This book is about studying dog brains, but the training required to get them into an MRI is an education. Why do these animals go along with it? I'll never know, but I remain grateful. Berns ends up in Tasmania learning about the extinct Thylacine. He's there to map a brain. There's more, but for the armchair scientist, this book is worth the quest.

For a book about animal neuroscience, which is admittedly a harder read than a fluffy fiction piece, I certainly enjoyed What It's Like To Be A Dog.

Although the title focuses on the dog aspect of the book, the author explores the brains of several other animals. I feel like for what he advertises, there was a reasonable ratio of dog to other animal discussed in the book. I do understand that some readers might have expected it to be mostly about dogs, though.

The author's style flows well and it's quite easy to read, for a subject that doesn't lend itself easily to narrative. There were a few times that I was tempted to skim over, though - mainly explanations about how the MRI machine worked. But I overall enjoyed the structure of he book and how he laid it out fairly chronologically.

I was moved by his thoughts on how we treat animals and inspired to make changes in my own life to better respect the creatures we share this planet with.

Enjoyable read (though if you have zero interest in science this probably isn't the book for you).

Too much fluff. So much rambling and doesn’t get to the heart of why readers picked up this book in the first place.

This book was an interesting case study on dogs, their brains and what motivates them as compared to humans and other animals like sea lions and dolphins. Berns does a research study on dogs, using a variety of medical equipment generally used to test and study humans on a group of dog "volunteers" and his findings were fascinating.

This would be a great read for anyone who is interested in books about animals that are written from a scientific approach or science/neuroscience in general. The nerd in me was very happy with this book.

*I received an advance reading copy in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.*

I only read the parts pertaining to dogs :)

This book was not as interesting to me as his first book which was solely about dogs. But this book gave me information I didn't realize that I needed to know. Such as:

-What animals think like us? And if they think like us, do they deserve the same treatment we as humans have?

-Animals who are used in research studies, are they treated with freedom to refuse the study? If not, is that ok?

-Do dogs have the ability to exert self-control the same way humans do? If so, what does that mean for dogs?

-Is studying an animal not in its natural setting a real study?

-Seals, elephants, dolphins, rats and dogs are some very intelligent animals, is intelligence a marker for better treatment?

-Do animals suffer, feel pain? How does that affect the way we treat them?

I didn't know I wanted to know these answers or learn to ask these questions. I only wanted to know what I already believe, dogs are my best friends. They are because they don't just look at me for their food and shelter, it is because they are capable of so much more.

This review is for the audiobook version.

First of all, this book is pretty good and has some interesting content, but it's title and subtitle should've been inverted, because this... is not very focused at all: while all of it is about neuroscience, the subject varies a lot between dogs, other animals and research ethics, touching lightly on each subject.

If you are expecting a great description of how dogs think, this isn't the book for you - the author even says it's not a simple task finding it out, or if it's even possible at all. If you are interested in neuroscience - or ethics in animal research - this is still a good read.

I've read a couple of books about neurology and human cognition, but haven't read anything about animal cognition, so there were some interesting things in this book. Still, like many people already wrote in their reviews, I feel that we could've had more dogs in this book. It felt like Berns had so much to say about how dogs' brains work, but had to cut himself short in order to get this book to the shelves.