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Posted on 09/16/2015 6:45:14 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
They may be man's best friend, but dogs have little to thank humans for it seems.
Research suggests the domesticated pets can't solve problems as well as their wild cousins because living with us has made them 'incapable of thinking for themselves.'
In tests, experts presented a 'puzzle box' containing food to a group of dogs, and a group of wolves and while the wolves were capable of breaking inside, the dogs looked to humans for help.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
“That’s some fairly complex thinking.”
Sounds more like classic Pavlovian conditioning.
Duh! Wolves make lousy pets because of their instincts/wiles for hunting for survival. Hard to breed a tame version and leave all the original instincts. That said, if a dog was left to fend for itself, it might be able to “reclaim” some of the skill sets/wiles necessary.
Domesticated dogs might not have the same survival instinct as wolves but that doesn’t mean they are less smart.
I love my pup, I’m glad he has to depend on me for the support he needs. Man’s best friend.
Dog owners like their pets subservient, loving, and dependent just like the socialist democrat party like their humans.
These are bad studies, poorly designed and based on faulty assumptions. But they get funded so researchers do them over and over again.
The problem is assuming that dogs and wolves will have the same motivations. They don’t. Dogs solve these kind of puzzles just fine. The difference is that, dogs recognize human property and by instinct recognize human authority ergo they will hesitate or refuse to breech that barrier.
To be properly designed, you’d have to find a population of dogs used to eating something they routinely get for themselves (example mice or rats). Then design a puzzle that’s made out of natural materials and that doesn’t have human scent on it. Then you’d have something to compare.
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My Briard was brilliant! My cousin’s Lab is as dumb as a stump!
The ultimate behavior formed by the welfare state. If you know they will feed you, why bother. Doesn’t necessarily mean stupid, just a different set of expectations.
My Rott can open home doors and car doors and car windows
He can climb a small ladder or a 5 foot horse fence
He can jump up and into the open window of a normal unlifted pickup
He knows friend from foe immediately
He can corral my horses
He understands a fair amount of English
He swims
He knows to guard a baby from any who doesn’t bear a scent similar to said baby....he knows who has shared DNA
He tolerates cats
He growls instinctively at black thugs and white drunks unfamiliar to him
He almost always loves girls instinctively and shamelessly if you know how nosey uncut males are ..nless they exude panic fear which in his mind translates that they don’t fly right
He is totally housebroken and never ever poops in sight instead going to the back pasture
And wolves are smarter.....
???
I say bullshite on that
Wishful thinking by dirt people and mongrel lovers who hate domestic pure breds
+1
My lab is smart enough to wait until we leave the house to investigate that loaf of nice bread that I mistakenly left on the counter. A wolf would just snatch it in front of me.
I don’t know if he does it with other people, but my cat definitely looks me in the eye sometimes. His feeding station is on the steps to the basement, which is also the way to my laundry room. If he hears me on the steps, he often comes running. As I am returning upstairs he crosses back in forth in my path, ascending to the appropriate level while trying to look up into my face.
Every Jack Russell I’ve ever had has been very smart. My Corgi mix isn’t really stupid but is so instinctively locked in on herding that she often seems stupid.
Heh, that is funny. Cats are curious creatures. I don’t own a dog, and have owned a lineage of yellow cats, and they are entertaining and interesting. It is hard sometimes to figure what is going on in their cat brains...
I do love cats.
How did she do as a pet?
On a leash, or free roaming?
It would seem that very few people would want, or are capable of having a pet who is as smart and cunning as his wild ancestors.
They would soon destroy something or someone.
Part of having a wolf hybrid is that you have to have an innate understanding of Alpha Male and Alpha Female dynamics, she was on nearly level ground with the kids and knew it, and never was a problem that way, nor ever behaved menacingly toward the children.
She was very tolerant of babies, and was so startled on the one occasion she inadvertently knocked over a toddler wagging her tail that after that, whenever toddlers were around, she kept her tail tucked underneath her to not knock them over.
At the time we were living in town, and she was strong enough to straighten most cheap chains. I ended up (when she was outside--she spent much time inside, including nights) hooking her to a 5/8 inch spinning chain, connected to an eye bolt through a slice of Box Elder about 2 1/2 feet in diameter and roughly 18 inches tall. That 'round' cut from a tree we had felled had a natural hollow which the eye bolt fit through. While she was quick to chase squirrels or stray cats, I think she enjoyed the chase--she never caught any, although she treed a few of each.
She only ever dragged the Box Elder chunk off once, she snatched it out of the ice underneath it in pursuit of a cat that had stalked through the back garden all winter, but visible in the spring after most of the snow had melted. I had to help her drag it back about 200 yards (uphill, of course).
She was obedient, would respond to commands like "Go find _____" without gesture or hesitation.
She had specific yips and sounds for different situations, and aside from the spring molt (slabs of fur shed), was an absolute joy.
A couple of other things. The breeders were known to us, and did not run an inbred puppy mill. As a puppy, she picked me out. I think that's important in establishing a solid relationship with any pet. Let them come to you, and the bond will come much more easily.
Labs don't get a brain until they turn two.
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