Making Sense of Dog Senses by Stephanie Gibeault

Making Sense of Dog Senses is a fascinating introduction to the way dogs experience their world.

Making Sense of Dog Senses: How Our Furry Friends Experience the World by Stephanie Gibeault, illustrated by Raz Latif. Owlkids Books, 2024, 48 pages.

Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 8-10

Recommended for: ages 7-13

If you’ve ever wondered why dogs get acquainted with each other by sniffing rear ends, this is the book for you. The author takes a common-sensical approach by focusing on the five senses we share with canines, but of course in vastly different ways and for different purposes. We all know that dogs can smell better than humans, but how much better? Well enough to distinguish a single particle of scent in a trillion particles, to know how long a scent has lingered and to pick up the scent of a particular human even before that person comes through the door. Licking their noses with those extra-long tongues keeps the scent-receptors moist and receptive. Hearing is superior to humans also—we know about their ability to hear frequencies we can’t—but sight, not so much. Dogs can see colors but their spectrum is limited and so is their visual acuity.

All this helps us understand our furry pals. The author writes of dogs evolving from wolves in the opening pages, but the “evolution” she describes was actually domestication and selective breeding. In other words, purposeful action by humans. (This doesn’t extend to human expressions of affection: dogs don’t like to be hugged!) The last two pages summarize how human senses compare with canines’ and declares a draw: “Dogs are perfectly suited to being dogs. And you are perfectly suited to being a human. It’s not about how dogs compare to us, but how we each use our senses to survive and thrive.” And become good friends.

Overall Rating: 4 (out of 5)

• Worldview/moral value: 3.5
• Artistic/literary value: 4.25

Read more about our ratings here.

Also at Redeemed Reader:

• Reviews: Too many dog stories to list! Type “dogs” in the search box and start scrolling. (Our search terms aren’t super-refined—you’ll get a lot of non-dog stories listed as well, but the taglines will help you sort them out.)
• Reflection: Did you cry at the end of Old Yeller or Where the Red Fern Grows? Betsy has thoughts on Sad Dog Stories.

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