The year of the puppy : how dogs become themselves

The year of the puppy How dogs become themselves

Alexandra Horowitz

Book - 2022

"What is it like to be a puppy? Author of the classic Inside of a Dog, Alexandra Horowitz tries to find out, spending a year scrutinizing her puppy's daily existence, and poring over the science of early dog development. Few of us meet our dogs at Day One. The dog who will, eventually, become an integral part of our family, our constant companion and best friend, is born without us into a family of her own. A puppy's critical early development into the dog we come to know is usually missed entirely. Dog researcher Alexandra Horowitz aimed to change that with her family's new pup, Quiddity (Quid). In this scientific memoir she charts Quid's growth from wee grub to boisterous sprite, from her birth to her first birthd...ay. Horowitz follows Quid's first weeks with her mother and ten roly-poly littermates, and then each week after the puppy joins her household of three humans, two large dogs, and a wary cat. She documents the social and cognitive milestones that so many of us miss in our puppies' lives, when caught up in the housetraining and behavioral training that easily overwhelms the first months of a dog's life with a new family. In focusing on training a dog to behave, we mostly miss the radical development of a puppy into themselves -through the equivalent of infancy, childhood, young adolescence, and teenagehood. By slowing down to observe Quid from week to week, The Year of the Puppy makes new sense of a dog's behavior in a way that is missed in a focus only on training. Horowitz keeps a lens on the puppy's point of view-how they (begin to) see and smell the world, make meaning of it, and become an individual personality. She's there when the puppies first open their eyes, first start to recognize each other and learn about cats, sheep, and people; she sees them from their first play bows to puberty. Horowitz also draws from the ample research in the fields of dog and human development to draw analogies between a dog's first year and the growing child -- and to note where they diverge. The Year of the Puppy is indispensable for anyone navigating their way through the frustrating, amusing, and ultimately delightful first year of a puppy's life"--

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Subjects
Puppies.
Puppies > Growth.
Published
New York : Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC [2022]
Language
English
Main Author
Alexandra Horowitz (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
306 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 267-287) and index.
ISBN
9780593298008
  • Part 0. Gestation
  • Part 1. A Pup is Born
  • Week 0. Dear God, that's a lot of puppies
  • Week 1. Sweet potatoes
  • Week 2. Young blue eyes
  • Week 3. The week of poop
  • Week 4. Professional wag
  • Week 5. Mouths with tails
  • Week 6. Little bruisers
  • Week 7. Adventure pups
  • Week 8. Your choice of models
  • Week 9. Calm before the storm
  • Part 2. Second Birth
  • Arrival of the storm Nicknames Used with the Puppy in her First Week with Us
  • (Im)perfect puppy Some Things the Puppy has Eaten/Chewed that are Not for Eating/Chewing: An Observational Study
  • Ghosts Fifty Things You Should Notice about Your Puppy
  • Puppy's point of view
  • In and up Height Puppy Can Jump: An Alarming Growth Curve
  • The troubles
  • To sleep, perchance
  • Part 3. Quid Years
  • Longing
  • Gale force ten
  • Seeing us Beliefs and Knowledge of an Eight-Month-Old Puppy
  • The thing about sleds Ear Semaphore Code
  • Face-first
  • Lick, memory
  • Postscript
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • Index
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Horowitz (Our Dogs, Ourselves), head of Barnard College's Dog Cognition Lab, charts the first year of a puppy's life in this splendid dog behavior explainer. Aiming to "keep a lens firmly on the puppy's point of view," Horowitz offers a week-by-week milestone breakdown that starts with puppies as just a "splodge of fur" whose hearts beat 220 beats a minute. By one week old, they're "sweet potatoes with ears, feet, and a tail." At week three they're able to "sense" humans' presence, and by week eight, pups' personalities have begun to develop. Along the way, Horowitz describes how dogs and humans coevolved to meet each others' needs (the animals, for instance, "show more attachment to the people who adopt them than the mother who birthed them"), ruminates on what one's furry friend might be thinking about going outside, and whips up creative ways to socialize Quiddity, a pup she adopted and raised during the pandemic. Animal lovers will eat this up. Agent: Kristine Dahl, Curtis Brown. (Sept.)

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Review by Library Journal Review

Well-known animal behaviorist Horowitz (Dog Cognition Lab, Barnard Coll.; Our Dogs, Ourselves) felt that the world of dog research was largely missing a vital piece: the first year of a dog's life, its puppyhood. Since most owners first meet their dog when it is past infancy, they often miss the important events that are the basis of its personality and behavior. Accordingly, Horowitz and her family adopted another dog. In doing so, they went to a local dog farm and first chose the mother, who was among several being fostered there. They were allowed to observe the birth and the growth of the puppies at weekly intervals for eight weeks, after which they took one of the pups home to become another member of their family. This book is a personal and heartwarming retelling of these initial experiences and the observations made at home during the first year of the puppy's life. The result is a fascinating beauty of a book that will add immensely to the world of dog research and will thrill dog owners. VERDICT Recommended for all libraries, especially those serving dog lovers.--Steve Dixon

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

The bestselling author of Being a Dog and Inside a Dog chronicles the cognitive development of her new puppy. Horowitz, who runs the Dog Cognition Lab at Barnard College, presents a keenly observed record of the development of Quid through the first year of his life while also exploring our complex relationship with our animal companions. With her characteristic sharp eye for detail and vast knowledge of canine-related scientific research, the author expertly guides us through Quid's critical early development, from newborn pup to teenager. "The quick development of the dog…happens while their person is simply trying to both acclimate the dog and be acclimated to them," she writes. "We get caught up in the housetraining, walk training, bite training, don't-chew-everything training that is the typical contemporary approach to a dog's first months of life with a new family. In focusing on training a dog to behave, though, we mostly miss the radical development of puppies into themselves--through the equivalent of infancy, childhood, young adolescence, and teenagerhood--until it's already happened." Both pet owners and animal enthusiasts will discover a wide variety of compelling information, whether the author is discussing the hidden meaning conveyed through the movement of a dog's ears, chronicling the process of artificially inseminating a wolf, or describing how dogs are trained to be rescue animals. One of the author's primary points of emphasis is that dogs, just like humans, possess unique individual characteristics that make them stand out from one other. Unlike dog-training manuals, which often give unrealistic and/or obvious advice about canine behavior, this book provides a science-based, honest look at the ups and downs of raising a puppy. Significantly, the author reminds readers about the importance of treating your dog as an individual and not just a member of a specific breed. "Expect that your puppy will not be who you think," writes Horowitz, wisely, "nor act as you hope." A detailed, highly illuminating portrait of puppies and our relationships with them. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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