• How Dogs Love Us

  • A Neuroscientist and His Adopted Dog Decode the Canine Brain
  • By: Gregory Berns
  • Narrated by: LJ Ganser
  • Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (1,269 ratings)

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How Dogs Love Us  By  cover art

How Dogs Love Us

By: Gregory Berns
Narrated by: LJ Ganser
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Publisher's summary

The powerful bond between humans and dogs is one that’s uniquely cherished. Loyal, obedient, and affectionate, they are truly “man’s best friend.” But do dogs love us the way we love them? Emory University neuroscientist Gregory Berns had spent decades using MRI imaging technology to study how the human brain works, but a different question still nagged at him: What is my dog thinking?

After his family adopted Callie, a shy, skinny terrier mix, Berns decided that there was only one way to answer that question - use an MRI machine to scan the dog’s brain. His colleagues dismissed the idea. Everyone knew that dogs needed to be restrained or sedated for MRI scans. But if the military could train dogs to operate calmly in some of the most challenging environments, surely there must be a way to train dogs to sit in an MRI scanner.

With this radical conviction, Berns and his dog would embark on a remarkable journey and be the first to glimpse the inner workings of the canine brain. Painstakingly, the two worked together to overcome the many technical, legal, and behavioral hurdles. Berns’s research offers surprising results on how dogs empathize with human emotions, how they love us, and why dogs and humans share one of the most remarkable friendships in the animal kingdom.

How Dogs Love Us answers the age-old question of dog lovers everywhere and offers profound new evidence that dogs should be treated as we would treat our best human friends: with love, respect, and appreciation for their social and emotional intelligence.

An Audible for Dogs Pick: Make your dog's day. Cesar Millan shares how audiobooks can make dogs happier and calmer. Learn more.
©2013 2013 by (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

“This book’s abundant appeal and value come from following Berns through the challenges of constructing the experiment and especially of training his dog to participate. ‘Like a catcher and pitcher,’ he writes, he and his dog ‘became a team.’ The satisfaction of that relationship perhaps explains why our two species have lived together so long and happily.” ( The Boston Globe)
"A neuroscientist wonders what goes on in the minds of our pet dogs: Do we delude ourselves when we believe that they love us? [ How Dogs Love Us is] a solid introduction to an appealing new area of research." ( Kirkus)
"The book is as much a scientific exploration of how the canine brain might function as it is a deeply personal story about Berns's relationship with dogs as pets and colleagues. Ultimately that connection is what makes the book compelling." ( Scientific American MIND)

What listeners say about How Dogs Love Us

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  • Overall
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misleading title

I love dog stories, but I expected some science from the title, and frankly I still don't know "how dogs love us". The majority of the book was how they got the dogs to go into the scanner.

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22 people found this helpful

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Where is the information?

Would you try another book from Gregory Berns and/or LJ Ganser?

Not likely.

Would you ever listen to anything by Gregory Berns again?

Sure

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

yes

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment

Any additional comments?

This book totally lacked substance. Misleading in title and description. The majority of the weak story was about preparing for and testing. After hours of listening it sounded as if the story was finally getting to the topic expected and there was less than 20 minutes left of the book. Very disappointing.

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18 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

took a while to get going

there is a lot of information about how they did the study but to get to the meat of the story you had to get to chapter 20...seems too long to wait to get to the point to me.

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16 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

First off...

it must be said that this is an interesting book, and it does render some insight into the similarities--and dissimilarities--of animal neurology to our own. It should be read along with Temple Grandin's Animals Make Us Human and anything by Marc Beckoff, especially his The Emotional Lives Of Animals... Now, that said, know that the author is coming in from the point of view of neurology, and he does some question begging, particularly in regard to the assumption that neurology can "find" emotions--let alone love! Sure we can see that areas of the brain are at work at certain times--dogs feel pleasure when we pet them or show them affection--and it is beyond a doubt that animals have emotions. But to make the assertion that their much less developed brains have the same complicated feelings and thoughts that we call "love" is a mighty big leap. As animals have much less frontal cortex than we do and function much more out of the limbic system, I figure it one of two ways: 1) animals cannot contemplate their emotions the same as we do, and thus cannot feel something we call "love" OR 2) since animals can't rationalize their emotions or override them as easily as we do, they actually feel MORE DEEPLY than a human can. Now, which it is is anyone's guess, but an MRI alone is not going to do it. Enjoy this book. There is some very valuable science and some real insight here, but do take its final assumptions with a grain of kibble.

