Back to Blog
Thoughts of dog7/1/2023 If humans want to understand what it’s like to be a dog, the nose is an excellent place to start. This suggests that dogs might be drawing all sorts of complex conclusions about what we know and feel.Īs Silver observes, “Dogs do pretty sophisticated things regarding understanding our own perspective.” The Dog’s Nose Knows Silver’s current research focuses on dogs’ understanding of humans’ perspectives: he’s working to build on previous findings indicating that, in some contexts, if food is hidden such that a dog sees one person observe the hiding and one miss it, they are more likely to take a hint about its whereabouts from the person who watched it being hidden. “But it even goes a step further: they pay really close attention to how we interact with each other.” For instance, there’s evidence to suggest that, in some contexts, dogs will notice whether a human is helpful or unhelpful, and favor the helpful person. “They’re extremely skillful at following our communicative cues, especially our points and our gazes,” he told me. student in the Comparative Cognition Lab at Yale University, studies the way dogs interpret the social world. Either way, the result is a species with a remarkable fondness for and understanding of humans. ![]() The answer might be a combination of these two factors – of evolution and socialization. There’s also a theory that each dog simply acquires his or her social intelligence through the sheer amount of time spent around humans – that’s why puppy socialization is so important. The prevailing view is that their social intelligence is evolutionary: that over the thousands of years since wolves entered the human sphere and started to morph into the pets we know today, breeding has favored qualities that make dogs good companions to humans, such as friendliness and an affinity for us, which make them good at reading our behavior. Researchers don’t entirely agree on why dogs are so socially savvy. Alexandra Horowitz, head of the Dog Cognition Lab at Barnard College, Columbia University, told me. “They are very attentive to and responsive to us, which is a great social cognitive skill,” Dr. Dogs: Super-Savvy, SociallyĪlthough every dog is unique, there is enough evidence to indicate that species-wide one of the really special things about dogs is how well they understand humans. Some dogs might excel at gauging social situations, others might be adept at learning words, while still others might have great problem-solving abilities - or your dog might have some other cognitive skill entirely. While you get to know your dog’s mind, remember that there are many different kinds of intelligence. The studies can be interesting, useful guides, but the real joy of dog cognition is in getting curious about the way your own dog thinks. So while scientists are working hard on collecting data about the way dogs experience the world, it’s important to remember that their findings aren’t designed to give you a blueprint to your particular pet. The first thing to note is: there’s no such thing as “the dog.” Just like humans, each dog is different. So what do you need to know about your dog’s know-how? And how can you nurture that brilliant brain of his? All Dogs Are Different We know all this and more, thanks to the growing number of scientists around the country and the world who have, since the beginning of this century, been turning their attention to the burgeoning field of dog cognition. How much do you know about what goes on in your pup’s head? Do you believe it’s all pretty simple in there? Just thoughts about dinner, the cat next door, and more dinner? Think again.ĭogs have been known to learn hundred of words, do arithmetic, and guess what people and other dogs are thinking.
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |