Immanuel Birmelin

I liked this little book! I learned some new things from it. Sure, there will be some things you know just from watching the behavior of your own dogs, but this book tries to show with research and experimentation the claims it makes in a concise fashion.

The book also has lots of tests laid out with steps to test your own dog:
The color test (dog can learn the color bowl food is under)
The distance test (dogs can recognize people far away, but only if they move)
The salami test (dogs can track show more a smell like salami)
The human scent test (dogs can recognize your scent out of others)
The sound test (dogs can recognize a specific sound)
The clue test (dogs can learn to recognize clues you give them)
The smelling test (dogs can recognize and distinguish between scents.

There are more of those types of tests, but they don't use the word 'test'. Each still gives preparation and performance details, for example to show recognizing symbols, and following pointing, etc.

So some things as I said or more obvious than others, but enough new to me, and I read a lot of dog books, that I found the book worthwhile. And it is a quick read. if you could find it at your library, you can probably easily read it in one sitting.

Below I will give a few excerpts that I found new or interesting:

'A dog’s retina, in contrast to a human retina, has two favored areas where the sensory cells are densely packed. One is called the area centralis. Here, the sensory cells are arranged in circles. This is in contrast to the horizontal bands, where the sensory cells are placed tightly next to each other, like paving stones on a sidewalk. Until recently, that was the extent of our knowledge. In the past few years, however, Australian researchers have gone a bit further down the path of revealing this mystery.
Alison Harman, a neurologist, made a surprising discovery. After examining the retinas of different dog breeds she found out that many short-muzzled breeds don’t possess any horizontal bands with rods, Long-muzzled breeds, on the other hand, had the horizontal bands. This was an enormous surprise, and it explained why some dogs have a wider field of vision than other dogs.'

'Short-muzzled dogs “see” better
What does this mean, practically speaking? Dogs with long muzzles and horizontal bands can see peripheral objects more easily. That’s why they’re also better hunters, since they can recognize prey on the horizon. It’s also no coincidence that hunting dogs have a longer muzzle.
However, dogs without these bands (1.e. with only an area centralis) are able to recognize better the nuances in the faces of their owners, That’s because the area centralis of a short-muzzled dog contains a great deal more sensory cells than that of a long-muzzled dog. Perhaps that’s the reason why we find bulldogs, boxers and other short-muzzled dogs so attractive. , They just have to look us in the eyes and, our hearts melt. ' This also incidentally answers an old question, namely: Why do some dogs like watching TV, while others don't? It’s a lot more fun for our cuddly bulldogs because they can see television images much better. '

I have read before that dogs learn something like four times faster when they see another dog do something, (wish I had saved the quote from where), but here is a nice application that I thought should be used more in training for specific types of work for dogs:

'Puppies born to a drug detecting female were allowed to participate in her tracking work instead of being sent to training. The results were astonishing: Learning at their mother’s side was just as effective as the tough training with humans. The young dogs had indirectly learned their mother’s work, and then imitated it with playful ease.'

The book also mentions Rico, a 'superstar' border collie that has learned to pick out the correct toy out of 100 stuffed toys and bring it to it's owner. Apparently this book was written before Chaser, or the author was not aware of Chaser who learned 1000 words. The book 'Chaser: Unlocking the Genius of the Dog Who Knows a Thousand Words' by John W. Pilley is one I recommend every dog owner read.

Finally, if you want to do this kind of mental work, I liked this bit of advice:
'Thinking takes energy.
Each series of tests should not rake more than an average of 90 minutes. The dog is then exhausted. You should allow the dog at least a one hour break between the series of tests. More than two test series is too many.
If the dog refuses to work, you know it’s time to stop. Let him then choose if he’d like to go for.

So this quick read i think is a good book to recommend to pick up more understanding on how dogs think. show less

I liked this little book! I learned some new things from it. Sure, there will be some things you know just from watching the behavior of your own dogs, but this book tries to show with research and experimentation the claims it makes in a concise fashion.

The book also has lots of tests laid out with steps to test your own dog:
The color test (dog can learn the color bowl food is under)
The distance test (dogs can recognize people far away, but only if they move)
The salami test (dogs can track show more a smell like salami)
The human scent test (dogs can recognize your scent out of others)
The sound test (dogs can recognize a specific sound)
The clue test (dogs can learn to recognize clues you give them)
The smelling test (dogs can recognize and distinguish between scents.

There are more of those types of tests, but they don't use the word 'test'. Each still gives preparation and performance details, for example to show recognizing symbols, and following pointing, etc.

So some things as I said or more obvious than others, but enough new to me, and I read a lot of dog books, that I found the book worthwhile. And it is a quick read. if you could find it at your library, you can probably easily read it in one sitting.

