One of your fellow blog readers alerted us to a study recently published in Behavioral Processes titled "Disambiguating the "guilty look" by Alexandra Horowitz. It is a creative and well-designed study that supports what trainers, ethologists and behaviorists have been saying for years: "No, your dog isn't expressing guilt when he cowers at the door when you come home to find he's peed on the carpet. Rather, he's waving a white flag, perhaps to inhibit you from punishing him any further, and is responding to YOUR behavior rather than expressing guilt at his earlier actions." Here's a summary of the study: 14 dogs and owners participated, and only dogs who were able to successfully perform a sit/stay were included. The owner was instructed to place the dog on a sit/stay, and then show Read More
Archives for 2009
Toy Story II
I've loved reading your comments about favorite dog toys. You all inspired me to take a photo of Willie and his current favorites. . . From Left to Right, back row, the toys are: Brain Twister (long, green thing, Canine Genius), Chewber (red disc), Invincible Rings (blue & black rings, JW Pet), Skinneez Stuffingless Dog Toy (long, grey thing draped onto orange) and Plush Leo with Stuffies (big, round, orange hollow globe, by Canine Genius. The three toys in the front are Planet Dog's Orbee Ball, Planet Dog's Strawberry and the eternally essential Large size Kong. Please keep telling us about your favorite toys and we'll try to get them on the website. (And our dogs will be so grateful!) Here's what happened when I said "Take it!" to Willie: Right now there is no question that Read More
Willie’s New Toy
At the risk of sounding self-serving, I wanted to write about Willie's new favorite toy. We do sell it on the website, but we sell it because our dogs think it is the best thing that happened since liver and chicken. It's called a Canine Genuis Brain Twister, presumably because it was designed for dogs who love to shake things. Truth be told, I'm not sure where the 'genuis' part comes in, nor does the thought of my dog's brain twisting make me happy, but as luck would have it, Willie can't read and pays no attention to such humanly concerns. Here's a photo of it: (I have one of Willie playing with it but forgot to bring the cord to connect the camera to my computer. sigh. I'll add the pic sometime soon when I can get my brain organized.) What you can't tell from this photo is Read More
Comparative Canid Behavior
This summary doesn't begin to address the subject in depth, to do so would require a book, but I hope you'll find what I've written interesting nonetheless. My biggest problem with this was not spending all week on it... the topic is so interesting, and almost every fact led to a question. (Territorial? Well, that's a highly variable concept. How does it differ between species, say dogs and wolves for example.) You can see the problem here, but one of the great things about science is that it every answer generates new questions. That's heaven for discovery junkies like me. AFRICAN WILD DOGS Lycaon pictus: Also known as Cape Hunting Dogs or Painted Dogs, these canids are not "dogs" at all (note they are in a different genus than wolves and dogs). Called the wolves of Africa, they Read More
Be Glad Our Cats are Small
I'm working on a post about the comparative behavior of wolves, coyotes, African Wild dogs and domestic dogs, but here's a short digression for the cat lovers. An adult lioness in the Maasai Mara marks a bush after rising from a nap. You can clearly see the stream of urine in the photo. Aren't you glad our house cats don't weigh 260-450 pounds? A female cheetah marks a tree. We found this cheetah right after landing in the "Kenyan Serengeti," the Maasai Mara. After we landed at a tiny airstrip and loaded up in safari vans on our way to our lodging, we ran into a hunting cheetah who was stalking Impala. After a few minutes she made her move, and dashed at the herd. She was too far away for us to take any photographs, but none of us will ever forget watching one Impala leap over five Read More
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