Kirkus Reviews QR Code   From Wolves to Our Best Friends  by
Mark Derr  Pub Date: Oct. 13th, 2011 ISBN: 978-1-59020-700-0
Publisher: Overlook  Derr (A Dog’s History of America, 2004,
etc.) explores various scenarios on the road to the long,
fruitful relationship between dogs and humans.  “Among the
broader population of Pleistocene wolves and human were
individuals who by virtue of extreme sociability and curiosity,
or both, became best friends and compatriots after encountering
each other on the trail,” writes the author in this rangy,
critically stimulating and warm book. Derr begins with an
overview of behavioral and biological experiments and models and
theories, which becomes a dirge-like march, perhaps because
readers know that he is going to pick many of them apart. So
much new information comes in daily regarding dog studies that
the ground is always shaky. But there are a number of ideas,
backed by research and evidence, which Derr unfolds in a quietly
stirring manner. The first is that wolves and hu