There is a great BBC special on dogs on YouTube, (sent to me by an alert reader, thank you!). I spend so much time in front of my computer that I rarely want to watch an hour long show on it . . but this time I sat down and didn’t move for 60 minutes. It’s called The Secret Life of Dogs, and it’s great. Hands (and paws) down, great.
It has sections on Miklosi’s work on dog barks (people are very good at discriminating between barks given in 6 different contexts), Juliane Kaminksi’s work on the ability of dogs to follow a pointing gesture (which chimps and wolves do not seem able to do), Belyaev’s & Trut’s work on selection for docility in foxes (resulting in a profound number of physical as well as behavioral changes which basically result in domesticated foxes in 20 generations), and Kringelback’s work that asks if our brains respond to images of dogs as they do to images of babies. And more. No kidding. It’s extremely well done, and avoids a lot of the superficial generalities we so often hear about us and dogs.
What I find most interesting is the question, stimulated by the research on pointing, about whether dogs and humans have a special sense of social cooperation. I don’t mean cooperation in the sense of mobbing predators or defending young or gathering food as a group, but in the sense of understanding that another individual needs help, and either offering to provide it, or being an individual who needs help and expects that one might get it from others.
This concept, the idea of helping others in a bit of a jam, seems to be one of the distinctions between the way our brain and the brains of other primates work. For example, in the PBS television special, The Human Spark, researchers have someone move toward a closed cabinet with a heavy pile of books. The person needs to open the cabinet, but requires both hands to hold onto the books. Very young children will try to help, but adult primates, perfectly capable of opening the cabinet, seem to pay no attention to the problem that another individual needs solved. Nor do they seem to look to others to help them solve problems (like dogs look toward us when they can’t get food out from under something, which wolves never do).
It is speculated in The Secret Life of Dogs that perhaps domestic dogs have a sense of helping others that fits more with human behavior (or society) than other species. That might explain the results of the pointing experiment, in which dogs behave as though they have some comprehension that someone is trying to help them find the food. Of course, we have no idea what’s going through their brain, and in many ways they are far less cognitively complex than any of the apes.. but still, it is interesting to think about.
I’d love to hear what you think about the show if you get a chance to watch it. What got your attention the most, or what questions were generated from the show?
One more show you might want to watch: HBO has a special movie this Saturday night on Temple Grandin , the autistic animal scientist who has done so much to improve animal welfare and the lives of autistic children . The movie is getting great reviews, including by Temple herself, so if you get HBO, you might want to go out of your way to watch it. I know Temple; she’s a pretty amazing person, and I can’t wait to watch the movie. I don’t get HBO, I”m too cheap to pay extra for it, but friends will record it for me. Let me know what you think.
Meanwhile back on the farm: Willie is doing better every day. The snow is shallow enough that we can work the sheep again, and that is good therapy for both of us. Also, I recently realized, to my chagrin, that my sheep are downright fat. That’s not healthy for them or their lambs, which are due in 2 months. So the ewes are on a diet and a “Biggest Loser” exercise program. It’s good for me and Willie, and for them too. I suspect that Willie and I are having more fun than the sheep, but then, I sympathize with them. No one would ever call me a gym rat.
Here’s Willie this morning, waiting for me to throw his toy . . .
Alessandro says
Willie’s eyes are a bit sad and sweet
Rusty says
I love your pictures. This one of Willie is now the background on one of my computers at work. A big dog face with alert eyes watching the room…
Keli says
Ooo – I saw something similar (probably same scientists) that did do the finger pointing, but they also tied meat inside of a crate and compaired wolves and dogs. When the dogs couldn’t figure out how to get it out of the crate, they looked at the humans for “help” and the wolves just lost interest, never looking at the person standing there. (The wolves were raised by the humans, not “wild” ones.) I’ll have to watch, maybe they showed somthing like that in the video.
Robin says
There’s a way to watch web content on your TV, if your TV has HDMI inputs. I went to Walmart and got a cable that connects TV and computer, downloaded some free software to change the resolution and clone my computer display. Hook it up, make a few clicks, turn up my computer speakers, and I am watching from a comfortable chair in front of the TV.
