THE OTHER END OF THE LEASH

Well, it seems appropriate now to talk about disgust after a weekend of gluttony. (But what fun cooking paprika chicken and pot roast and roasted brussels sprouts and home made bread and pumpkin and cherry/raspberry/rhubarb pie. Not to mention eating all the turkey that others cooked and I ate up as if I was starving.)

It’s been interesting reading about whether dogs people believe that dogs can experience disgust. Recall that 66.2 % of seminar participants said yes, and 78.3% of blog readers who responded said yes (this may have changed as later responses came in, but not significantly). (The Morris research listed only 34% of people responding yes, but a blog reader commented wisely that the question wasn’t “Can your dog…” but “Have you observed your dog experiencing disgust.”)

But here’s the deal. Disgust is perhaps the most basic of all emotions. Disgust, or “an aversion to something offensive,” is seen in all mammals, most often in response to a smell or taste that is aversive for some reason. Our expressions of disgust are similar across species, as Darwin noted in The Expressions of the Emotions in Man and Animals. Here’s is a more current illustration of that from Youtube:

Disgust is registered primarily in the Anterior Insula of the brain, an area that is active both when one feels disgusted and when one views a disgusted expression on the face of another. Because of its close association with the sense of smell, disgust has been postulated to be the “first emotion,” designed to prevent the ingestion of dangerous substances. However, I was surprised to find very little about disgust in Panskepp’s classic book on emotions in animals, Affective Neuroscience. In spite of that, I know of no biologist who argues that other mammals don’t experience disgust on a basic level.

Of course, what is perceived as disgusting is both species specific (the stink of fox poop not being a human favorite) and culturally transmitted. Not surprisingly, this  is especially true of food: for example, some cultures find big, fat juicy insects and their larvae highly palatable and others, not so much. There’s an interesting article in Time Online about the research of Andrea Morales and Gavan Fitzsimons who found that just being next to something perceived as disgusting made an item less attractive (ie, don’t try to sell cookies next to Kitty Litter at the supermarket.)

That brings to mind a seminar I did in Canada in which the host hotel thought it would be a hoot to serve the chocolate pudding desert in the shape of dog feces. Seriously. It looked exactly like poop sitting on a white plate. They were actually surprised that no one ate it, but not as surprised as we were that they did it in the first place. We all laughed, and then looked at each other with somewhat stunned expressions on our faces, and pushed the plate away.

It also reminds me of John Rogerson’s technique of inhibiting dog-dog aggression by throwing a bag of dog feces into the face of the offending dog. I’ve never done it, but I’ll bet it would absolutely get a dog’s attention. Of course, some dogs eat feces, but I doubt they’d enjoy poop-in-the-face. Personally I’d rather not use it as a training technique (pretty negative for the person too), but I have thought it would be a great last ditch tool if you were walking down the street with a bag of poop in your hand and a dog charging at your reactive dog.

This all gets me thinking about the use of ‘disgust’ in behavior modification. You all know I’m a positive trainer, but that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t suggest someone use something aversive to prevent some behavior problems if the solution is humane. I’m thinking about Bitter Apple for example: I just sprayed a plant with it to prevent Tootsie from chewing on the leaves.  But what about an aversive scent versus taste? Any use for that? I’ve seen commercial products that are supposed to keep dogs out of plants, etc, but frankly I’ve never seen them work very well. You?

Here’s another great example of the expression of disgust, by the way, sent in by a reader from Europe of her Pap at a show after being forced to be in cold, wet grass and then touched by a judge with cold, wet hands. Thank you Ute for sending these photos, they are great!

MEANWHILE, back on the farm: Willie’s shoulder is as good as it’s been since the injury last February. He is allowed to run around outside for brief periods with no hobbles and longer ones with the hobbles. Great news is that my adrenals are now getting used to seeing him running around, so I don’t suffer from cortisol toxicity every time I see him run anymore! He is not a fan of the treadmill now, he came out of it yesterday and sniffed the floor of the room for a full three minutes before acknowledging me or Courtney. But it’s helping him, so I sympathized, gave him lots of cuddles when he did come over and then told him to suck it up.

