The Genius of Dogs: How Dogs Are Smarter than You Think

The perfect gift for dog lovers and readers of Inside of a Dog by Alexandra Horowitz—this New York Times bestseller offers mesmerizing insights into the thoughts and lives of our smartest and most beloved pets.Does your dog feel guilt? Is she pretending she can't hear you? Does she want affection—or just your sandwich? In their New York Times bestselling book The Genius of Dogs, husband and wife team Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods lay out landmark discoveries from the Duke Canine Cognition Center and other research facilities around the world to reveal how your dog thinks and how we humans can have even deeper relationships with our best four-legged friends. Breakthroughs in cognitive science have proven dogs have a kind of genius for getting along with people that is unique in the animal kingdom. This dog genius revolution is transforming how we live and work with dogs of all breeds, and what it means for you in your daily life with your canine friend.

The Genius of Dogs: How Dogs Are Smarter Than You Think

Crafts, Hobbies & Home

Woods, Vanessa

Hare, Brian

Pets & Animal Care

Plume

A powerful new theory of human nature suggests that our secret to success as a species is our unique&nbsp;friendliness "Brilliant, eye-opening, and absolutely inspiring--and a riveting read. Hare and Woods have written the perfect book for our time."--Cass R. Sunstein, author of&nbsp;How Change Happens&nbsp;and co-author of&nbsp;Nudge For most of the approximately 300,000 years that Homo sapiens have existed, we have shared the planet with at least four other types of humans. All of these were smart, strong, and inventive. But around 50,000 years ago, Homo sapiens made a cognitive leap that gave us an edge over other species. What happened? Since Charles Darwin wrote about "evolutionary fitness," the idea of fitness has been confused with physical strength, tactical brilliance, and aggression. In fact, what made us evolutionarily fit was a remarkable kind of friendliness, a virtuosic ability to coordinate and communicate with others that allowed us to achieve all the cultural and technical marvels in human history. Advancing what they call the "self-domestication theory," Brian Hare, professor in the department of evolutionary anthropology and the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at Duke University and his wife, Vanessa Woods, a research scientist and award-winning journalist, shed light on the mysterious leap in human cognition that allowed Homo sapiens to thrive.&nbsp; But this gift for friendliness came at a cost. Just as a mother bear is most dangerous around her cubs, we are at our most dangerous when someone we love is threatened by an "outsider." The threatening outsider is demoted to sub-human, fair game for our worst instincts. Hare's groundbreaking research, developed in close coordination with Richard Wrangham and Michael Tomasello, giants in the field of cognitive evolution, reveals that the same traits that make us the most tolerant species on the planet also make us the cruelest.&nbsp; Survival of the Friendliest offers us a new way to look at our cultural as well as cognitive evolution and sends a clear message: In order to survive and even to flourish, we need to expand our definition of who belongs.

Survival of the Friendliest: Understanding Our Origins and Rediscovering Our Common Humanity

Reference

Random House]

Product Description 
A powerful new theory of human nature suggests that our secret to success as a species is our unique friendliness\n“Brilliant, eye-opening, and absolutely inspiring—and a riveting read. Hare and Woods have written the perfect book for our time.”—Cass R. Sunstein, author of How Change Happens and co-author of Nudge\nFor most of the approximately 300,000 years that 
Homo sapiens have existed, we have shared the planet with at least four other types of humans. All of these were smart, strong, and inventive. But around 50,000 years ago, 
Homo sapiens made a cognitive leap that gave us an edge over other species. What happened?\nSince Charles Darwin wrote about “evolutionary fitness,” the idea of fitness has been confused with physical strength, tactical brilliance, and aggression. In fact, what made us evolutionarily fit was a remarkable kind of friendliness, a virtuosic ability to coordinate and communicate with others that allowed us to achieve all the cultural and technical marvels in human history. Advancing what they call the “self-domestication theory,” Brian Hare, professor in the department of evolutionary anthropology and the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at Duke University and his wife, Vanessa Woods, a research scientist and award-winning journalist, shed light on the mysterious leap in human cognition that allowed 
Homo sapiens to thrive. \nBut this gift for friendliness came at a cost. Just as a mother bear is most dangerous around her cubs, we are at our most dangerous when someone we love is threatened by an “outsider.” The threatening outsider is demoted to sub-human, fair game for our worst instincts. Hare’s groundbreaking research, developed in close coordination with Richard Wrangham and Michael Tomasello, giants in the field of cognitive evolution, reveals that the same traits that make us the most tolerant species on the planet also make us the cruelest. \nSurvival of the Friendliest offers us a new way to look at our cultural as well as cognitive evolution and sends a clear message: In order to survive and even to flourish, we need to expand our definition of who belongs. 
 Review 
“Please read this beautiful, riveting, and uplifting book. You will learn the astonishing story of how and why humans evolved a deep impulse to help total strangers but also sometimes act with unspeakable cruelty. Just as important, you’ll learn how these insights can help all of us become more compassionate and more cooperative.” 
—Daniel E. Lieberman, author The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health, and Disease, and Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do Is Healthy and Rewarding\n“An utterly persuasive explanation for why the human psyche has evolved to be dangerous—and what to do about it . . . It should be read by every politician and every schoolchild.” 
—Richard Wrangham, author of The Goodness Paradox\n“Very few books even attempt to do what this book succeeds in doing. It begins in basic behavioral science, proceeds to an analysis of cooperation (or lack thereof) in contemporary society, and ends with implications for public policy. Everyone should read this book.” 
—Michael Tomasello, author of Origins of Human Communication, professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University“ 
Survival of the Friendliest is a fascinating counterpoint to the popular [mis]conception of Darwin’s ‘survival of the fittest.’ Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods offer a convincing case that it was not brute strength, raw intelligence, or ruthlessness that allowed modern humans to thrive while our hominin relatives died out. Instead, they argue that friendliness was the key to our flourishing—and that the same kind of cooperative communication is the key to freeing us from the tribalism currently threatening democratic governance around the world. Powerful, insightful, accessible—this book gives me hope.” 
—Megan Phelps-Roper, author of Unfollow “How can a top predator like the wolf have evo