I am going to download The Secret Life of Dogs and burn it onto DVD for our training group at the shelter I volunteer at. It sounds like something we will all enjoy.
Robin
Stacey says
It is fascinating to think that dogs can and do follow a point.
With the help of a laser pointer, I’ve taught my cats to look around for something when I cue with a pointed finger and arm wave in the direction they should look, but it only “works” for obvious things that they can see. They no longer just look expectantly at my hand, but they won’t go looking for something in the general direction of where I am indicating like my dog will do. If she doesn’t find something visually on the first task and I assure her with another point that it is there, she will go back and look harder, going so far as to opening cupboards or digging under blankets to find things. As is common, she looks with her eyes on the first pass and almost never sniffs for things as a first resort, even though she could find them easier that way.
My husband is always so surprised when I ask her to move away from me in certain directions. Or to relocate where I am pointing. Or my favorite, which is to point at a person for her to do her tricks to. She’ll center on that person for her tricks even though someone else has the treats.
Jane says
Along with the dogs learning to “help” us…they learn to rely on our help. In Alexandra Horowitz’s Inside of a Dog (would love to hear your opinion on that if you’ve read it?), she points out that studies of wolves vs dogs that purport to show that wolves are smarter don’t take into affect the fact that dogs have LEARNED that we, their people, are very effective tools. Why keep scratching at the door to try to dig your way out when you know if you go look at your person, they will let you out quicker? That’s a bad example because dogs will scratch if they’ve learned it brings a person running too! But when they look at us for assistance, it’s not because they’ve given up themselves; they just know we can do it!
I saw the previews of the Temple Grandin show….wish I had TV for once.
Ignacio says
Thanks for the link! I’m looking forward to watching it.
Ignacio says
This just reminded me, the public radio show Radiolab aired a fascinating story recently about puzzling animal behavior stories. I know you don’t specialize in marine biology, but I’m very curious to hear your educated opinion on what was the whale doing on the first story, if you ever get to listen to it:
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2010/04/02
Worth listening! Also, here’s a really funny and interesting story about primates deceiving their human caretakers:
http://blogs.wnyc.org/radiolab/2010/01/25/fu-manchu/
Ed says
This topic – asking for help – is something really on my mind with my troubled dog. She has openly, and clearly, and in my opinion somewhat unhappily, asked for help a couple of times (in one case, by responding to her conditioned relaxation cue in the midst of genuine hysteria.) However, most of the time it’s difficult to gauge what’s going on – she’s a very busy reactive ADD girl, and still has some feral sneakiness – so when she does check in with me, and then go back to trying to manage whatever danger she imagines, I have a hard time understanding if she’s flipping between a between a sense of urgency about the “danger” and the impulse to seek my help, or if she would like help but lacks trust.
I sometimes think of her as an “alpha has-to-be.” She doesn’t always want to be in charge, but doesn’t trust anyone else with her safety.
And of course I haven’t been able to sort out, for sure, how much of her constant checking in with me is because she wants to “be with” and relies on me and how much is resource guarding. 😉 I do know that for months, maybe more than a year, she wouldn’t be in another room if I was in the house. She’s not that protective of her favorite toys so there’s a big argument for the “be with” need. On the other hand, I can always tell when another animal is coming down the hall or has come into the room because her fuzzy head appears in my lap – pretty obvious resource guarding.
Where does offering behaviors fit into this? I have always just hated it when dogs offer behaviors – they should pay attention and wait to see what I want, dagnabit – but I’ve had to be very mellow about this with her because she will get over amped and stop paying attention and start popping around doing flip finishes and downs and trying to go through my legs and anything else she can think of. Part of this is because, unless she’s hunting birds or doing some other dog activity with no human interaction, she just gets stressed and over amped. But part of this is being a drama queen.
I’ve never been able to work out if a dog offering behaviors is begging for me to give them something to do (something other than the thing they legitimately didn’t understand for whatever reason – like I asked for a moving stand with a hand signal, but I’m wearing puffy gloves or something – or just being pushy to get the reward. It certainly happens more when there’s food around, but I’ve never been able to work out what’s going on. Does the dog offering a behavior want help understanding a request? Or do they want a reward right now? (Okay, sometimes it’s a case of dog being pushing and just wanting a treat. But it’s often not clear if the dog is confused or pushy.) (And sometimes they need to tell you that they don’t like the request and would rather do something else.)
