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drewmiller_'s review against another edition
5.0
Terrific memoir/dogcumentary written by a woman with feline (Cat) and lapine (Warren) names. [b:What the Dog Knows: The Science and Wonder of Working Dogs|17571809|What the Dog Knows The Science and Wonder of Working Dogs|Cat Warren|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1380491929s/17571809.jpg|24510853] is a terrific look at the world of cadaver dogs and working dogs in general, and draws on everything from the author's personal experience as a crime scene volunteer, to evolutionary biology underlying our relationship with dogs, to the relationship of working dogs to the criminal justice and military worlds. Warren's narrative is thoroughly engaging, if unclear in spots. But her self-effacing style and honest presentation reveal a truly interesting interspecies relationship.
Hilarious: "Food, though, unlike purposefully placed dog toys, tends to be almost everywhere on searches, especially at disaster scenes. If a dog is too drawn to food, that can divert precious resources and time. Art Wolff was searching overseas after an earthquake, and one of the dogs on the scene alerted on a spot in a collapsed building. Rescue teams brought in the heavy equipment and started moving the collapsed material. After several hours, they uncovered the refrigerator with rotting food the dog was alerting on. The dog was sent home."
Hilarious: "Food, though, unlike purposefully placed dog toys, tends to be almost everywhere on searches, especially at disaster scenes. If a dog is too drawn to food, that can divert precious resources and time. Art Wolff was searching overseas after an earthquake, and one of the dogs on the scene alerted on a spot in a collapsed building. Rescue teams brought in the heavy equipment and started moving the collapsed material. After several hours, they uncovered the refrigerator with rotting food the dog was alerting on. The dog was sent home."
catherine_t's review against another edition
4.0
Cat Warren was looking for a pup, having recently lost her gentle old German Shepherd. She ended up with Solo, a wild GSD pup from a litter of one, with a personality as far from her last dog as possible. She despaired of ever being able to control Solo until she was advised that what she had wasn't an unruly, impossible-to-discipline creature but a dog with drive. And a dog with drive needs that drive channelled.
Besides drive, Solo had something else going for him: a nose. A nose that could be trained to sniff out anything. Cat Warren chose to train Solo as a cadaver dog, an animal used to search not for live people but corpses. Thus began her journey into the world of law-enforcement, even anthropology, as Solo learned to sniff out the recently dead and even the dead from centuries ago.
What the Dog Knows is a fascinating peek into a world I hadn't known existed. We've all seen search dogs in action, but it never occurred to me that those dogs seeking out the survivors of avalanches and terrorist attacks wouldn't find the non-survivors, except by accident. Cadaver dogs such as Solo are trained to seek out the smells of decomposition, not the smells given off by the living, and their work is equally important. And as with most search-and-rescue teams, cadaver-dog teams are volunteers.
If you're interested in the science behind scent, or the world of working dogs, this is the book for you.
Besides drive, Solo had something else going for him: a nose. A nose that could be trained to sniff out anything. Cat Warren chose to train Solo as a cadaver dog, an animal used to search not for live people but corpses. Thus began her journey into the world of law-enforcement, even anthropology, as Solo learned to sniff out the recently dead and even the dead from centuries ago.
What the Dog Knows is a fascinating peek into a world I hadn't known existed. We've all seen search dogs in action, but it never occurred to me that those dogs seeking out the survivors of avalanches and terrorist attacks wouldn't find the non-survivors, except by accident. Cadaver dogs such as Solo are trained to seek out the smells of decomposition, not the smells given off by the living, and their work is equally important. And as with most search-and-rescue teams, cadaver-dog teams are volunteers.
If you're interested in the science behind scent, or the world of working dogs, this is the book for you.
katielibrarian's review against another edition
This was fascinating. I love a good narrative non-fiction book.
onewhitetree's review against another edition
4.0
I picked up this book because my best friend has been thinking about getting a cadaver dog and I want to talk to her about it. So. Book learning. It’s a bit wide ranging and infected with academia but the history and tangents are interesting and mostly informative. It does impress on the reader how time consuming training a dog for this type of work is, which is a helpful caveat to know before jumping in.
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