It's spectacular how well adapted dogs are to humans and vice versa. Dogs are capable of picking up a large vocabulary, both in human language and tone. They are also very well adapted at understanding human patterns and behavior - dogs excel at following human gaze even beyond more cognitive or 'developed' animals. They recognize basic emotion and, though they may dislike it, tolerate human interaction and behavior to an extent that no other animal will willingly endure (compare using a cat vs. a dog as a pillow).
Humans too must have developed some level of curiosity and/or lack of fear that allowed us to interact with them in such an intricate way...whether or not it was because of these animals I have no proof of, but I would argue that the 15 thousand plus years of interaction leaves enough room for us as a species to loose our fear of sharp teeth and claws, barking, growling, and dark, intimidating coloration and patterning. Perhaps we even learned to associate traits like floppy ears and wagging tails with positive behavior (how do humans who've never interacted with dogs react to them?)
The recognition and acceptance of signals between our species is a deeply developed form of mutual trust and interaction. Beyond personal attraction or distaste for dogs, how do you all consider the relationship between humans and dogs?
By Joseph Needleman
We probably have such a close tie with dogs because humans are the ones who domesticated them. That may also be why dogs tolerate humans and their behavior so well, it may have been selected for in the breeding process. This makes me wonder who the first person to ever try to domesticate dogs were and why that dog was friendly to a human. The long relationship between dogs and humans is very interesting, especially to see how the roles change from using dogs to work, such as sled dogs and herding dogs, to adapting them as a member of the family.It is insightful to think of how the relationship and bond between mankind and canine have evolved over the years.
ReplyDeletePosted by Noelle Kellicker
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ReplyDeleteI would definitely agree that the close connection between humans and dogs is a direct result of our selective breeding of them over time. However, it is very interesting to speculate about how this process began; I can't imagine trying to domesticate a wild wolf! Especially not back in the primitive times that the domestication occurred in, with such a lack of resources. I assume that those first animals weren't at all friendly toward humans; I wonder how long it took for them to develop into animals that were friendly?
ReplyDelete-Posted by Johanna Brophy
I suspect that some wild dog must had shown some sort of tolerance to humans; why else would we have chose to domesticate dogs out of all the other species on the planet? Perhaps they had some genetic basis for domestication, that we as humans manipulated to make dogs what they are today.
ReplyDeleteI still find it fascinating that dogs are able to interpret our emotions almost just as well as we can interpret theirs. Whenever I am feeling down, it seems as if my dog can always sense it, immediately resting his head on my lap and looking up at me with hopeful eyes.
I also find it interesting that dogs can become territorial over their owners. When I was younger, whenever a stranger approached me, my husky would immediately try to attack. This is also a behavior I would be interested in finding more about.
Posted by Sara Corey
It was only touched on lightly in this article, but I've read theories of how wolves domesticated themselves...we breed dogs to try and pull out specific characteristics but that this one occurred naturally. Wolves in the wild benefited from working with humans, so they evolved that way on their own. Eventually we took them in as pets but the idea of breeding them came much, much further down the road
ReplyDeleteAbove paragraph by Joseph Needleman
ReplyDeleteFrom what I know about dog evolution, we have selected for certain behavior such as responsiveness to human cues, agility or "cuteness". However, since dogs co-evolved with humans dogs they have one of the best understanding of humans language (verbal and body) since we would choose to breed those that best understand us. A fun dog fact is that certain dogs were breed to look more like a human baby with their big eyes and squashed noses.
ReplyDeleteAs an aside, I read about a group of researchers who tried to domesticate a wolf but with no success because they are genetically wired differently than a dog.
Posted by Caroline Adams