If she consistently asked for help, I would take that as a sign both of trust and that, because of the trust, it would be easier to manage her behavior.
Maybe I should try to work up some situations where she needs help – hidden food, perhaps – and get a better sense of what her asking for help looks like.
(If the BBC show is what I think it is, it’s facinating. And not cute-ified. Thanks for the link. Wanted to see it again and didn’t even think of YouTube.)
Anna says
That is a lot to absorb at one time I’ll have to watch it again soon. What I found the most pleasing is to find that petting my dogs really does do as much for them as it does for me. I want my dogs to be happy and it is good to know something I enjoy so much they really do enjoy too and don’t just tolerate. And interestingly the finger pointing works for my dogs in a lot of situations… I am glad they understand it as it makes things easier for me to explain things to them.
Holly says
interesting. I may try to watch it.
That is another good photo of Willie, crop out a bit of his muzzle, so that you see some muzzle and mostly eyes and it will “pop”.
Holly says
no, change that to crop out his neck, so his face/eyes pop. Sorry, should have looked closer.
Paul says
I got as far as your first sentence and went right to the program. I could not wait.
It was very interesting. Now back to your post.
Cynthia says
Crazy! I love when life matches up. I’m a child development grad student here at the UW and I’m taking a class on culture and cognition. We just finished reading Tomasello who does a lot of work on what makes human cognition unique. He points out (ha!) the inability of chimps to point. He suggests that the first step to differentiating chimps from humans is shared intentionality, in which human communicate because they understand other humans as people like them, with their own attention and thoughts. In this system, people communicate because they want to direct one another’s attention to something specific. The reason we do this is because we are a cooperative species (well, some of the time, anyway). The reason we can do this is the development of language.
So why can dogs follow our pointing? They can learn “language” in the sense that we pair an action over and over again with a word, but are notoriously slow at generalizing. Are they cooperative, in the sense that they get that we have a goal, much like they might have a goal in another situation? Or just sensitive to our cues?
I have gotten so much fodder for discussion in this class from this blog and my own experience with my dogs. They are truly underestimated by people who are used to studying chimps!
Cynthia says
Oh, and a second on those Radiolabs. Brilliant!
Stephanie says
I love that picture of Will. All of your pictures are great, really.
I enjoyed the show, very interesting. I did really like the part about the pointing and how dogs even pick up on our eye gaze. And the border collie with a vocabulary of 300 words! It is fascinating to think about the intelligence of dogs, particularly the social intelligence, how they read us so well. The part about fox breeding for friendliness towards humans also intrigued me, I remember reading about it somewhere, I don’t remember if it was in one of your books or not. Those foxes were so cute! I wanted to pick them up and cuddle them.
Near the end it talks about how dogs have done so well at evolving and getting so much out of their relationships with humans. One person likens a puppy to a parasite. I thought it would have been interesting for them to go into more of the benefits that humans get out of the relationship, surely it’s not the dogs getting all the perks. Yes, dogs have more obvious advantages, more tangible, such as shelter and food and such, but I know there’s research out there on dogs lowering blood pressure and other physical and mental benefits for humans owning dogs.
Katie says
In response to Keli, it was an Explorer episode titled Science of Dogs on Nat Geo. I absolutely loved that episode! I’ve watched it several times and it never gets old!
Frances says
I saw this when it was broadcast here in the UK – excellent, intelligent programme.
Carolyn in Belize says
LOVED the show, so glad to be able to watch it on YouTube (no Tv). Have seen the tame Siberian foxes on several programs, so that update was refreshing and very interesting, especially watching the affectionate interactions with humans and the resulting pelage changes of the tamer foxes. Loved Betsy the BC’s amazing performance, especially her understanding the pictures of the objects to be fetched.