Tootsie continues to make tremendous strides. I am so proud of her. Her recall is coming along beautifully, and I can now take her up into the pasture and keep her from hysterically and desperately eating as much sheep poop as it is possible to cram into her mouth. She gets lots of more appropriate treats and is actually spend time sniffing around the grass, apparently interested in something besides gobbling up sheep poop as if she was starving to death. And for one brief magical moment, Willie and Tootsie actually sniffed each other at the same time a few days ago. Will wonders never cease?

THANKS to you all for contributing to the survey! I’ll give you the results of the blog survey first and then compare them on the right with a survey done at the Madison Seminar (thanks!) and with research done by Morris et. al. in 2008 (Cognition & Emotion 22(1), 3-20). First, emotions and dogs (of course!)

CAN DOGS EXPERIENCE THE FOLLOWING EMOTIONS?

EMOTION   BLOG YES                SEMINAR YES                      MORRIS 2008 YES

FEAR                   100%                               100%                                       93%

JOY                       100%                              99.5%                                      99%

ANGER                85.7%                             95.1%                                       65%

DISGUST            78.3%                              66.2%                                      34%

GUILT                 22.9%                              40.0%                                      74%

JEALOUSY         82.9%                               84.6                                        81%

Pretty interesting, hey? Note that Fear, Anger and Jealousy have relatively similar responses between blog readers, seminar attendees and animal owners as asked by Morris et al. (Although isn’t it interesting that only 93% of dog owners thought dogs could experience fear? Oh my. Look, though, at the answers to Disgust and Guilt. Wow, quite a difference, hey? And only 65% of Morris’s respondents thought dogs could be angry, while 86% of blog readers did.



IF ONE ASKS THE SAME QUESTION ABOUT “ANIMALS:” (And yes, the question does arise, as well it should, what animals? Grasshoppers?  Morris’ research actually asked animal owners: “Is your animals ever fearful?” The respondents could have birds, horses, hamsters, etc. So in that sense I didn’t follow the methods of the research, but I was curious what folks would say to the general question and would like to compare it later to my UW student’s answers, so bear with me….). You’ll see that the Madison seminar attendees were not asked this question:

EMOTION       BLOG YES               MORRIS YES

FEAR                      100%                                      97%

JOY                          98.4%                                    98%

ANGER                   93.5 %                                    68%

DISGUST               82.3%                                     33%

GUILT                    47.6%                                      41%

JEALOUSY           87.3%                                       63%

* Percentages don’t always add up to 100% because some answers were “don’t know.” In addition, some respondents included humans (logically) and I think answered if ANY animal could, while others answered if ALL animals could. A good example of a poorly worded question! Note to self.

AND  HAMSTERS? Fewer of you responded here, 50 versus 70 for dogs (understandably, and good for you for saying you didn’t know!). Summarizing, all three groups are less likely to attribute all emotions except Fear to hamsters than dogs (Yes to Joy in Hamsters was from 80 to 91% — the highest number from Morris’ research interestingly enough!). For example, 83% of blog readers thought dogs could be jealous, but only 36 % thought hamsters could.

Interesting stuff, hey? Here’s what I plan to do next week: Enroll you in why ALL mammals can experience Disgust, Fear and Anger, show you some research that suggests that indeed dogs can experience something akin to human Jealousy, and agree with many of you that Guilt is a complicated construct that of all the emotions is least like to be similar in dogs and people. (Great research on that to come too!)

Til then, see you in Cleveland I hope this weekend, and if not, definitely in Orlando January 7th for an all new seminar on Canine Communication that I am having a ball working on, or Naples on January 12th for a half-day seminar on using dogs in AAT and AAA (details to come VERY soon.)

