Dog Smart: Life-Changing Lessons in Canine Intelligence

In this winning report, Holland (Unlikely Friendships), a former National Geographic journalist, investigates what goes on in dogs’ minds. Focusing on the extraordinary abilities of “working dogs,” Holland explains that guide dogs must exercise keen judgment in deciding when to follow or disobey their owners. For example, she recounts accompanying trainers as they taught dogs to refuse dangerous commands by praising them for resisting orders to walk off the edge of a subway platform. Dogs’ excellent sense of smell lies at the heart of their intelligence, according to Holland, who cites studies that show canines can “sense some substances at concentrations as low as parts per trillion” and describes how Auburn University’s Canine Performance Science Center trains explosives detection dogs in a mock airport terminal. The author also explicates research on the ways in which dogs express themselves and communicate with each other, writing that canines growl differently based on the type of threat (“Food-guarding growls were different from those emitted during a ‘threatening stranger’ situation”) and wag their tail more on the left side when upset. The mix of scientific research and reporting comes together to offer enlightening insight into canines’ “social and olfactory intelligence.” This is a treat. Agent: Alice Martell, Martell Agency. (May)