A Penny For Your Thoughts, Rover

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168 – March, 2023

By Chris Robinson

Have you ever wondered what it means when Fido cocks his head one way and then another when you talk to him? Is he performing some response he has learned to give when you say something to him or is he hearing a bunch of meaningless sounds and doing something he has found that makes you happy? Is he actually hanging on every word or just trying to convince you to come and play with him? Is he really just a dumb animal making random gestures hoping to please you or does he put two and two together, assess his options and decide on a plan of action? In other words, can dogs actually think?

This is a question that has puzzled canine behaviorists almost since the first wolf was convinced to become a caveman’s pal. For generations, animal behavior seemingly was based on fables–foxes were sly/clever; tortoises, persistent; beavers, eager–as the consensus among the scientific community was that no animal except a human was capable of conscious thought. Oh, sure chimpanzees, apes and several of the other members of the Primate suborder Haplorrhini seem to be able to figure some things out; and some even used rudimentary tools but they are closely related to humans and thus they could be expected to have some ability to solve problems. Dogs, on the other hand, being of a totally different genus–Canis–and ranked much lower in the animal kingdom hierarchy couldn’t possibly have rational thoughts, or so the scientific community had concluded.

But, several years ago, some doubt about these conclusions began to creep into the thoughts of some scientists and dog behaviorists. The first inkling I got about this possible change in thinking came from my long-time Nebraska upland bird hunting partner who also happened to be a wildlife biologist.

Click here to read the complete article
168 – March, 2023

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Posted by AnthonyA on Mar 15 2023. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.