is there an excellent, readable history of humankind's relationship with canines?

Not quite what you were looking for (at all), but I'm hoping for a little crossover action from the ILB massive. Can't get no sense out of them lot over there:

TS: "How Much Is That Doggie In The Window?" vs "Daddy Wouldn't Buy Me A Bow-Wow"

I don't think it's a kinship, at least not in my case. I'm sure some of my relatives are hairy bumsniffers, but that's about it.

Oh we do have fun.

I have always believed "Daddy wouldn't buy me a bow wow" sounds more like some horrible kinky song about sugar daddies and was written to be sung by Marilyn Monroe in a giggly voice and is therefore BAD and WRONG. So I think you should learn the other one.

With that done, there was some interesting stuff about the domestication of certain animals (including dogs) in Guns, Germs and Steel, but it wasn't the comprehensive woof-fest you might be looking for. I too would like to read such a book. I hope all of those people over on ILE who are complaining about writing non-fiction book pitches are reading this.

There's this: Man's Best Friend: The Fascinating Story of How Wolves Became Dogs by Caroline Sand, but it doesn't seem very easy to get hold of and I've no idea what it's like.

Which song, Archel? It's high time dogs reverted to wolfdom.

Accent Monkey, I think you might be right, but the bit about 'robbers' in HMITDITW is open to interpretation, re. 'even if it must be burglary'. Both songs strike me as suitable Gentle Waves B-sides.

How Much Is That Doggy in the Window, definitely. More independent female consumer innit...

I think there's a strange half-tame wolf-dog thing living on the traveller's site next to where I work, I saw it this morning.

thanks, all... yeah, "guns, germs, ands steel" is what got me thinking about this... plus a dimly remembered radio documentary. i'll check the library for "man's best friend" and report back.

by the way, where's the thread where the ilxors are complaining about non-fiction pitches?

no dice on "man's best friend" in the library, and out-of-print/$120 on amazon.

this is a bit off-topic, but my mother sent me a write-up of a really fascinating study done in Hungary on how dogs interact with humans and how it differs from wolves. it goes a fair bit into the related subject of so-called emotional intelligence, which is probably the most interesting. i can email it if you'd like.

that would be great, lauren. thanks so much!

Lauren! I'd love to read that too. Can you mail it to me as well?

no problem, folks. those email addresses are functional?

please lauren!

but of course.

thanks, lauren... very interesting stuff.

one of things i'm curious to track down - and i don't think this is from guns, germs & steel - is the argument that human development was actually shaped by canine characteristics, that we've been hanging out with dogs so long that we have adopted some dog-traits. i think that horses supposedly had similar effects. i'm not really sure if i actually read this somewhere (and understood it properly if i did) or if am just making this up.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/02/0206_020206_lovedogs.html

Stephan Budiansky's The Truth About Dogs has a section on this, as well as more on dog behaviour. It's a good, light-but-solid book about dogs, dog evolution and the dog mind. It isn't at all 'aaah cute puppy'.

DOG LOVE by Marjorie Garber

this is a bit off-topic, but my mother sent me a write-up of a really fascinating study done in Hungary on how dogs interact with humans and how it differs from wolves. it goes a fair bit into the related subject of so-called emotional intelligence, which is probably the most interesting. i can email it if you'd like.

This sounds really interesting. I wonder if any of you remember what this was, 16 years later.