Below I will give a few excerpts that I found new or interesting:

'A dog’s retina, in contrast to a human retina, has two favored areas where the sensory cells are densely packed. One is called the area centralis. Here, the sensory cells are arranged in circles. This is in contrast to the horizontal bands, where the sensory cells are placed tightly next to each other, like paving stones on a sidewalk. Until recently, that was the extent of our knowledge. In the past few years, however, Australian researchers have gone a bit further down the path of revealing this mystery.
Alison Harman, a neurologist, made a surprising discovery. After examining the retinas of different dog breeds she found out that many short-muzzled breeds don’t possess any horizontal bands with rods, Long-muzzled breeds, on the other hand, had the horizontal bands. This was an enormous surprise, and it explained why some dogs have a wider field of vision than other dogs.'

'Short-muzzled dogs “see” better
What does this mean, practically speaking? Dogs with long muzzles and horizontal bands can see peripheral objects more easily. That’s why they’re also better hunters, since they can recognize prey on the horizon. It’s also no coincidence that hunting dogs have a longer muzzle.
However, dogs without these bands (1.e. with only an area centralis) are able to recognize better the nuances in the faces of their owners, That’s because the area centralis of a short-muzzled dog contains a great deal more sensory cells than that of a long-muzzled dog. Perhaps that’s the reason why we find bulldogs, boxers and other short-muzzled dogs so attractive. , They just have to look us in the eyes and, our hearts melt. ' This also incidentally answers an old question, namely: Why do some dogs like watching TV, while others don't? It’s a lot more fun for our cuddly bulldogs because they can see television images much better. '

I have read before that dogs learn something like four times faster when they see another dog do something, (wish I had saved the quote from where), but here is a nice application that I thought should be used more in training for specific types of work for dogs:

'Puppies born to a drug detecting female were allowed to participate in her tracking work instead of being sent to training. The results were astonishing: Learning at their mother’s side was just as effective as the tough training with humans. The young dogs had indirectly learned their mother’s work, and then imitated it with playful ease.'

The book also mentions Rico, a 'superstar' border collie that has learned to pick out the correct toy out of 100 stuffed toys and bring it to it's owner. Apparently this book was written before Chaser, or the author was not aware of Chaser who learned 1000 words. The book 'Chaser: Unlocking the Genius of the Dog Who Knows a Thousand Words' by John W. Pilley is one I recommend every dog owner read.

Finally, if you want to do this kind of mental work, I liked this bit of advice:
'Thinking takes energy.
Each series of tests should not rake more than an average of 90 minutes. The dog is then exhausted. You should allow the dog at least a one hour break between the series of tests. More than two test series is too many.
If the dog refuses to work, you know it’s time to stop. Let him then choose if he’d like to go for.

So this quick read i think is a good book to recommend to pick up more understanding on how dogs think. show less

Eigentlich haben wir es schon immer geahnt: Die Vögel sind klüger, als wir es ihnen zugetraut haben. Immanuel Birmelin widmet sein Buch der Intelligenz in der Vogelwelt. Dabei fallen viele Parallelen mit Fernsehsendungen zum selben Thema auf, an deren Entstehung ebenfalls der Biologe Birmelin beteiligt war. Sein Buch ist aber nicht nur eine Rekapitulation dieser Fernseh-Dokumentationen, sondern berichtet darüber hinaus von vielen weiteren Fallbeispielen, in denen Vögel ihr Köpfchen show more bewiesen haben. Auch die Intelligenz anderer Tiere, z. B. von Schimpansen oder Hunden, kommt immer wieder zur Sprache. Alles, was Immanuel Birmelin schreibt, gibt Zeugnis von seinem großen und lebenslangen Interesse an Tieren, insbesondere an der Vogelwelt, und gleichzeitig von Respekt und Zuneigung für diese Lebewesen. Birmelin schreibt aus einer recht persönlichen Perspektive; heutzutage scheint es modern zu sein, dass man auch in Bücher über Sachthemen viel Autobiografisches einfließen lässt. Fachlich und stilistisch ist das Buch recht einfach gehalten, dabei dürfte der Autor seinen durchschnittlich gebildeten Lesern gerne etwas mehr biologisches Fachwissen zumuten. Damit würde er niemanden überfordern. So ist „Von wegen Spatzenhirn“ ein nettes, unterhaltsames und leicht lesbares Buch geworden, das mit Sicherheit jedem Vogelfreund gefällt. Leider haben sich in das Buch recht viele Flüchtigkeitsfehler eingeschlichen, als ob es unter großem Zeitdruck hergestellt worden wäre. Dies schmälert etwas die Freude am Lesen. Zum Ausgleich enthält das Buch dafür ausgezeichnete Fotos. show less