What Is a Dog? PDF
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What Is a Dog? What Is a Dog? Raymond Coppinger and Lorna Coppinger Foreword by Alan M. Beck The University of Chicago Press Chicago and London Raymond Coppinger is professor emeritus of biology at Hampshire College. Lorna Coppinger is a biologist and science writer. Their books together include Dogs: A New Understanding of Canine Origin, Behavior, and Evolution, also published by the University of Chicago Press. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London © 2016 by The University of Chicago Foreword © 2016 by Alan M. Beck All rights reserved. Published 2016. Printed in the United States of America 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 1 2 3 4 5 ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 12794- 1 (cloth) ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 35900- 7 (e- book) DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226359007.001.0001 Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Coppinger, Raymond, author. What is a dog? / Raymond Coppinger and Lorna Coppinger ; foreword by Alan M. Beck. pages ; cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-226-12794-1 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-226-35900-7 (e-book) 1. Dogs. 2. Dogs—Behavior. 3. Human-animal relationships. I. Coppinger, Lorna, author. II. Beck, Alan M., writer of foreword. III. Title. SF422.5.C66 2016 636.7—dc23 2015031906 ♾ This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48–1992 (Permanence of Paper). We dedicate this book to Peter Neville and all our friends at COAPE and to Hampshire College and all our friends there Contents Foreword by Alan M. Beck ix Preface xiii Part I About Dogs 1 1 What Is a Dog? 3 2 The World Is Full of Village Dogs 23 3 Why Do Village Dogs All Look Alike? 35 4 What Is a Niche? 43 Part II Behavioral Ecology 63 5 Behavioral Ecology of Dogs 65 6 The Cost of Building a Dog 71 7 The Cost of Feeding a Dog 79 8 The Cost of Reproduction 101 9 Avoiding Hazards and Their Costs 121 vii viii contents Part III That Special Relationship between People and Dogs 127 10 The Symbiotic Relationship 129 11 Dogs Adopt People (and Other Animals) 155 12 People Adopt Dogs 167 13 People Breed Special Dogs 171 14 Breed Genes Stray into the Village Dog Population 187 15 Dog Genes Stray Back into the Wild 197 Part IV Summary 203 16 Where—and Why—Are All These Dogs? 205 17 What Should We Do—If Anything—with All the Dogs? 219 Acknowledgments 229 Bibliography 233 Index 247 Plates follow page 78 Foreword The legend for the Kato, an indigenous Californian group of Native Americans, is that when the Creator set out to construct the world, he took along a dog (Leach 1961)—a wonderful metaphor in which the dog precedes not only people but every other thing as well. While for many that is not exactly correct, the dog, indeed all canids, enjoy a spe- cial role in most human cultures. A major topic addressed in What Is a Dog? is that the role is by no means the same through time and, especially, place. I joined the community of dog- watching scientists, like almost all the others, from other interests. I completed my master’s studies on the effects of wildfire on prairie plants and animals (rodents and deer) assuming I would move up the food chain and study wolves. My new major professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Edwin Gould, wrote me a handwritten letter noting that while wolves are interesting, because of public health implications, studies of urban dogs are less expensive to conduct and much more ix
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