Clients often tell me that their rescue dog must have been "beaten by a man" when the dog was younger, because the dog is afraid of men and not woman. However, people in the training and behavior field know that almost all shy dogs are more afraid of men than women, even if men have been nothing but kind to them their entire lives. We've always speculated that it had something to do with the way men walked (more assertively?) or their bigger chests, larger jaws, and/or deeper voices. But we've never really known for sure what it was--perhaps it is related to scent: obviously men smell different than woman, and it could be that just 'maleness' is more intimidating. A recent study reported in Scientific American Mind might have shed some light on this topic. (Actually, I read it and jumped Read More
Comparative and Canine Cognition; Don’t Sleep, There are Snakes
I just finished Everett's book Don't Sleep, There are Snakes, and a more thought-provoking book I can't imagine. As I mentioned in my earlier blog, the author spent much of his life over the last 30 years with a hunter-gatherer tribe, the Piraha, in the Amazon basin. Everett began his work as a missionary and a linguist; his work with the Piraha changed his faith, but not his dedication to studying language. What makes the book so interesting is his discussion about what the Piraha culture has to say about the derivation of human language. Everett is very clear: he argues persuasively that both Chomsky and Skinner got it wrong (in relation to language). In brief, Chomsky argued that language is innate in humans, and that there are universal 'laws' of grammar that are passed down Read More
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