MEANWHILE, back on the farm: Oh the weather! Why am I inside for heaven’s sake! It’s been sunny and 50′s, and everyone who has lived here a few years know how very sweet the weather is for this time of year. Tootsie did beautifully with the snow after a few days, but now the ground is dry again so I’m sure we’ll have to start over once it snows or rains again. Her biggest strides in the last few weeks have been coming when called. She’s doing so well I am even taking her outside off leash, but only under certain circumstances: I have incredibly good food and she knows it; we’re behind the house and she can’t be distracted by cars on the road; I know she needs to pee;  Willie is beside us and is under 100% vocal control and she pays some attention to where he goes; and, most importantly, we only stay out for 3-4 minutes maximum.  In other contexts she’s on leash and I practice calling TOOTSIE COME! and run the other way and give her treat treat treat for turning and running to me. I gotta tell you, there’s not much cuter than watching her fly across the grass, ears flapping like Dumbo, tail turning like a crank, mouth drooling in anticipation of treats.

And good news on the Willie front too. He’s progressed enough that he gets occasional times outside without the Hobbles (rare and short), and today, for the FIRST TIME since February, I took him up the hill behind the house and let him run free (with Hobbles on, but still…) I’ll take it back a notch tomorrow and keep him extra quiet until I see how he does. We go one two steps forward and one step back, but mostly we’re going in the right direction. My dream of working him on sheep in November is gone (today was going to be the day, by the way. I circled it on the calendar many months ago.)  His PT says probably not until well into 2012. Deep breath. We’ll be okay, it’ll come before we know it, and at least he can be off leash outside now for awhile.

Willie and Tootsie are about the same with each other. They continue to pretend that they are the only dog in the house. They do sneak sniffs more often when the other isn’t looking, and Willie gets my eternal gratitude for tolerating all kinds of rude behavior from her. He lets her lick food out of the same plate (allowed after the humans are done with dinner), ignores it when she dances on his head to get up to our faces, and let’s her take over a sleeping place without so much of a grumble. Again, I see no love lost, but they seem to be accepting each other as the new normal. I’ll keep you posted.

It’s gorgeous outside. I just wish I was able to spend more time out there. But it is great to feel like we’re getting ready for winter. Our chest freezer (large enough to put a cow into. Standing up. Well, okay, not quite, but it’s HUGE) is full to the brim with strawberries and raspberries and rhubarb and apple butter and chard and broccoli and spinach and 1/4 of a kindly raised hog, an entire lamb from the farm, and 15 organic, local chickens. And a gazillion other things. Trips to the market will be little more than orange juice and toilet paper, flour and sugar.  And best of all, all the ewes have been bred by the new ram, King Charles. (I named him KC because he seemed tiny to me when he arrived. I named him after, you guessed it, King Charles Cavalier Spaniels).

Here’s the evening sun on the back hills behind Lady Godiva, Spot and Rosebud, who have come down for their nightly alfalfa. This was last week, now the snow is long gone, the sun is shining and it’s warm and balmy.

I love the patterns of snow on branches and sun on leaves:

I’m just back from the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. I was one of several speakers discussing the Human/Animal Bond at NIH’s STEP Forum, a monthly meeting for all NIH staff designed to educate staff about issues relating to science in the public health. It was very much worth the travel; the talks given by zoo-anthropologist Dr. James Serpell, Dr. Sandra Barker and Dr. Joan Esnayra were each worth the trip alone. Dr. Serpell discussed historical and cross-cultural aspects of the human-animal bond, and dispelled the myths that “pets” are only luxuries indulged in by industrial societies and that people who love animals do so from some social pathology that prevents them from “normal” relationships with other people. His books In the Company of Animals and The Domestic Dog are classics, you might want to look them up.

Dr. Barker, a Professor of Psychiatry and active participant using animal in therapy, spoke about the impact of Animal Assisted Interventions (distinguishing between Animal Assisted Therapy, in which the animal works with a licensed therapist toward a specific goal for the client and Animal Assisted Activities, in which animals are brought in to comfort and alleviate stress–both vital efforts) and her ongoing research projects at VCU to elucidate the context in which AAT  and AAA can be clinically valuable.

