Dogs May Understand a Human's Point of View.

[gabriel]

I always hear about how sweet these daisy's are. I'd love to talk to the family AFTER their kids face is ripped off. see how theyre handling the guilt and all.

 

[NightSwimmer]

My sister isn't your prototypical pitbull owner (not that there's anything wrong with them!).

I suppose that depends upon how one defines "wrong".

 

[Queen Titania]

Yeah...I've got a soft spot for spiders as well. And, they really tug at my heart strings (such as they are), when I find them trying to crawl their way out of something like a bathtub. Those fellows ALWAYS get a boost!

Anyway....on Saturday, I'm going a coupla hundred miles to pick up my new Rat Terrier girl. It's all as good as it gets.

Ahhhh that's today

 

[Queen Titania]

Well, but I don't want spiders in my home. I DO like to entertain guests every once in a while, you know.....and women, in particular, tend to get freaked out by spiders.......

LOL they help frighten my visitors .......which is the whole point ! loooooooooool

My poor sister is terrified of them but Christmas all visible cobewbs went and so far I see no new ones ......Spring time they'll be back and I know where their babies are .....hidden well away from
well meaning dusters

 

[Queen Titania]

I always hear about how sweet these daisy's are. I'd love to talk to the family AFTER their kids face is ripped off. see how theyre handling the guilt and all.

I love the Bull Breed. They breed them as weapons now though and make them mean. As I know them they are safe especially with children. One must know ones dog.

 

[Havelock]

I always hear about how sweet these daisy's are. I'd love to talk to the family AFTER their kids face is ripped off. see how theyre handling the guilt and all.

Poised for the kill!

 

[Queen Titania]

Poised for the kill!

My daughter used to draw all over our Boxer Woozles with bright pink felt tip pens, usually between her eyes ....it was most embarrassing, I gave up scrubbing it off the poor sausage 'cos it always reappeared.

She was such a beautiful dog but her beauty was forever marred by bright pink lines

 

[LeRoy_Was_Here]

then she was taking a big chance. a few years ago a family 1/2 wolf in seattle tore the arm off an infant.

Well, my sister had no children in her household. That animal was very skittish, but extremely intelligent. Knew the names for more than 150 different toys, and would bring them on command.

 

[gabriel]

research has shown that wolves never fully accept humans as master. a dog is a dog and a wolf is a wolf.

 

[LeRoy_Was_Here]

research has shown that wolves never fully accept humans as master. a dog is a dog and a wolf is a wolf.

What research? That animal certainly accepted my sister as master. Was skittish around OTHER humans, though. I saw the animal maybe 15 times, and it always acted 'nervous' around me.

 

[NightSwimmer]

I love the Bull Breed. They breed them as weapons now though and make them mean. As I know them they are safe especially with children. One must know ones dog.

Pit Bulls have historically been bred as fighting dogs. Aggression and powerful jaws are the traits that have been sought for many generations of selective breeding. I know how friendly individual Pit Bulls can be. That said, I would never attempt to deny the fact that numerous "friendly" Pit Bulls that have never been exposed to dog fighting suddenly attack small children within their own "family" -- usually with devastating (if not deadly) effect.

It is what it is.

 

[Zam-Zam]

In a study conducted in the UK at the University of Portsmouth's Department of Psychology by Dr. Juliane Kaminski, dogs were found to be four times as likely to “steal” a forbidden treat when the room they were in was dark as opposed to when the lights were on. More details may be found here: Dogs May Understand Human Point of View.

“So what”, one might ask, “dogs feel safer in the dark. What's so remarkable about that?” Well, the question is why do they feel safer. The experiments were done in such as way as to minimize the chances that the dogs involved simply became conditioned to understand that they were more likely to get away with stealing food in the dark. Thus, a reasonable conclusion is that the dogs understood on some level that they were less likely to be observed when the room was dark. In other words, to one degree or another the dogs in the study were able to view their situation from the perspective of another participant in the exercise. To one degree or another they (figuratively) said to themselves, “If I can't see him, then he can't see me.”

This may seem like a trivial finding to some, as we humans are so accustomed to attributing mental states to others that we do it unconsciously and so routinely that we even end up personifying non-living things in various ways. For example, my dad named every car he ever owned and even made up little back stories to explain why the name fit the vehicle's “personality.” Anyway, what we're talking about here is what's commonly termed the Theory of Mind. Until fairly recently only human beings were presumed to possess such cognitive abilities. Lately we're learning that other species may well possess elements of a Theory of Mind and, like many cognitive attributes, there exists a continuum of abilities along which species and individuals fall. In other words, it's not all as black and white as we had assumed. Or, if you like, we humans are not quite as uniquely endowed as we thought we were.

This study helps to illuminate and reinforce that lesson.

Cheers.

Now if we can only get humans to understand other humans point of view.....