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14 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Mistitled, academic, uninformative

This book's title should be, "All About my Experiment and ME!"

I bought this book expecting to learn a lot about how dogs think, how they think about their humans, and other general information as to the current scientific understandings of dog psychology.

What I got, was 22 chapters before the author even begin to hint at anything having to do with revealing something I might not already know about my dog. Instead of informative science news about mutt mentality, this was mostly a long trudge through arcane academic arcania about how this guy's experiment was put together, a lot about him, himself, his family, his dogs, his staff, and he, him, and his,

Since I bought this listen for a road trip with my wife and my dog, we listened through to the end, and got very little for our investment in time and patience. If you are looking for a book about the fine details of one particular science experiment, then this is for you. If you were looking for a book which will reveal new information about science's understanding of canine thinking, then you will find very thin gruel in this book.

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12 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Very slow going

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I am at chapter 9 of the book and we have yet to get to any actual findings. The details of the academic legal bureaucracy are not interesting. Somehow I suspect the publisher encouraged this buildup, but I just want to skip ahead to the science or findings that I hope will materialize. If this were a real book, I would have skipped ahead and be done by now.

What could Gregory Berns have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Cut out a significant level of detail.

What three words best describe LJ Ganser’s voice?

clear
neutral
appropriate

Could you see How Dogs Love Us being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

Yes. I could see this happening, but I wouldn't advise anyone to be in it.

Any additional comments?

The extremely poor overdubbing of one of the author's dogs' name is distracting and annoying.

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10 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Misleading title

The reality of research spending a lot of time thinking you are making head way to answer your hypothesis, so you push to get the answer only to find that answer elusive. For me this book was disappointing, having had a career in clincal medicine research, I could appreciate the work, however, the title is misleading. This is dry clincical read. Too much like reading articles in medical journals. Entertaining it was not.

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9 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

waste of time

This book spent all its time explaining how they were able to get a dog's head into an MRI scanner, but I never learned how dogs love us. I gave up on listening 1/2 way through this book because it was filled with information about operating an MRI, but did not address the issue of how dogs love us

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7 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Way too technical

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

The book never told us how dogs love us. It explained over and over how awake dogs were used to map the canine brain.

What could Gregory Berns have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

He wrote the book he set out to write. The title does not explain what the book is about.

Did LJ Ganser do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

Yes.

What character would you cut from How Dogs Love Us?

None.

Any additional comments?

I want authors to be clear about their intentions and subject matter.

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5 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Very scientific but very interesting

What did you love best about How Dogs Love Us?

I love the passion the author has for his dogs and the passion for science. Only true dog people, not to be mistaken with dog owners, would understand why he did what he did.

Were the concepts of this book easy to follow, or were they too technical?

As a RN with 5 years of Neurology experience, it was easy. I am sure that if you know nothing about radiology or neuroscience, it will be a little hard to follow.
I know that because my husband was a little (a lot) lost.

Which scene was your favorite?

Kelly chasing the ducks by the river and when she cuddled with the author (awwwww).

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

I would not make a film about this book. Unless the movie was for Vet, Radiology or Neuroscience students.

Any additional comments?

If you are not into medical terminology and scientific studies, skip to chapter 23. Before that, the content is 90% study. VERY INTERESTING but, if you are looking for a mushy confy book, skip to chapter 24.

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4 people found this helpful