So far as intelligence in animals goes, I believe that they have evolved intelligence to suit the lives they lead. In the case of dogs, there are some things they won’t reason through as well as wolves do, for example, because dog have come to depend on people reliably solving certain types of problems for them. I believe that has prompted dogs’ intelligence to develop in other ways, such as learning words and understanding pointing, etc. that help them get along better in the lives they lead. Given the new “dog culture” of today with coddled family member status (guilty as charged! ), it makes me wonder in what directions the development of intelligence will go — and how many more amazing things they have in store for us.
Dyan says
The eyes of a Border Collie go straight to my soul.
KateH says
Wow! The part with the experiment of testing if people could identify different bark sounds and what they meant was incredible. People who love dogs, and their own dogs especially, already ‘knew’ this, I’m sure, but this is so cool to show to the narrow-minded people who think it’s stupid to say dogs can signify emotions and thoughts to humans. That researcher deserves a lot of praise and a jackpot of something good!
Chris says
You’re welcome 🙂 I love your blog!
Chris (“alert reader”)
Susan Anderson says
Thank you for the picture of Willie, I see focus and beauty in his eyes. Thank you also for the BBC program link. I started watching it and was riveted to my computer until it was done. I will watch the Temple Grandin movie tonight. I have so much respect for her and her work, I heard her on your radio program once.
Blessing to you and Jim and Willie in these difficult days.
Liz F. says
Thanks for the great picture of Will and great show recommendations!
I love Ed’s question of how offering behaviors fits into this discussion (love the ‘alpha-has-to-be’ too). I wonder about the advantages and disadvantages then, of people who train dogs based mostly on operant conditioning. Is there a substantial difference between pointing with your hands, with your posture, or with your eyes? For folks who follow a ‘No Luring’ mantra, where does one draw the line? What are the benefits to waiting for an animal to offer a behavior when we can clearly point, for example, and help?
Wonderful to think about dog/human cooperation- A few times I’ve pretended to strain for supposedly out-of-reach toys, which my dogs eagerly grab and bring to me to play. I’ll have to try this with other objects they are not familiar with mouthing and have no established value to them. Interesting to see what they’re reaction would be if I was reaching for water bottle or pen.
Lots of food for thought-fun, fun, fun.
Wendy W says
Thanks so much for drawing attention to the BBC special – I particularly enjoyed the pieces on the foxes and on pointing/helping. I remember when my BC/whatever mix “figured” out the point gesture – it seemed to be a big Aha! moment that demonstrated we might actually be able communicate. She seems to use it now too, saving one particularly intense look that is paired with a head turn to clue me into her desire to go outside or to walk in a certain direction.
And on the light side – the show made me laugh when it was suggested that dogs act as parasites… given that with all of the dog (and fox) hugging/holding/carrying that was displayed, it seems like maybe we’re the parasites!
Kat says
Thank you for that lovely photo of Willie. My husband who until he married me had no experience of pets looked at that photo and finally figured out what is meant when people talk about the BC eye and how that differs from the English Shepherd loose eye herding style.
And thank you so much for the link. That was fascinating and very well done! I loved the people interpreting barks (yes, we know exactly what Ranger is saying when he barks–that’s why when he alerted that someone was at the gate this afternoon we went out to meet them and when he got excited that his squirrel friend was back for another game of peekaboo we simply glanced out the window to see if there was a good photo op) I’d read about the pointing experiments before and I’m well aware of the frequency with which I point to show Ranger where I want him to be but the show inspired me to try some different types of pointing. I’ve been wanting to teach him to find my car keys and my current book for awhile now. Typically when I want him to learn a new object I name it (touch book) have him touch it, click and reward and when I think he’s learned that name I test him by offering two objects and asking him to touch the one we’re working on learning, I’ll often advance the other object slightly more toward him so that he has to bypass it to reach the one we’re doing although I swap that around often as well to try to stay unpredictable. This time I laid the book and keys on the floor a couple feet apart and pointed to the keys or book asking him to “touch keys” or “touch book.” He was picking the named item with just a flick of the finger as a point. We got interrupted before I got as far as simply pointing with my eyes, we’ll try that tomorrow. The bit about how humans have differently shaped eyes than other animals with the whites showing on both sides making it easy to figure out what they’re looking at was fascinating. I love things that make me understand more what my canine companion is capable of and that give us new ideas to try. That’s why I appreciate this blog so much, I’ve learned so much and his life is enriched as a result.
