View source for Dogs Never Lie About Love: Why Your Dog Will Always Love You More Than Anyone Else by Jeffrey Masson

{{infobox1
|title=Dogs Never Lie About Love: Why Your Dog Will Always Love You More Than Anyone Else
|author=Jeffrey Masson
|reviewer=Sue Magee
|genre=Pets
|summary=A heart-warming look at man's best friend, with some surprising facts.
|rating=3.5
|buy=Maybe
|borrow=Yes
|pages=368
|publisher=Vintage
|date=March 2012
|isbn=978-0099740612
|cover=0099740613
|aznuk=0099740613
|aznus=0099740613
}}

Readers come to books for strange reasons but I don't think that I've ever before picked up a book, looked at the title and been intrigued not by what was suggested but by how anyone could think differently.  ''Dogs Never Lie About Love'' is a statement of the obvious to me.  I've lived with and around dogs for most of my life and I know that dogs are incapable of pretence.  I've never met a dog I couldn't trust: if it doesn't like me, it will tell me so straight away.  It will not attempt to trick me.  I only wish that I could say the same about most of the humans I encounter.

Jeffrey Masson has three dogs, all from rescue centres. He uses his observations of his own dogs along with stories of dogs' friendship, loyalty and heroism and takes us on a trip through the emotions of a dog.  You will laugh.  You will cry and you will either consider your dog in a new light or you will nod knowingly. You will definitely be aware that your dog - any dog - is not a dumb animal.  (My dog has just popped into the office to tell me that Royal Mail are about to make a delivery.  She would have approached me differently if it was a courier and I would have been aware if it was the man who delivers our eggs.)

It's an illuminating trip through the mind and body of the dog.  Most people are probably aware of the elevated sense of smell - estimated at a hundred million times as sensitive as that of a human - or the hearing which can detect that someone is near our house long before I have any idea.  I knew that dogs dream (and I know that they often - unfortunately - have disturbed dreams) and although I didn't know that they see in colour, I'd long suspected it.  All of our dogs have been particularly aware of an approaching storm - but I hadn't known previously that it was because of their sense of smell.

Some of this might sound as though it's quite dry - but it's anything but that. The stories about his own dogs are heart warming and entertaining.  I am, however, wary of accepting as scientific proof of a premise observations which are based on such a small sample, or where the observer might be biased  towards the sample.  Masson says that he has no problems with anthropomorphism (and nor have I) and I think you might find this a more dog-friendly read than many more scientific books on the subject of man's best friend.

I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.

If this subject interests you then we can recommend [[Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell and Know by Alexandra Horowitz]].

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[[Category:Popular Science]]