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Episode #15: Canine Intelligence & Dog Communication with Jennifer Holland, Author of Dog Smart
Most dog parents think their fur babies are smart, but how much do we actually know about the nuances of canine intelligence?!
Today we’re nerding out about dogs with Jennifer Holland, longtime journalist, best-selling author and National Geographic contributor.
Her book Unlikely Friendship spent almost a year on the New York Times bestseller list, and she just published a new one called Dog Smart, all about canine intelligence.
In this conversation, we explore:
- Surprising facts about dog intelligence [3:00]
- How to communicate with your dog [7:00]
- Jennifer’s work at National Geographic [8:00]
- Primates vs canines [11:00]
- Unlikely friendships between animals [13:00]
- Why we should give our dogs more opportunities to make choices [23:00]
- And so much more!
Tune in for a masterclass in dog cognition and beyond. Then join the Juniper Community to meet more pet parents like you!
Stream The Podcast Here:
Highlights from the episode:
- 3:09 — Dogs' success as a species — One of the really big surprises just in general about dogs to me was how many there are. When I read close to a billion, I had to really stop and think about what does that mean and how incredibly successful this species is to be everywhere around the world, everywhere that we are. And particularly interesting was that the vast majority of those are not the pet dogs that we think of, but the dogs that live on the streets. And, really, they're kind of almost their own species in a way. ... I really learned a lot just kind of rethinking a little bit about, you know, how I think about dogs and their adaptability and how intelligent they are to have filled this niche that they fill so well.
- 7:34— Communicating with our dogs — I think thinking about their way of communicating and learning kind of their language as some of the experts like to say, learn doggish. You know, make sure that you really are just a little bit more understanding of where they're coming from and what they're trying to to express because our response to them matters. And if we're misinterpreting them, bad things can happen. People get bitten, that sort of thing. And also just I think our relationship with them is better if we really hear them, see them, understand what it is that they're trying to communicate.
- 23:11 — Giving our pets agency — It's just letting your animals choose what is right for them at that time and honoring that. And so I do, I let them choose more. I let them pick which way we're going on a walk, that kind of thing. Even just the small things that I think make them feel like they have some control in their lives, which in many ways we've kind of taken away from dogs by establishing them in our homes.
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