Every year on Aug. 26, National Dog Day is observed to celebrate the love, loyalty and companionship that dogs bring to our lives. Whether they're pets, service animals, police dogs or rescue dogs, these amazing creatures play important roles in humans' lives. They offer us unconditional love and make our lives fuller and more joyful.
As we wrap up the dog days of summer, we are excited to mark one last, very different sort of dog day before the arrival of autumn: National Dog Day on August 26. To celebrate National Dog Day this year, we have put together a reading list of books new and classic, from Chicago and our client publishers, that shed light on dog evolution and behavior, the complex human-canine connection, dogs in the world of art and literature, and much more. Sometimes funny, sometimes challenging, these books are all sure to deepen our understanding of the beloved pooches in our lives.
From The University of Chicago Press
Who’s a Good Dog? And How to Be a Better Human
Jessica Pierce
“Deeply thought-provoking and frequently uncomfortable, this outstanding book asks readers to carefully consider not just the immediate physical needs of dogs but their emotional needs as canines and individuals. . . . This authoritative work asks how owners can provide their dogs with an environment to which comfortable, fulfilling adaptation is possible. Highly recommended.”―Library Journal (starred review)
Dogopolis: How Dogs and Humans Made Modern New York, London, and Paris
Chris Pearson
“Pearson’s study of the modernization of three major metropoles makes a thrilling and sometimes chilling case that dogs played active roles in the story of how we together became predominantly urban species. . . . In the Covid era, the lessons of Dogopolis help us think about where the human race is going. . . . Pearson’s in-depth study of the modernization of this dynamic in three Western capitals adds resounding confirmation that dogs prove faithful mirrors of humans’ ever-failing aspirations to humanity.”―Times Higher Education
Secrets of the Snout: The Dog’s Incredible Nose
Frank Rosell, Translated by Diane Oatley, With a Foreword by Marc Bekoff
“With up to 300 million olfactory cells to our 5 million, dogs are spectacularly equipped to sense fugitive compounds emitted by everything from buried mines to colorectal cancer. In this fascinating study, behavioural ecologist Rosell guides us through compelling research on olfaction-related canine ethology, physiology and neuroscience. Interwoven are feats of star sniffer dogs such as Tucker, a seagoing research Labrador that detects killer whales by locating their faeces; and Aska, trained to smell the pheromones of spruce bark beetles, a major insect pest.”―Nature
Canine Confidential: Why Dogs Do What They Do
Marc Bekoff
“Bekoff uses an inviting conversational mode that makes complicated topics much easier to grasp. It is as if we had run into him at the local dog park and could ask those questions that pop up as we watch our dogs cavort with others of their species. This rather slim volume covers quite a lot of ground. . . . This informative and accessible book is an invaluable resource that deserves an appreciative audience.”―The Bark
How to Tame a Fox (and Build a Dog): Visionary Scientists and a Siberian Tale of Jump-Started Evolution
Lee Alan Dugatkin and Lyudmila Trut
“Profound insights into how dogs evolved from wolves come from a remarkable, multidecade experiment on foxes that was carried out under the supervision of the Russian geneticist Dmitri Belyaev from the 1950s onward. Because much of the research was published in Russian, How to Tame a Fox, which is cowritten by Trut—a central figure in the project over many decades—will be widely welcomed for the extraordinary detail it contains.”―New York Review of Books
Run, Spot, Run: The Ethics of Keeping Pets
Jessica Pierce
“If you have animals in your home—as I do—this is a must-read. Is pet-keeping morally sound, or are its ethics a lot more thorny than we realize? Step outside your intellectual comfort zone, check out this great book by Jessica Pierce, and decide for yourself.”―Seth MacFarlane, @Seth_mac_farlan
What Is a Dog?