Anne says
One of dogs’ most endearing and useful traits is their cooperation. You don’t see it every time (nor with people either), but when you need it it’s often there. One of my favorite stories: Cinder, my Aussie, was with me when I was feeding cows at my parents’ farm. I opened one gate and the cows, who saw the hay and were greedy and hungry started toward me in a hurry. There I was standing in the gate, with a dozen cows coming through, unphased by me being in the way of their food. Cinder came up from behind me and started snapping at noses until they were all driven back away from me. It was the opposite of her normal training and instinct up to that point which had always been to bring livestock to me.
Carmen says
Thank you so much for continuing to write your amazing blog despite your loss, and for that link to the BBC piece, Trisha. I live in Vienna/Austria and had seen some coverage on the incredible Border Collie from this area, but nothing as detailed as this one. How astounding that the animal would recognize an object on a piece of paper and retrieve it from another room! And how mind-boggling that dogs check out the left side of our face first! What fascinated and repelled me the most, though, was the research in Siberia. Even though I found it to be truly revolutionary research that the foxes changed their appearance after the
Melissa in El Cajon, Ca says
Thank you for reminding me about the HBO movie about Temple Grandin. It was heart-wrenching to watch at times, and funny and uplifting at times, as well. Someday I hope we will all get to a place where stupid, mean-spirited people are the only ones of us considered “weird.”
Mateus says
Hey Trisha, how have you been?
Well, I’d like to have watched the movie about Temple. Was very well commented here in A&M.
Good lucky with your work with Will and sheeps – and with the diet and exercises 🙂
Jennifer Hamilton says
Loved, loved, loved the movie on Temple. I’ve read and loved her books, but seeing how other people might have interacted with her provided a more complete story. Bravo to who ever funded the film!
Stephanie K. says
There were two things that really struck me from watching the BBC show. The first was the idea that dogs evolved to use barking to communicate with humans. This is especially interesting to me given the variety of barks that dogs employ (and that people recognized). The researchers suggested that barking evolved to communicate with people – would one assume that other dogs also intrinsically understand the meaning of these different barks by virtue of being the same species? Do dogs have a similar variety of barks to communicate with each other (or even, do they use the same ones?) Off the top of my head I’m can’t think of an other species that could have evolved such an extensive system of communication that was not intraspecific but rather interspecific. I suppose if I had to guess, the first place I would look for a comparison would be other domesticated animals. Do you know of any? (I have not done any extensive research of the topic but find it to be fascinating!)
The other part of the show that intrigued me was the ability of the BC to discriminate between objects. I read a great deal about Alex the parrot doing similar tasks and had no idea that dogs (or maybe just this one dog as far as we know?) were also able to find objects that were similar/the same to the ones that were either held by the experimenter or drawn on a piece of paper. I wonder if dogs could discriminate not only to find the same object but if they could find the object that did not belong or actively pick an object that was different from the one being shown (that being the task).
I loved this video!! I recently graduated college with an undergrad. degree in Animal Behavior but have been toying with the idea of going back to do grad work in this field – this video gave me tons of ideas for what area of animal behavior I might like to study more, thanks!!
Pat says
Thank you, Trish! Greatly enjoyed the BBC video! I will share this with my friends!
Ed, I had an intelligent, reactive dog who learned a “touch/show me” command. When stressed, especially outside of our normal spaces, he would nudge me and if I was aware… I would follow up with “show me.” He would often then take me to his crate or the car… he was looking for solo time and safety as he defined it. He was then quite content to stay there, out of the way, calmer than he was when around others. This worked well for us as a safety factor – he got what he wanted and did not have to over-react.
He also used the touch/show-me to alert me to other events – dinner, empty water bowl, go outside, extra treats, walks, etc. He generalized this quite well!!
Good luck! It sounds like you are quite aware of her. She is doing a great job of letting you know how she feels! LOL
Lindsay says
I will definitely watch that video.
I do notice that my dog Ace understands pointing, but my cats don’t. If I point, my cats just look at my hand and not where I’m pointing.
