Canine envy, scruples and heroics in the news
Envy, scruples and heroics
Through the long course of our history together and mutual evolution, humans have influenced and shaped dogs. Interceding, we shrunk their brains so a wolf-sized dog has a brain around 10 per cent smaller than its wild ancestor. We planted envy in their hearts and scruples in their minds. Stories about dog heroics and loyalty abound. This week a Pit Bull took three bullets for its family:
An Oklahoma City family is calling a beloved pit bull a hero after the dog took three bullets while fending off an intruder, KWTV reports.
Roberta Trawick said she was sitting in her living room when a man came through the front door, holding a gun. The family's pit bull, D-Boy, raced in from another room, ready to attack. The intruder then began shooting, hitting the dog three times before fleeing the home.
Photo courtesy of Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
Howl across the ages
Genetic accommodation is not a one way street and I wonder how and in what ways dogs have changed us. Did our nails get softer, our teeth blunter and our sense of smell retreat as we came to depend on our canine's abilities to smell-track prey, catch and rend—deliver the killing bite?
People who live with dogs successfully have to change their world view; must accommodate their dog's pack hierarchy view of the world.
And people are able to understand the information contained in dog's barks; differentiate between the emotional 'meaning' of barks produced in various situations, such as when playing, left alone and confronted by a stranger:
Dr Peter Pongracz from Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, and colleagues have produced evidence dog barks contain information that people can understand.
They found even people who have never owned a dog can recognize the emotional 'meaning' of barks produced in various situations, such as when playing, left alone and confronted by a stranger.
His team has now developed a computer program that can aggregate hundreds of barks recorded in various settings and boil them down to their basic acoustic ingredients.
They found each of the different types of bark has distinct patterns of frequency, tonality and pulsing, and that an artificial neural network can use these features to correctly identify a bark it has never encountered before.
This is further evidence that barking conveys information about a dog's mental state, reports New Scientist magazine.
They also discovered people can correctly identify aggregated barks as conveying happiness, loneliness or aggression.
MailOnline
Links to interesting new studies
Scenario: You are with a friend when a stranger comes up and asks you each to do something. You each comply and the stranger gives your friend the equivalent of 50 dollars —but doesn't give anything to you. How would you feel? Well dogs don't like it either.
Dogs can feel a simple form of envy, researchers have found.
Are dogs moral?
Living with humans has taught dogs morals, scientist claim.
Dogs can classify complex color photographs and place them into categories in the same way that humans do. And the dogs successfully demonstrate their learning through the use of computer automated touch-screens, eliminating potential human influence.
New studies show that our canine friends are able to form abstract concepts.
Some favorite books for young adults that feature canines:
Julie of the Wolves, by Jean Craighead George, weaves a fascinating and empowering story of a young girl's struggle for survival, cultural crisis, and self-discovery.
Island of the Blue Dolphins, by Scott O'Dell, is based on the real life account of how Karana, a Native American girl, is left behind on her island when her tribe leaves and how she forages on land and in the ocean, clothes herself, and secures shelter. She battles wild dogs and tames the leader of their pack. She names him Rontu, because of his yellow eyes. A suspenseful, uplifting tale.
Where the Red Fern Grows, by Wilson Rawls, about a boy who buys and trains two Redbone Coonhound hunting dogs.
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