What the Dog Knows

This book is good, but it is deceptive. I can imagine a great deal of people picked up this book because they thought it would be an in-depth examination of the science behind working dogs. The title certainly seems to suggest that this is what the book will be about. Rather, the book is about one woman's relationship with her dog and how she used that relationship to explore some, but not all, aspects of working dogs. She does a good job of examining the fields in which she is interested, and for the most part does seem to rely on science. I would say she trusts a little too much in law enforcement, although she does call out charlatans in this field. But I think she wants to make a clear division between the slave hunters using dogs and police dogs of the Modern age, although there really isn't much of a clear division it's more of an evolution of a tool that is used for various purposes. And that tool does have a racist history. The history in the book is a little weak and the science in the book is really weak as well, but where it does shine is in the story of her relationship with her dog Solo. It's kind of a less sad version of Marley and Me. It's less sad because even though Solo ages and is an old dog by the end of the book we do not know what happens to him at the end and I, for one, am grateful for that because Marley and Me is the only book that made me cry in public. So if you like dog books you can pick this one up, but if you were looking for a more scientific perspective perhaps choose a different book.