The Year of the Puppy

February 15, 2024
A dog cognition researcher adopts a puppy and observes her development through a scientific and personal lens. This guide to dog development is organized chronologically, from the birth of a litter of puppies through each week of their development until they are adopted. The book continues through one puppy's first year as she adapts to home life, and the family members--Horowitz, her husband, her son, two older dogs, and a cat--adjust to her presence. The author folds plenty of scientific information about canine development and socialization into her personal narrative, using advanced vocabulary that's defined in-text. In parallel with her observations of new family member Quiddity--Quid for short--the author tacks on information about a litter of puppies who are being raised to be working dogs, for whom the training and expectations are very different than for family pets. The book also features cute photos, fun lists ("Some things the puppy has eaten/chewed that are not for eating/chewing: an observational study"), and even an Ear Semaphore Code chart. Horowitz acknowledges that dog cognition researchers "can be too close to our subjects to see them well," which may be especially true if the dogs are their own, but readers interested in a dog's world and how humans and dogs communicate will find a wealth of information here. A focused and earnest guide for young dog lovers. (Nonfiction. 10-14)

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Starred review from July 11, 2022
Horowitz (Our Dogs, Ourselves), head of Barnard College’s Dog Cognition Lab, charts the first year of a puppy’s life in this splendid dog behavior explainer. Aiming to “keep a lens firmly on the puppy’s point of view,” Horowitz offers a week-by-week milestone breakdown that starts with puppies as just a “splodge of fur” whose hearts beat 220 beats a minute. By one week old, they’re “sweet potatoes with ears, feet, and a tail.” At week three they’re able to “sense” humans’ presence, and by week eight, pups’ personalities have begun to develop. Along the way, Horowitz describes how dogs and humans coevolved to meet each others’ needs (the animals, for instance, “show more attachment to the people who adopt them than the mother who birthed them”), ruminates on what one’s furry friend might be thinking about going outside, and whips up creative ways to socialize Quiddity, a pup she adopted and raised during the pandemic. Animal lovers will eat this up. Agent: Kristine Dahl, Curtis Brown.

December 6, 2024

Gr 6 Up-Dog lovers get to explore one puppy's journey from her first breath. The author, founder of the Dog Cognition Lab at Barnard College, believes she should adopt a puppy in addition to her family's two dogs and cat. While she has had dogs throughout her life, she's never known a dog from its very beginning. Plus, puppies are cute. The first part, set shortly before the pandemic, follows a new litter week by week as well as training to be rescuers. Besides their physical development, the book monitors the puppies' social and personality progression. When the author's family picks their puppy, the story shifts to focus on the puppy in their home and continued development, although the dog's littermates and the other litter continue to be tracked. Some young readers trying to understand the miscommunications between themselves and man's best friend will appreciate this narrative style rather than a clinical approach. But it is the wrong voice for young readers. This is still very much a grown-up's story, and children might not be interested in that perspective. VERDICT Only for those who want a slimmed down adaptation of the original.-Elissa Cooper

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