Random House Trade Paperbacks

Brian Hare, dog researcher, evolutionary anthropologist, and founder of the Duke Canine Cognition Center, and Vanessa Woods offer revolutionary new insights into dog intelligence and the interior lives of our smartest pets. In the past decade, we have learned more about how dogs think than in the last century. Breakthroughs in cognitive science, pioneered by Brian Hare have proven dogs have a kind of genius for getting along with people that is unique in the animal kingdom. Brian Hare's stunning discovery is that when dogs domesticated themselves as early as 40,000 years ago they became far more like human infants than their wolf ancestors. Domestication gave dogs a whole new kind of social intelligence. This finding will change the way we think about dogs and dog training—indeed, the revolution has already begun. Hare's seminal research has led him to work with every kind of dog from the tiniest shelter puppy to the exotic New Guinea singing dog, from his own childhood dog, Oreo, to the most fashionable schnoodle. The Genius of Dogs is nothing less than the definitive dog book of our time by the researcher who started a revolution.

Dutton

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&nbsp;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 someone's 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 puppy's 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 you've ever had about puppies--and some you never thought to ask.

Puppy Kindergarten: The New Science of Raising a Great Dog

A young woman follows her fianc&eacute; to war-torn Congo to study extremely endangered bonobo apes---who teach her a new truth about love and belonging.

Bonobo Handshake: A Memoir of Love and Adventure in the Congo

Biographies & Memoirs

Professionals & Academics

Tantor Media, Inc.

Tantor Audio

In 2005, Vanessa Woods accepted a marriage proposal from a man she barely knew and agreed to join him on a research trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country reeling from a brutal decade-long war that had claimed the lives of millions. Settling in at a bonobo sanctuary in Congo's capital, Vanessa and her fiance entered the world of a rare ape with whom we share 98.7 percent of our DNA. She soon discovered that many of the inhabitants of the sanctuary-ape and human alike-are refugees from unspeakable violence, yet bonobos live in a peaceful society in which females are in charge, war is nonexistent, and sex is as common and friendly as a handshake. A fascinating memoir of hope and adventure, Bonobo Handshake traces Woods's self-discovery as she finds herself falling deeply in love with her husband, the apes, and her new surroundings while probing life's greatest question: What ultimately makes us human? Courageous and extraordinary, this true story of revelation and transformation in a fragile corner of Africa is about looking past the differences between animals and ourselves, and finding in them the same extraordinary courage and will to survive. For Vanessa, it is about finding her own path as a writer and scientist, falling in love, and finding a home.

It's True! There are Bugs in Your Bed

In this book, kids meet deadly dust-dwellers, toilet terrors, and things that squish, squirm, and slime. There's a hideous creature that can live for months without its head, a beetle that blasts its victims with toxic spray, and five-eyed monsters that vomit on their prey to turn them into mush. Kids love gross, and even the nastiest beasties are helpful in some way.  About the It's True! series  Gross! Creepy! Amazing! Kids will love it.  This non-fiction series for older readers features wacky writing, funny cartoons, and remarkable photos that make each book as delightfully entertaining as it is informative. It's True!

Children's Books

Catchpole, Heather

Animals

Annick Press

In this book, kids meet deadly dust-dwellers, toilet terrors, and things that squish, squirm, and slime. There's a hideous creature that can live for months without its head, a beetle that blasts its victims with toxic spray, and five-eyed monsters that vomit on their prey to turn them into mush. Kids love gross, and even the nastiest beasties are helpful in some way. 
 About the It's True! series 
 Gross! Creepy! Amazing! Kids will love it. 
 This non-fiction series for older readers features wacky writing, funny cartoons, and remarkable photos that make each book as delightfully entertaining as it is informative. It's True!

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Woods, Vanessa. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Woods, Vanessa

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Woods, Vanessa. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Genius of Dogs: How Dogs Are Smarter Than You Think

Survival of the Friendliest: Understanding Our Origins and Rediscovering Our Common Humanity

Survival of the Friendliest: Understanding Our Origins and Rediscovering Our Common Humanity

The Genius of Dogs: How Dogs Are Smarter than You Think

Puppy Kindergarten: The New Science of Raising a Great Dog

Bonobo Handshake: A Memoir of Love and Adventure in the Congo

Bonobo Handshake: A Memoir of Love and Adventure in the Congo

Bonobo Handshake: A Memoir of Love and Adventure in the Congo

It's True! There are Bugs in Your Bed

It's True! There are Bugs in Your Bed