麻豆传媒

VILMOS Csanyi, a Hungarian ethologist who has experimented with dogs, wolves and their owners for years, has found that dogs are not just 鈥渟marter鈥� on many tests than wolves, but smarter than chimpanzees. They readily signal by glancing to communicate with their owners, for example 鈥� something no ape can master.

If Dogs Could Talk is a clever book. It explains why dogs, coevolving with humans, have developed abilities that often amaze any non-dog-owner. Without patronising either readers or dogs, Csanyi also tells dozens of entertaining stories about Flip and Jerry, his own ill-mannered pets, which beg at the table, take sled rides, and remember things he forgets.