particular, we wanted to describe how such findings are obtained.
Juliane Kaminski: My main motivation is to make sure that research is made accessible to the public in the best possible way. There are so many new things we are constantly learning about dogs and their understanding of the world they live in, which are published in scientific journals to which some members of the public do not have access. The book's aim is to change that.
MB: How does your book relate to your backgrounds and general areas of interest?
JB: I am a comparative psychologist, thus, I am interested in animal cognition in general and I really enjoy learning how different animals (for example dogs and wolves) react to the same task. That is why we also emphasize these comparisons in the book. It is maybe not so interesting that many dogs follow the human pointing gesture, but it gets really interesting if you learn that a chimpanzee is not able to do so.
JK: I, too, am a comparative psychologist, I am interested in the psychology of humans as well as non-human species. I am basically interested in how animals understand the world they live in.
In that context, I became fascinated with dogs' understanding of us and our communication. When I was at the beginning of my Ph.D., I met Rico. He was then an 8-year-old Border Collie who was reported to know more than 200 objects by name. I saw Rico on TV. I was fascinated and forever hooked. Rico was one of the first dogs I worked with, and we could demonstrate that Rico not only knew those 200 objects by name, but he also was able to learn the names of new objects by exclusion, something that was then thought to be a uniquely human skill. Seeing Rico do what he did sparked my fascination with dogs and that fascination has never stopped.
MB: Who is your intended audience?
JB and JK: It would make us happy if members of the public, dog owners, dog practitioners, dog lovers, and general animal lovers would find our book helpful. They are the people we had in mind when writing. This is a book about science, but it is not a scientific book; it was written for laypersons.
MB: What are some of the topics you weave into your book and what are some of your major messages?
JB: In my view, the main message is that dogs are neither "the better humans" who understand every word as some think, nor silly creatures who are just interested in the food that humans provide for them as others think. Dogs have some special skills; for example, they are especially good at communicating with humans, they form close relationships with us, and are motivated to cooperate with us. In other tasks, in particular regarding physical cognition, they do not perform better than other social mammals.
JK: The main topics we address deal with dogs' understanding of the social world. For example, we address questions including: Do dogs learn by observing others? What do dogs understand about human communication? Do you think that your dog knows that you cannot see them when you have your back turned to them? Do you think that your dog understands every word you say? Did you know that dogs have evolved a special sensitivity to the way we communicate through gestures and that that seems to be a special adaptation to life with humans?
We also address questions about dogs' understanding of the non-social physical world such as dogs' understanding of object permanence, for example, which is understanding that objects do not just disappear because you cannot see them anymore. Have you ever played the shell game with your dog? If so, you would know that they are not very good at it. We try to explain why.
MB: How does your book differ from others concerned with some of the same general topics?
JB: We describe the scientific studies and explain how these findings can be interpreted. For all the claims we make, there are scientific data, and where we present hypotheses, we highlight that these are just hypotheses. As I said above, there are thousands of dog books, but only a few are based on scientific findings.
MB: What are some of your current projects?
JB: I am very much interested in how the perfect sense of smell of dogs and their cognitive skills are related. Another project called "Finding Rico" is being conducted with Juliane K.
JK: I am very much interested in the question of whether dogs have a theory of mind and am also interested in dogs' formation of their "opinions" on us, such as what makes a "good" human in the dogs’ eyes.
MB: Is there anything else you'd like to tell readers?
JB: I think one problem in the "dog world" is that everyone who owns or even knows a dog thinks s/he is an expert. Thus, it is very important to me to distinguish between the interpretation of anecdotes and real scientific findings.2 If people learn this by reading the book, that would be wonderful.
References
In conversation with Juliane Bräuer and Juliane Kaminski
1) Juliane Bräuer is a dog cognition expert and researcher in the field of Comparative Psychology. Since 2016 she been the head of the Dog Studies at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History (also see Conversation with behavioural scientist – Juliane Bräuer). Juliane Kaminski is a Reader in Comparative Psychology in the Psychology Department of the University of Portsmouth, UK and the director of their Centre of Comparative Psychology as well as the director of the Dog Cognition Centre Portsmouth. Most famously she was the first to show that a dog named Rico could learn words in a similar fashion as human infants.
2) For numerous discussions of the importance of distinguishing myths from facts, click here and here. I also look forward to studies on free-ranging dogs to compare what they do and what predominantly "homed" dogs who are studied in labs do.
3) The book is more about cognition than emotions. I was surprised not to see any mention of the work of Mark Derr and similar ideas about the process of domestication, for example, "Dumping the Dog Domestication Dump Theory Once and For All" and "The First Domestication: How Wolves and Humans Coevolved."
Bräuer, Juliane and Juliane Kaminski. What Dogs Know. Springer Nature, 2022.
