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71 Comments
- lkmbrd, on 10/10/2007, -5/+41It's called, Dissing Your Dog: How to Train A Puppy With Mockery and Verbal Humiliation.
- ldbjr, on 10/21/2007, -8/+39WTF, are you serious?The only time a cat is better than a dog is when it's roasted with orange sauce.
- veggiemoore, on 10/10/2007, -1/+30It makes sense, though. Dogs who can detect human emotions are going to be bred more than ones that can't, so this is probably the result of selection. Apes and wolves aren't selectively bred, so there's no reason for them to be able to understand.
- ncairns, on 10/10/2007, -1/+21I beg to differ.
- capiCrimm, on 10/10/2007, -0/+18Why can't we just eat the starving children? We reduce the number of starving children AND feed the starving children at the same time.
See, easy, so stop bitching LittleDas. - Chordinator, on 10/10/2007, -0/+17Dogs can be trained to fight - Babies cannot.
- Shmock, on 11/10/2007, -0/+15If cats could read our emotions they wouldn't give a damn.
- mexicanman07, on 10/10/2007, -1/+15god i love Chinese food
- solidsnake1298, on 10/10/2007, -1/+15Tell that to the war lords in Africa.
- EntropyFan, on 10/10/2007, -0/+13I was thinking along those very lines. That, or dogs are taught by there parents to pay attention to humans, as they see us as important.
Either way, the ability comes from close interaction across a long time. Wolves and apes aren't stupid, they just don't care. - LittleDas, on 10/10/2007, -3/+16are you comfortable eating when there are starving children in the world?
Chances are you are, because quite frankly, not every problem is so easily solved.
I mean, what's the alternative? Spending money only on cancer research? What about AIDS and other diseases? What about all the other fields of science that would languish? - 1337Einstein, on 10/10/2007, -0/+12That sounds like a challenge, what'll be your wager?
- veggiemoore, on 10/10/2007, -0/+12I'd still say artificial. While people don't necessarily breed dogs for friendliness, mean dogs aren't usually prime choices (outside of Michael Vick-esque activities). And friendliness kind of indirectly coincides with their ability to read us.
- psygnisfive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+11I'll try to condense out what this report is saying:
Dogs, which were selective bred over tens of thousands of years by humans to fit well into human society and to respond well to humans, fit well into human society and respond well to humans. Wolves and apes, which haven't been in contact with humans in any real sense, for some apparently inexplicable reason, cannot do the same.
I'm not saying this study was kind of pointless or anything, but it's results aren't shocking. - LittleDas, on 10/10/2007, -1/+11Is it artificial or natural selection if they're being bred for their compatibility with humans if we don't actively intend for that to be the result of breeding?
Anyway, it's an interesting example of how a species has developed a symbiotic relationship with humans. - MacEnvy, on 10/10/2007, -1/+11So does Eccentrica Gallumbits, the Triple-Breasted Whore of Eroticon 6.
- Rikushix, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9IMHO, I would not want a dog that was as attentive as a teenager in front of a Playstation.
- JasonQG, on 10/10/2007, -0/+8There's a mention at the end of the article about the string test. Not surprisingly, the cats did worse.
- LittleDas, on 10/10/2007, -1/+9I gotta agree
well cooked cat is nothing short of delicious - redbone, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7Nail on the head. Domestic dogs were bred with purposes in mind; if a strain didn't perform as expected, it was discontinued. Through centuries of this kind of thing, humans have engineered a variety of dogs that work well with us. Cats, meanwhile, were usually bred to serve the single purpose of controlling vermin. They didn't need to be as capable of communicating with us.
- TrojanGuy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6Wow, that's a really interesting article. And helps explain why sometimes I feel like my dogs can talk to me just by looking at me a certain way (no, not literally...I'm not insane).
- oMeSSiaHo, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6When my mom was in the hospital for a few months my dog didnt eat. It took her calling on the phone for him to get over his depression. When she finally died he stopped eating and doing anything in general. It was so bad that he had to be put to sleep. Dogs are crazy good at reading people. Spending generations with us and communicating with us have given them the ability to "read" us I guess.
- psygnisfive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6Also, they love cheezeburgers and invisible things, and speak in an odd pidgin.
- lOvOl, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5The domestication of cats had more to do with their ability as varmint hunters as their diet consists primarily of small rodents and insects and they are amazingly adept at catching prey. Without cats, there is a high likelihood that farming would not of taken off as well as it did, due to the fact that unless you can protect all that food stored in your granary from pests, there is really no point in farming. Cats are predators, so they don't eat the grain and only eat the pests which makes them a wonderful asset to any farmer. Good luck keeping out the mice if cats are not around.
Also, before we had "The Orkin Man", the best thing people could rely on is cats for keeping their domicile clean and they still do a remarkable job today. My cats love to eat the occasional spider that gets in my house (not that spiders are that bad because they eat other pests, but you don't want the spider population to get out of control), and any other pests that get in the door or come up the cracks. Cats will even dine on cockroaches sometimes, so if you don't have modern extermination technology available to you, cats are about the only alternative you have to the roach problem short of being extra careful not to let any crumbs fall on the floor.
