America is a dog loving nation.

Hard numbers aren't easy to come by, but it's estimated there are between 77 and 90

million dogs in the US with roughly 40 to 50 percent of households having at least

one.

We also have a lot of cats, but dogs appear to be a bit more popular.

The pandemic has brought even more dogs into our homes and made us even closer.

So how well do you know your dog?

We may think we know them pretty well, but the fact that they are so familiar can actually

make it harder to see dogs as they really are.

Initially studying dogs, having a familiar species as my chosen subject was a little bit

of a deficit because people felt like dogs were already understood.

Right?

I mean, hopefully we know something about them because they're living in our house

and they're in my bed right now.

You know, and the thought was you don't really need research in this field.

Alexandra Harowitz runs the Dog Cognition Lab at Barnard College in New York, which is

part of Columbia University.

She is the author of several books about dogs, the best known of which is called Inside

of a Dog.

What dogs see, smell and know.

Here's one brief passage that we asked her to read.

Page seven of the paperback.

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