Dr. Esnayra founded the Psychiatric Service Dog Society and gave a compelling speech about the effective use of assistance dogs for those with mental illness (instead of physical disabilities). She is absolutely up front about living herself with Bipolar Disorder and PTSD, and has 2 beautiful (and beautifully behaved) Rhodesian Ridgebacks who work with her (and attended the forum). We also met Mike Townsend and Donna Dellaglio, who have a Helper Monkey who has ‘changed their lives’ . Mike has severe MS, is confined to a wheel chair and no longer has the use of his arms. Kathy, their capuchin, allows him to watch television, turn lots of equipment off and on, and most importantly, use the computer. “Kathy gave Mike his life back” is a pretty inspiring thing to hear at the end of a morning on the importance of animals in our lives.

I spoke second, after Serpell, arguing that the profound love that many of us have for our dogs is a biological phenomenon that deserves more scientific attention. In my talk I speculated, as I did in the book For the Love of a Dog, that one of the reasons we become so intensely attached to dogs is that dogs have such expressive faces and as Darwin argued over a century ago, their expressions of fear, anger and happiness are very much like our own.

Those comments were soundly criticized by a veterinary behaviorist in the audience who argued that I was being problematically anthropomorphic to 1) make any association between the expressions of people and the expressions of dogs and 2) use the word ‘anger’ in association with dogs. I can’t quote the person exactly, but the point was that anger is a human construct, and it is wrong to attribute it to dogs.

I was (and am) fascinated by her criticisms. First off, the evidence continues to grow about the continuum of the biology of emotion in mammals.. we share the same basic neuro-anatomy related to emotions, the same neuro-physiology related to emotions (serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin to name a few) and many of the same behavioral reactions. Emotions are such primitive things, it always interests me that ascribing them to non-human animals makes people uncomfortable. Of course, there’s a huge difference between how an emotion is processed in the brain of a human and that of a dog, but the glass is half full as well as half empty, and the biology of emotions is far more similar in dogs and people than it is different. In addition, I’d love to claim credit for the notion that the expressions of emotion on the faces of dogs and people are related, but since Darwin wrote about it over a hundred years ago I don’t think I’d better! Unless you believe that people and other animals have virtually no biological connection of any kind, it is sound science to compare the expressions of 2 highly social mammals who use subtle visual signals to maintain social harmony.

I am especially interested in the expressed concern that anger is “human construct.” I’ve heard that before from several different fields (mainly psychology and from other veterinary behaviorists), and yet… anger, or ‘rage’ as it is usually called in the literature, is considered one of the most basic and primal of emotions. Jaak Panskeep, the author of Affective Neuroscience: The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions calls rage one of the “core” emotions of all mammals.  Truly, you can’t attribute fear to a dog and deny then that a dog could get angry… those two emotions are too closely tied together in so many, many ways.

I believe completely and without question that dogs can experience anger, the biology to support that is overwhelming. However.. and this is a big HOWEVER… I also think that anger is one of the emotions that people most mis-understand in dogs. Owners often tell trainers or behaviorists that their dog defecated on the carpet because he was “angry” that he’d been left, when the motivating emotions was either fear of being left alone, or none in particular, because the dog simply wasn’t house trained!  I suspect that although dogs can get angry, (for example when frustrated by being pulled away from the window while barking at a passer by), dogs actually experience anger very very little compared to humans. I write more about this in For the Love of a Dog… and am inspired to write more in a magazine article somewhere, sometime . . .

But right now I’d better get home. Lassie and Willie have been waiting for me to come home and start the holidays with them, and I don’t want them to get angry at me if I come home late. (Please, oh please know that I am kidding and that no, honestly, truly, I really do not believe that my dogs will experience anger if I get home later than I am hoping to. . .

Meanwhile, have a great holiday.  I hope you have a lot to be thankful for. I certainly do and I am overwhelmed with gratitude because of it.