And of course cats are cuddly which is the main reason people in western countries like having cats as pets. Nevertheless, cats today continue to be a functionally important species to mankind. - koushi, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5"For serious scientists, Lassie and her friends were deemed little more than dumbed-down ancestors of the wolf, degenerated into panting morons by millennia of breeding."
Ancestors? - MacEnvy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4My cat does that. I wish he wasn't such a dick about it though.
- ch4os1337, on 10/10/2007, -3/+6good one..
- rdoger6424, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3They're cross-breeding the human sensing dogs with the cancer sniffing dogs.
- rdoger6424, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxStmceNTs8
is a very appropriate video - redbone, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Good article, but I have to disagree with the author's assumption that we view dogs as "slobbering morons." Saying that belies her undeveloped capacity for empathy and social communication comprehension. I'm guessing she's a cat person. Such people tend to think that if you vomit hairballs and ***** in a little box, you must be graceful and intelligent. A true dog lover would not have made such an insulting assumption about people's attitudes towards dogs.
- liuite, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3they are smart. they've trained another specie to provide for them.
- mrurc, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3This isn't a surprise to me at all, but for years scientists have been nay saying people who think they are communicating with their dogs or that their dogs have emotions. They have been saying for a long time that we are imagining that they understand us and actually giving us the scientific explanation of why we infer this. I know are smart because my sister's dog gets anxious if he thinks that people will miss American Idol and he herds everyone to the TV just in time.
That's not a joke. You should see how he acts when people yell at each other. He has figured out that if they are on the other end of the house that he should relay a message but if they are close he becomes very disapproving. - Terr01, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2I don't see them addressing whether the dogs tested were *descended* from domesticated breeds, or if they were domesticated *as individuals*. For a reliable test, they should be using second-generation gone-feral dogs who didn't grow up in someone's house.
If they're using domesticated dogs, then of COURSE they'll do better--they grew up with people as their family group and have had significant behavioral pressures to recognize expressions. Even apes or wolves in a zoo wouldn't get so much day to day training in recognizing facial expressions compared to a dog who lives in someone's house. - elliotm01, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2A dog named Guinness?
Brilliant! - Jandels, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Good question.
From wiki: "Artificial selection is the intentional breeding of certain traits, or combinations of traits, over others. It was originally defined by Charles Darwin in contrast to the process of natural selection, in which the differential reproduction of organisms with certain traits is attributed to improved survival and reproductive ability in the natural habitat of the organism."
As veggiemoore pointed out, friendliness would coincide with their ability to read us (hence artificial (albeit unconcious) selection) but on the flip side those dogs that didn't evolve the ability to read human faces (or more importantly, human emotions) would not have survived as well as those that could (hence natural selection). - Azuroth, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modest_Proposal
Yeah, he might have been joking.... - julianrod, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3FTA: dog research has "literally exploded" in recent years.
I wonder how a research explosion sounds...... - NidStyles, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Never been to Korea then, Dog taste better ;)
- carve, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I had a Black Lab who, when he lost his stick in the river, would look at me. I'd point in the appropriate direction and off he'd go- no training necessary. My Golden Retriever, on the other hand, would just stare at my finger (but he was soooo nice)
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1 Having had several German Shepard dogs growing up,this does not surprise me at all.
What does surprise me is scientists are just now beginning to realize that which is so astoundingly obvious to anyone who has ever shared their home with a dog (indoor dog,not stuck in the yard and ignored dog.)
A simple example of how smart they are comes from one time I was pet sitting a Labrador I sat for several times names Cindy.
I was watching TV and Cindy comes up to my chair and gazes at me.
I ask her if she wants a snack...gazing continues.
I ask her if she wants to go out.
She walks to the door and comes back to me.
We go outside and she has to urinate.
Yhis sort of thing happens so often we completely take it for granted. - inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1SOMEONE HAVE TO MUCH TIMES ON HIS/HER HANDS
- scottknick, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I once had a golden retriever that could recognize the sound of the heads parking on my hard drive, and would know, even before the computer was shut off, that it was time to go out.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1
I'd gather they did exactly what was done in the Russian fox domestication project..keeping the friendliest and most docile for future breeding.
What's interesting is these foxes behave very similarly to domesticated dogs.
Here is a link for further reading on this fascinating research.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tame_Silver_Fox - inactive, on 04/24/2009, -0/+1meh didn't most countries not have any cats? i dunno.
- yahoofrom, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1dogs right!
- KingGorilla, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Do they understand horny? Is that why they keep humping my leg?
- KingGorilla, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2You obviously have not been in combat with a Spartan Baby
- dclowd9901, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I love cats, but I can't eat whole one.
- liah, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1That's my dog's name...
- LtJimDangle2, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=395017
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