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What is a dog? / Raymond Coppinger and Lorna Coppinger ; foreword by Alan M. Beck.

by Coppinger, Raymond.

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The University of Chicago Press, 2016.

Dogs -- Behavior.

Dogs -- Evolution.

Human-animal relationships.

9780226127941 (hc.)

xvii, 257 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cm.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 233-245) and index.

About dogs. What is a dog? ; The world is full of village dogs ; Why do village dogs all look alike? ; What is a niche? -- Behavioral ecology. Behavioral ecology of dogs ; The cost of building a dog ; The cost of feeding a dog ; The cost of reproduction ; Avoiding hazards and their costs -- That special relationship between people and dogs. The symbiotic relationship ; Dogs adopt people (and other animals) ; People adopt dogs ; People breed special dogs ; Breed genes stray into the village dog population ; Dog genes stray back into the wild -- Summary. Where - and why - are all these dogs? ; What should we do - if anything - with all the dogs?

Of the world's dogs, less than two hundred million are pets, living with humans who provide food, shelter, squeaky toys, and fashionable sweaters. Roaming the planet are five times as many feral dogs who are their own masters - neighborhood dogs, dump dogs, mountain dogs. These dogs, like pigeons or squirrels, are highly adapted scavengers who have evolved to fit particular niches in the vicinity of humans. Experts on dog behavior Raymond and Lorna Coppinger present an eye-opening analysis of the evolution and adaptations of these unleashed dogs and what they can reveal about the species as a whole. Exploring the natural history of these animals, the Coppingers explain how the village dogs of Vietnam, India, Africa, and Mexico are strikingly similar. These feral dogs, argue the Coppingers, are in fact the truly archetypal dogs, nearly uniform in size and shape and incredibly self-sufficient. Drawing on nearly five decades of research, they show how dogs actually domesticated themselves in order to become such efficient scavengers of human refuse. The Coppingers examine the behavioral characteristics that enable dogs to live successfully and to reproduce, unconstrained by humans, in environments that we ordinarily do not think of as dog friendly.

Coppinger, Lorna.

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