Raymond Coppinger and Lorna Coppinger, With a Foreword by Alan Beck
“There are about a billion dogs on Earth, according to some estimates. The other 750 million don’t have flea collars. And they certainly don’t have humans who take them for walks and pick up their feces. They are called village dogs, street dogs and free-breeding dogs, among other things, and they haunt the garbage dumps and neighborhoods of most of the world. In their new book, What Is a Dog?, Raymond and Lorna Coppinger argue that if you really want to understand the nature of dogs, you need to know these other animals. The vast majority are not strays or lost pets, the Coppingers say, but rather superbly adapted scavengers—the closest living things to the dogs that first emerged thousands of years ago.”―New York Times
How Dogs Work
Raymond Coppinger and Mark Feinstein, With a Foreword by Gordon M. Burghardt
“Almost everything you think you know about dogs is wrong. Forget the loyal companion stereotype, or the idea you’ve got to show you’re the alpha of the pack. Ethologists Coppinger and Feinstein present this most familiar of animals in a new objective light, analyzing their anatomy and behavior with science rather than sentimentality.”―Discover
The Last Walk: Reflections on Our Pets at the End of Their Lives
Jessica Pierce
“The best nature book this year (and also the best dog book) is immeasurably also the saddest. . . . This great little book is not a happy reading experience―but for dog people, it’ll be a massively cathartic one.”―Open Letters Monthly
Shaggy Muses: The Dogs who Inspired Virginia Woolf, Emily Dickinson, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Edith Wharton, and Emily Brontë
Maureen Adams
“Move over Marley. Make room for Carlo (Emily Dickinson’s giant Newfoundland). Or Flush (Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s golden cocker spaniel). Or, maybe, Keeper (Emily Bronte’s intimidating mastiff mix). In Shaggy Muses, the work of each author is viewed intimately within the context of the canine companions who provided love, comfort and inspiration.”―Chicago Tribune
Melancholia’s Dog: Reflections on Our Animal Kinship
Alice A. Kuzniar
“This is probably the first time that a scholar of Kuzniar’s ability has shown the courage to tackle the deeper aspects of our relationship with dogs. . . . Our dogs are metaphors for ourselves, something that many of us may have long suspected, but because the idea had never been articulated, or not fully, perhaps we did not appreciate the fact. Or perhaps we didn’t want to face it. Thanks to Kuzniar, we know it now.”―London Review of Books
Dog’s Best Friend: Annals of the Dog-Human Relationship
Mark Derr
“Wide-ranging and well-written. . . . Derr’s book is a quirky and ever fascinating walking tour through the long history of dog human-relations.”―Modern Dog Magazine
Dogs: A New Understanding of Canine Origin, Behavior and Evolution
Raymond Coppinger and Lorna Coppinger
“In the managed evolution of dogs, which has produced a remarkable range of working and hunting breeds, the writers perceive both environmental and genetic factors. Through these new perceptions regarding the mechanics and tenacity of inbred and enhanced behavioral traits, humans can better understand the primal biological motivations of their canine companions. Chock full of both scientific studies and personal experiences, this fast-paced, absorbing book deserves a wide audience.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
The Difficulty of Being a Dog
Roger Grenier, Translated by Alice Kaplan
“Beautifully written . . . the prose flows like poetry. The market has been flooded with a plethora of popularly written books attempting to explain canines and why people love them, yet this book . . . raises the subject to a higher plane. A gem.”―Library Journal (starred review)
Genetics and the Social Behaviour of the Dog
John Paul Scott and John L. Fuller
“A major authoritative work on the subject of the behavior of domestic dogs. . . . Immensely rewarding reading for anyone concerned with dog-breeding. . . . The only important scientific treatise on dog behavior in the English language.”—Times Literary Supplement
From Brandeis University Press
Canine Pioneer: The Extraordinary Life of Rudolphina Menzel
Edited by Susan Martha Kahn
“We have waited a long time for a heroine like Menzel. As thoughtful as she was daring, as courageous as she was kind. Driven by curiosity, Menzel straddled the different worlds of canines and humans at a time driven by violent division. Her biographer Kahn has done a masterful job providing us with a fascinating image of an important historical figure whose message resonates especially today―sometimes the characteristics that make us different are less important than the experiences we share.”―Brian Hare, coauthor of The Genius of Dogs: How Dogs Are Smarter Than You Think
From Paul Holberton Publishing
Isabella Stewart Gardner, Dog Lover
Diana Greenwald
Featuring black-and-white images from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum archives, this volume allows readers to meet Isabella’s favorite dogs (Kitty Wink and Patty Boy), see the litters of puppies she bred, and discover how her dogs were a source of comfort to her toward the end of her life. Usually stern in photographs, Isabella—like many people—could not help grinning when posing for photos with puppies. Whether it was collecting Renaissance masterpieces or raising Fox terriers, Gardner approached all aspects of life with enthusiasm and dedication.
From Reaktion Books
Understanding Animals: Philosophy for Dog and Cat Lovers
Lars Svendsen
“Combines scientific research with the teachings of the great philosophers, particularly Wittgenstein, Kant, and Heidegger, to probe the consciousness of animals, especially the ones closest to us (as well as, unexpectedly, octopuses). Chapters address animal morality, grief, loneliness and more. Readers will emerge knowing more about themselves than animals, and that’s precisely Svendsen’s goal.”―Toronto Star
Dog
Susan McHugh
In her enchanting book Dog, McHugh draws on mythology, religion, and ‘dog cults’ to show how we and our best animal buddies have shaped each other over the centuries.”―Mail on Sunday
Dogs in Art
Susie Green
“This beautiful book traces the history of dogs in art, from Roman mosaics to pop art and video, covering a wide range of genres, fashions, and cultures. . . . There are more than two hundred stunning images throughout these pages. . . . The result is not just a beautiful book, but one which give us a fascinating insight to the lives and times of artists such as Sir Edwin Landseer and Frida Kahlo through their connection with, and love of, dogs.”―Your Dog Magazine
From Prickly Paradigm Press
The Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, People, and Significant Otherness
Donna J. Haraway
“Does Haraway provide a convincing answer to the question, ‘Why dogs?’ . . . Haraway has provided us with a method, a way of being critical in and about the world. She provides the tools to undermine powerful and established understandings by asking simple yet profound questions and by making seemingly absurd connections. She sees the significant and remarkable in the everyday and quotidian. Whether we are all capable of matching the mental agility, humour and acumen that she brings to the task is of course another question.”—Theory, Culture & Society
All of these National Dog Day books are available from our website or from your favorite bookseller.