Trini says
Great post and photo, as usual!
Two thoughts:
1) In one of the Alex the parrot experiments, the experimenter tied a piece of food to a string. The other parrots (and crows under observation) pulled the string up so they could get the food, but Alex demanded that the human get the food and give it to him. Could this be an example of a different species looking to a human for help?
2) On the topic of “pointing”, I was thinking that not only do we point things out to dogs, but dogs point things out to us. Think about pointer dogs on a hunting trip as the obvious example. Could dogs be primed to understand pointing because they make the same gestures?
Karissa says
I’m sure my employer wouldn’t be very appreciative of how I’ve just spent the last hour, but that BBC video was too fascinating to turn away from! I’ve seen parts of it (the fox study, in particular) in other programs, but this one was full of new information that I haven’t seen before. Loved every minute of it!
I’m enjoying the process of training my first border collie — there is definitely something remarkable about the breed that sets them apart from others. They are frighteningly intelligent.
Leslie C. in San Jose says
So sorry to hear about the loss of your beautiful Lassie! Willie looks fantastic. I love your photos. Thanks so much for posting about “The Secret Life of Dogs”. I just watched it last night and can’t wait to see it again. I also recommend the series Extraordinary Animals for anyone that is interested in animal cognition. They just recently aired an episode about the schnauzer that seems to accurately predict when patient’s in a rest home are about to die. It was truly amazing!! I just can’t get enough of learning about our amazing animal companions!
Lenore says
Pointing… I was speaking with a faculty member at the university where I work about dogs following a human pointing. His field is Special Education. He told me that one of the indicators that are noticed early in children with Autism is that they do not follow their parents pointing at something. We both found it interesting that dogs do follow humans pointing.
Cecilia says
The discussion about dogs helping others is interesting, especially in light of what I’ve seen lately with my 3 dogs. When Ursula (1 year old Great Pyrenees) was about 5 months old I thought I’d try a harness for walking her. On about the 3rd time in the harness I was all ready to go out, except for quickly grabbing my keys. When I turned back (mere seconds) she had bit through the harness.
A few months after that I brought her to work. If the dogs are wearing 6 foot leashes which are attached to a leg of my desk they have enough room to lay down with just their noses and toes over the threshold, allowing them to see what’s going on without getting in the way. So, that’s where I put Ursula. A few days before we had had a lot of visitors paying a lot of attention to her, so maybe that’s what inspired her. I happened to glimpse up to see her rear and tail disappear down the hall. When I caught up to her she was standing next to a man at the elevator, watching the elevator lights as though she knew what she was doing (and, I think she did know!). So, at work now she is attached to my desk with cable.
Last Saturday Ida (rescue dog) came to live with us. As with most rescues Ida has her issues and I had been advised that – at least initially Ida should have a drag leash on – and if there was any chance she might bolt that I should pick the leash up. At first Ida indicated that she wanted her own space when she met the other 2 dogs. Slowly she began interacting with them. We were in the backyard (fenced, but with lots of places to hide), so I was loosely holding her leash. Ursula was trying to get her to play, but Ida was not acknowledging any of the ‘I wanna play’ behaviors and I could see that Ursula was getting frustrated. At this point, I began walking with Ida towards the house, only to catch Ursula trying to bite through Ida’s leash! Now, I’m not sure of the motivation – was Ursula trying to help Ida, by freeing her from the leash; was Ursula trying to help Ursula by ‘freeing’ a potential play pal; was Ursula simply reacting to something that was in the way of something that she wanted? I don’t have any answers, but I’ve been thinking about it and this blog has given more to consider.
Cecilia says
I just re-read my post and realized I forgot something important – the reason Ursula was able to trot down the hallway was that she had bitten through her leash.
Karen says
What struck me in the video was how aggression in the foxes was so hard-wired. I’ve been beating myself up for years about my dog-dog aggressive GSD, blaming myself for letting my other dog “bully” her when they were young before I knew better, but maybe, just maybe, it isn’t entirely my fault. Not that I’ll ever let bullying happen again, but still.
