the hidden life of dogs

Book Review"The Hidden Life of Dogs"by Elizabeth Marshall
ThomasThe Hidden Life Of Dogs was written by Elizabeth Thomas who is
currently well know and highly re-spected for her books. Elizabeth
Thomas was born in America and currently lives in New Hampshire. This
is a book that is unlike any book ever written as it takes the perspective
from a different angle. It was first published in the United States in 1993
by Houghton Mifflin Company.Elizabeth has written five books, all
bestsellers. It is evident that her success is due to her intense research
as she has travelled the world while writing her books. With international
success, Elizabeth plans to continue her career that currently seems to
be skyrocketing."The Hidden Life Of Dogs" was not just any book.
Clearly there was much more effort involved. Beginning with an
introductory character, Misha who was a Husky, began the book well.
This book tried to get the idea across that humans knew only very little
about dogs and their patterns. After intense observations on Misha, some
ideas were brought up. How did the dog know how to cross a highway on
its own? How did its navigational skills work? How was it that this dog
knew exactly where it was and could travel through different cities without
becoming lost and other dogs couldn't? Continuing on to bringing in other
dogs Elizabeth was studying, she pointed out that some had skills that
others did not. Misha was clearly able to navigate himself but when with
another dog, he would become lost. After careful observation it was seen
that the other dog could easily loose track of where she was and mislead
Misha. Another interesting topic covered is how dogs behave with each
other. How they achieve their social status, why some dogs don't become
accepted and how they react to each other. By comparing the dogs with
the wolves and dingoes some of the dogs' actions become clearer, but
there is one thing a dog really wants and that is to be with others, and to
love their owner. It was explained how a dog defended a bird and mouse
in a cage from another excited dog in the same house. Likely
explanations for this could be because the older dog felt that the peace

was not being maintained or perhaps he knew that the mouse and bird
were his master's belongings and he should protect them. The book goes
on to explaining what occurs between the dogs when they mate, why
some dogs kill their litter and many other topics. The conclusion is quite
brief, Elizabeth explains what happens to her dogs, how a dog feels when
her best mate dies and the relationship her dogs had with the wolves and
coyotes and their interactions.Each single chapter of this book brings up
a new issue and investigates it. The interest is maintained throughout the
book purely because of the fascinating information given about this
species, information that had not been studied before. The author also
wrote in a clear cut way, giving a solid and adequate description of
everything and then moving on to new parts, not making it boring.Very
few illustrations are used in the book, only one in the beginning of each
chapter. Illustrations in this book would have little use as there is no way
of really describing every action made by the dogs. Instead of illustrating,
the book kept the text clear, not making it confusing but easy to
understand and illustrate in the mind. In general, the book was at an
excellent standard, very easy to read, not too long and no major
confusions. These small details made the book enjoyable to read as well
as being useful information. The book's purpose, to give humans better
knowledge about our close friend, did just that. It achieved to show that
the dog can be misunderstood for being stupid when really it knows much
more than we think it does. Clearly many tiring and endless hours have
been put in to make this book a success and how it was done is really
amazing. Elizabeth looked after more than twenty dogs, spent all her
spare time observing them, walking with them until she saw why they did
what they did. The hidden life of dogs was a great book that would keep
any reader at any age occupied and entertained.