Who's a Good Dog?: And How to Be a Better Human - Hardcover

by Jessica Pierce (Author)

A New Scientist Best Book of 2023

A guide to cultivating a shared life of joy and respect with our dogs.

Who's a Good Dog? is an invitation to nurture more thoughtful and balanced relationships with our canine companions. By deepening our curiosity about what our dogs are experiencing, and by working together with them in a spirit of collaboration, we can become more effective and compassionate caregivers.

With sympathy for the challenges met by both dogs and their humans, bioethicist Jessica Pierce explores common practices of caring for dogs, including how we provide exercise, what we feed, how and why we socialize and train, and how we employ tools such as collars and leashes. She helps us both to identify potential sources of fear and anxiety in our dogs' lives and to expand practices that provide physical and emotional nourishment. Who's a Good Dog? also encourages us to think more critically about what we expect of our dogs and how these expectations can set everyone up for success or failure. Pierce offers resources to help us cultivate attentiveness and kindness, inspiring us to practice the art of noticing, of astonishment, of looking with fresh eyes at these beings we think we know so well. And more than this, she makes her findings relatable by examining facets of her relationship with Bella, the dog in her life. As Bella shows throughout, all dogs are good dogs, and we, as humans and dog guardians, could be doing a little bit better to get along with them and give them what they need.

Author Biography

Jessica Pierce is an internationally acclaimed bioethicist. Her work spans from broad considerations of human responsibilities for nature to detailed explorations of human-animal relationships. She has published eleven books, including The Last Walk: Reflections On Our Pets at the End of Their Lives, and Run, Spot, Run: The Ethics of Keeping Pets, both also published by the University of Chicago Press. Her essays have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Guardian, and Scientific American. Pierce is a faculty affiliate at the Center for Bioethics and Humanities at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. She lives in the Colorado Rockies.