Reading some of the comments made me think of how I help my dog find his toy when it’s in deep grass or snow or whatever. I say “yes”, “yes” faster and faster as he goes in the right direction and if he turns in the wrong direction I just go quiet. When he gets very close, I say “yesyesyesyesyes” like it’s one word. He finds the toy and I get to avoid getting poison ivy. Win-win. Maybe the very first domestication of wolves started just as cooperatively.
Melanie says
I enjoyed “The Secret Life of Dogs” very much and saved the six segments in my Favourites on YouTube, but when I went back just now to rewatch it the video footage has been removed due to terms of use violation! So I guess the person who originally posted them had been “entrepreneurial” with regard to the BBC’s copyright. I’ll have to find it on DVD instead. Unless anyone has another online source they can suggest?
Despite the fascinating information the fox breeding program in Siberia has yielded it doesn’t sit well with me that so many animals have been deprived of their natural life (those wire mesh cages are appalling!) in our quest for knowledge. It’s a terrible sacrifice for those beautiful creatures, and so many other experimental animals worldwide, to have forced upon them. Reminds me of “The Plague Dogs” by Richard Adams – a dilemma for which we must surely seek more humane solutions.
BTW… my horse, whom I’ve done a fair amount of liberty and on line training with, has learnt to follow a pointing finger direction and will either move in the direction of , or investigate in the direction of, my gesture.
retrieverman says
It has been re-uploaded, but it cannot be embedded:
Bandb says
With reference to pointing behaviour, one of my dogs has always understood pointing from me which thanks to the programme I now realise is not that unusual but she has developed a way of pointing for herself which does surprise me.
She does this when she is lying upside down having her belly rubbed and if your hand is not dealing with the area she wants stroked. The first time she shook her paw indicating “down a bit ” I thought it was a chance reflex but , having found it works, she now has done this several times, sometimes shifting her shoulder a bit so as to make the action more precise. I believe this is a deliberate purposeful action on her part , soliciting my co-operation. Am I right?
Rita A.E. Arntzen says
Dogs smarter than primates, amazing. Primates can be taught sign language, but cannot take a hint when someone points to help them find food, how strange is that.
The domesticated foxes were amazing, and beautiful as well.
I’ve been thinking that border collies have a special ability for language, they seem very smart. My dog is a mix, of BC as well, and seemed to be picking up on words at a very early age. I remember I’d say “look” and she’d look around. I got laughed at but the laughter has stopped. I sometimes test my dog by saying something and adding unusual body language to see if that’s what she is picking up on, but it’s the words themselves.
I love your book For the Love of a Dog. Can dogs think if they can’t talk, page 268, is very interesting.
I remember what it was like to think without having language, from a human point of view because I have a memory of being carried in a doctor’s office (looking back I realize that must have been what was going on). I remember “thinking”, different from the way I think now, but thinking just the same, that “I’m high up”. I didn’t have a sense of self the same way I do now and didn’t really understand the boundaries between me and the person holding me. It was a feeling of being just a head, moving through space. I understood that I had some kind of support to be that high up, otherwise I’d be lower, felt safe and was not afraid to fall down. I looked “down” at a person sitting behind a desk with his head down, the doctor in white clothes, probably reading. It was very interesting to watch him and I was also a little afraid of him, which is probably the only reason I still remember this.
My thinking seems to have involved a lot of “high up” and “down”, probably something we learn at an early age. I didn’t see any color, everything was in black & white, as in the twilight hour.
Talking with other family members, I’ve been told I must have been 3-4 months old. I didn’t understand being me yet, and definitely didn’t know any language, but certainly did a lot of thinking just the same.
kerry says
Having had the good fortune to grow up with dogs, work with them and love them all my life, this documentary was mind blowing for me. I always knew they were under estimated generally in most people’s opinon for their intelligence, loyalty and connection with people and this documentary just proved it!
I often think there is more humanity in a dog than in most human beings (if that isn’t insulting dogs too much!)
Simply magic! I recommend this for all dog lovers: You’ll appreciate your dog on a whole new level. In fact, I’d even tell the people who aren’t so fond on dogs to watch it. I’d bet you at least come to respect them. Whatever… Just watch it! 🙂