Do Dogs Think?
Do Dogs Think? Owners assume their pet's brain works like their own. That's a big mistake. http://www.slate.com/id/2127419/ |
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| I have to say yes...hands down.
I agree with this article in that, I'm not necessarily sure dogs could plot vengance, etc. Their thought process is obviously different than ours, but consider this: their minds and bodies develop exponentially faster than ours do. where they stop developing is obviously the matter of contention here, but imagine if our minds and bodies developed that quickly. I firmly believe that their cognitive abilities are much greater than many give them credit for. Quote: That's attributing a lot of intellectual activity to an animal that can recognize a few dozen words but has none of its own, that reads human emotions but doesn't experience the same ones.
We all know that there are very distinct barks that our dogs use to communicate different emotions. We can recognize a few, but have no concept of the minute distinctions in bark...just as they wouldn't recognize if we called them a lazy stupid idiot in a very sweet high voice. They use these barks to convey the emotions that they feel, just like us...fear, joy, responsibility, seeking attention, loneliness, excitement, etc. We're just not smart enough to understand them. As for a concept of time: why do we buy them things like kongs that claim to keep them busy for hours? They may not understand linear time like we do, but again, we all know that after a certain period, they get bored with a particular toy, for example. Boredom, I think, is a function of elapsed time and interest. They realize, "hey, i've been playing with this thing for too ling...time to switch." if they had no concept of time, they'd sit there and chew it forever. I also think you can put time in the context of bodily functions. As in, "hey, i really have to go.." vs. "hey, i only kind of have to go." They may or may not be able to make the correlation, but I think they know when they've been holding it longer than normal. We are all animals of context. I agree that owners assume/impose human emotions on dogs (or all pets for that matter), but also think about how we all impose our own contexts on other people. E.g. clerk at a store is rude or short with you...we always assume we did something or that they are just a mean person. When in reality, we have no idea of their context, or their lives, and what could possibly be going on in that person's life. Same thing with living with a dog. The longer we're together, and the more intimate our relationships, the more attune to one another we become. We start to assume eachother's context, and understand things that we wouldn't outside of that context. Bottom line - I think our pups deserve a lot more credit than we tend to give them. |
| I agree with most of this article. I'm currently a stay-at-home mom of Chauncey now 10 mos old. I'm home most of the day and when I can take him with me. My husband calls him gas bum ( except he uses the American version). When we can't take him with us we have always crated him. We are in the process of trying to wean him from the crate by using baby gates and confining him in the kitchen. He has done wonderfully as far as behavior. We've done this 3-4 times over the last month and never more than 2 hours at a time. The last 2 times he seems fearful of the gates and seems to prefer the crate. The gates are not new, we have used them to confine him to the area of the house we were in since we brought him home. Could it be he's just not ready? Any suggestions?
One thing in the article I disagree with, is dogs concept of time. Our lab Jake, that passed away last year, was extremely close to my husband, who works evenings. At 11:15 EVERY night he would go set by the door and look in the direction that Bob's truck would be traveling. He wouldn't move until he got home. You could set your watch by this dog. I've seen him sound asleep on the bed and at 11:15 here he'd come. |
Chauncey wrote: One thing in the article I disagree with, is dogs concept of time. Our lab Jake, that passed away last year, was extremely close to my husband, who works evenings. At 11:15 EVERY night he would go set by the door and look in the direction that Bob's truck would be traveling. He wouldn't move until he got home. You could set your watch by this dog. I've seen him sound asleep on the bed and at 11:15 here he'd come.
For a long time we were amazed that our Maggie could tell that it was Sunday, which was our "family night". (the night she got to go to Wendy's for chicken nuggets). More than likely her reaction was because we showered and changed clothes in the middle of the day, not part of our weekday routine... but it could have been because she was just an exceptional sheepie. |
I'm convinced they can tell time  Chauncey hasn't quite learned to tell time yet, but he can read the McDonalds sign...he too likes chicken nuggets... |
Cool article - very indepth. About the time thing - is it possible that dogs can know when certain hours of the day come but can't judge the passing of time? I have no idea -  |
| I'm not sure about that...but with Jake, I thought there might be something that triggered his going to the door and looking out at the same time each night letting him know it was time for dad. But really there wasn't anything that I routinely did or a show I always watched....nothing. |
| Very interesting!
After reading The Dog Listener: Learn How to Communicate with Your Dog for Willing Cooperation, by Jan Fennell, I have finally come to the conclusion that dogs think differently than us and I have seen a HUGE improvment in The Muppets behaviour...since I've become a dog!  That sounds so creepy! LOL!
I do feel weird when I pretend to eat their food before I give it to them...my hubby finds it even stranger to watch this...he really needs to read that book! |
| Violet comes up to me at 4:50 p.m. everyday and makes the "it's time for dinner" sound. I can set my clock by her. (we don't always feed her at that time. Sometimes I tell her she has to wait) We don't have a dinner routine for the humans in the household so that is not what is alerting her. We adopted Violet from a rescue at 9 months old and she is now 3 1/2 and she never misses her 4:50 (tummy alarm). I often wondered if Paul, at the rescue, fed her at that time.
Once Violet alerts us to dinner time and the human starts to pour the food, Violet trys to hurd China (Aussie Shephard) and Pearl the cat to their dishes. This is the only time that Pearl will allow Violet to hurd her. lol. |
| When my kids were younger and in school we had a large black lab/ german shepherd mix Bozo (believe me the name fit). Boz was home alone all day, so nothing triggered the time for him, but each day when it was time for the kids to come home from school he would be sitting in front of the bay window watching for them - so yes, I believe they have some sort of context of time, maybe it's different than ours, but they have some way of knowing. |
| Oh yeah....the most surely do.
I give Max and Stella a rawhide chewie every night after we have our outdoor play time. Most times, it's a non event and all goes ell.....other times, Stella (the smart one) will notice that she is done with hers and Max (the big dumb goof) is still working on his.....so she will go to the back door and bark the bark of "something is in the backyard and we must go get it!!!!"......of course Max hears this and leaves his chewie on the floor and races to the back door while Stella goes the other way and snags Max's chewie. Max then comes back in and see Stella with a chewie and Max cannot remember whether he had finsihed his or not......but figures he must have because Stella has one and he does not. Also, we traditionally go to the dog park on Sunday morning after breakfast.....Saturday morning...no problem but Sunday morning as soon as we are through with breakfast, all hell breaks loose with the frantic "WE WANT TO GO TO THE DOG PARK NOW!!!!!" antics.....how do they know the difference between Saturday and Sunday? |
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