"When husband and wife scientists Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods fell in love with a trained service dog named Congo, they wanted to understand what made him such a great companion. Given that there hadn't been a large-scale study of puppy development since 1950, they decided to start one, inviting generations of Labrador and Golden Retriever puppies and dozens of student volunteers to come to their lab at Duke University, and the Puppy Kindergarten was born. When and how do puppies develop key cognitive skills such as self-control or cooperative communication? Using the same kinds of cognitive tests and games that have become standard for understanding human infant development, they initially wanted to know if they could predict which qualities would makepuppies grow up to be great assistance dogs. But they quickly realized that these special dogs have a lot to tell us about how all dogs navigate the world, solve problems, and learn from the people around them. Even the smartest dogs can't figure out howto make the water stay in their bowl, but they can read our gestures and respond to our emotions in a way that no other species can. Introducing us to the many puppies who contributed to this research and synthesizing findings from cognitive neuroscience, psychology, and evolutionary anthropology, this delightful, informative book will teach readers how puppies begin to develop abilities that allow them to succeed as adults and flexibly solve problems, giving us a new window into who our dogs are, how they see the world, and the amazing things they can do"--
The New York Times best-selling authors of The Genius of Dogs, to find out what it takes to raise a great dog, enrolled 101 puppies in the Duke Puppy Kindergarten to understand the secrets of the puppy mind to help them grow up to be the best dogs they can be. Illustrations.
The New York Times bestselling authors of The Genius of Dogs take us into their Puppy Kindergarten at Duke University, a center to study how puppies develop, to show us what goes in to raising a great dog.
A firehose of knowledge suffused with levity and charm.Alexandra Horowitz, author of Inside of a Dog
What does it take to raise a great dog? This was the question that husband-and-wife team Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods hoped to answer when they enrolled one hundred and one puppies in the Duke Puppy Kindergarten. With the help of a retired service dog named Congo, Brian, Vanessa, and their team set out to understand the secrets of the puppy mind: What factors might predict whether a puppy will grow up to change someones life?
Never has cuteness been so cutting edge. Applying the same games that psychologists use when exploring the development of young children, Hare and Woods uncover what happens in a puppys mind during their final stage of rapid brain development. Follow the adventures of Arthur, who makes friends with toy dinosaurs; Wisdom, the puppy genius; and Ying, who fails at cognitive games that even pigeons usually pass with flying colors. Along the way, learn about when puppies finally start to retain memories for longer than just a few seconds, or when they finally develop some self-control.
Raising dozens of puppies on a college campus means you get pretty good at answering big questions, such as: When do puppies sleep through the night? How do you stop them from eating poop? How can we help our puppies grow up to be the best dogs they can possibly be? Whether you are a new puppy parent or a perennial puppy lover, Puppy Kindergarten will answer every question youve ever had about puppiesand some you never thought to ask.
