Rach's Reading Club

"Note: Review: Animals in Translation: Using the Myst..."

This was a really interesting book, though I think it's more helpful for animal behavior than for autism, though there was some info on that. But some stuff I found particularly helpful. My cousin's dog killed her other dog about a year ago. She's always wondered if it was on purpose (the bigger dog was a pit bull) or if things just got out of hand while they were playing and her prey drive took over (the other dog was a chihuahua). According to this book, you can tell (if, like her, you're there for the incident). If the attacking dog is growling and snarling, it was pure aggression. If the attacking dog is silent, it was a predator/prey instinct that took over. When I get back to wifi and can call my cousin, I'll talk to her about this in hopes that it may help her get some resolution.

Anyway, this as a good book and I recommend it. I know my examples were always about dogs, but there was info about a lot of other animals in there. For example, they talked about prairie dogs (I think it was) and how they basically have language. They communicate with nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc. They'll let each other know when a coyote approaches if it's the one that sits by your hole for a really long time, waiting for you to come out or if it's the one that will approach and then suddenly attack. They'll let each other know if it's a coyote, a human, a hawk, or whatever. The book goes more in-depts, but it was really amazing!