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Have humans made dogs STUPID? Pets are 'lazy thinkers' compared to wild wolves
The Daily Mail ^ | 16 September 2015 | RICHARD GRAY

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 ...


TOPICS: Health/Medicine; Pets/Animals; Science
KEYWORDS: agriculture; animalhusbandry; canine; canines; chat; dietandcuisine; dog; dogs; domestication; godsgravesglyphs; helixmakemineadouble; huntergatherers; wolves
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1 posted on 09/16/2015 6:45:14 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: MinorityRepublican

In the absence of natural selection, negative mutations accumulate more readily. (It turns out they accumulate anyway under natural selection, which is fighting a sort of rear guard action against their inevitable accumulation.) We see a similar phenomena in domestic cats versus wild felines in studies of neuron development.


2 posted on 09/16/2015 6:48:21 PM PDT by Another Post-American (Jesus died for your sins.)
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To: MinorityRepublican

I don’t care. I love my dog. If I want smart, I have my phone.


3 posted on 09/16/2015 6:48:41 PM PDT by Artemis Webb (Let me know if you want on The Baseball Ping List)
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To: MinorityRepublican

No surprise there. Domesticated dogs don’t have to fight for survival.


4 posted on 09/16/2015 6:49:23 PM PDT by smokingfrog ( sleep with one eye open (<o> ---)
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To: MinorityRepublican
Here's an old favorite of mine:

Is Your Dog a Degenerate Mutant?

http://creation.com/is-your-dog-some-kind-of-degenerate-mutant

5 posted on 09/16/2015 6:51:01 PM PDT by Another Post-American (Jesus died for your sins.)
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To: MinorityRepublican

Quite the opposite.

We have definitely changed their intelligence in various ways depending on breeds but I have no doubt that some breeds are far more intelligent than they would be as wild dogs.


6 posted on 09/16/2015 6:51:56 PM PDT by cripplecreek (Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.)
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To: MinorityRepublican

My pup resents that and if he wasn’t comfortably sleeping at my side, he’d respond.


7 posted on 09/16/2015 6:52:17 PM PDT by JimSEA
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To: MinorityRepublican

Back in Ireland, one of the problems even with domesticated dogs was their getting out of their houses at night and killing livestock. Farmers always shot these packs of dogs on sight. So the instinct is still there.


8 posted on 09/16/2015 6:52:49 PM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: MinorityRepublican

See also...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3337413/posts


9 posted on 09/16/2015 6:53:00 PM PDT by ButThreeLeftsDo (I want my country back!)
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To: Another Post-American

No, it’s all selective breeding. And even then, certain characteristics do not go away.


10 posted on 09/16/2015 6:53:35 PM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: MinorityRepublican

If I sat on the couch all day and somebody else took care of all my needs, I would become stupid, too.

And I am not talking about dogs.


11 posted on 09/16/2015 6:54:14 PM PDT by joshua c (Please dont feed the liberals)
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To: MinorityRepublican

Why should they break into the food box when they can ask us to do it for them?


12 posted on 09/16/2015 6:54:28 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: MinorityRepublican

I saw a special on this. The domestic dogs would quickly go to their owner and stare at them for help. On the other hand dogs were the only species to understand pointing. Wolves did not understand it, and even primates did not.


13 posted on 09/16/2015 6:55:32 PM PDT by LukeL
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To: MinorityRepublican

I have noticed that working dogs tend to be smarter but that is probably because one of the traits which make them good workers is intelligence.


14 posted on 09/16/2015 6:56:32 PM PDT by yarddog (Romans 8:38-39, For I am persuaded.)
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To: MinorityRepublican

15 posted on 09/16/2015 6:59:35 PM PDT by Baynative (Liberty lost is a high price to pay for the experiment of socialism.)
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To: LukeL

Mine loves pears. If I put the ladder under the tree and he doesn’t see me do it, he still comes running when he notices the ladder because he knows I picked a pear.

That’s some fairly complex thinking.


16 posted on 09/16/2015 7:01:03 PM PDT by cripplecreek (Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.)
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To: MinorityRepublican

Can a wolf sit on command? Or shake hands? Racist test.


17 posted on 09/16/2015 7:01:24 PM PDT by Vic S
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To: MinorityRepublican

Can a wolf sit on command? Or shake hands? Racist test.


18 posted on 09/16/2015 7:01:28 PM PDT by Vic S
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To: LukeL

Right. It boils down to the fact that dogs and humans have spent enough time together that they are well tuned into us.

There was something else...when people meet another person, eye movement studies showed that for a split second, a nearly invisible flicker of time, each person zeroes in on the other person’s eye. (I can’t remember which eye, but it is the same one for everyone, as I recall.) You can’t see it unless you have special devices that measure eye movement.

They have found there is only one other animal in the animal kingdom that does this. You guessed it...

Dogs.


19 posted on 09/16/2015 7:03:22 PM PDT by rlmorel ("National success by the Democratic Party equals irretrievable ruin." Ulysses S. Grant)
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To: Artemis Webb

My wife says my dawg has “special needs”.

My phone may be a smart phone but it has far more needs and wants, is constantly needing updates, ask for more information, beeps, vibrates, tracks me, can’t figure out where it is at times, loses signals, needs charging and basically sucks.

My dog barks when someone shows up, eats, shxts and occasionally looks for a pat on the head... best friend ever.


20 posted on 09/16/2015 7:05:22 PM PDT by maddog55 (America Rising a new Civil War needs to happen.)
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