The Secret Language of Dogs [antikvár]

Once upon a time, the languages of canines and humans were not so disparate. Our cave-dwelling ancestors grunted their wishes to each other and relied on body language to communicate, just as our dogs do. As words were formed, our languages, although always different, moved further apart. Human language evolved and became primarily vocal, relying less and less on body language. We still use it, of course, but as a secondary tool in communication, meant to emphasize our verbal vocabulary. This hampers our ability to communicate with our dogs, who are experts at sending and receiving messages through body language. They use vocalization as welland very impressively, as the different intensities and tones of the growl, whine, bark, and howl all attestbut theirs is a different language, one that we can sometimes "speak" and translate accurately, but very often get wrong. To speak your dog's language, you must understand how your messages may be interpreted, what your dog's actions signify, and how pack dynamics contribute to explanations of your dog's behavior.