I followed the link in her post and read an article at guardian.co.uk I agree with everything I read.
For instance, I have observed that Penny:
will sometimes sniff other dogs but doesn't like being sniffed;
likes humans more than she likes dogs;
is concerned that the 'pack' stay together on a walk;
is relaxed about her humans leaving the house because she trusts, from experience, that they will return;
Is not concerned about dominance;
loves to win a tug of war game but does not change her behavior because she has won.
Some aspects of the short article were new to me:
He says:
"People have been studying American timber wolves because the European wolf is virtually extinct. And the American timber wolf is not related at all closely to the ancestry of the domestic dog."And:
Bradshaw's hypothesis is that domestic dogs were descended from more sociable wolves but that "whatever the ancestor of the dog was like, we don't have it today". The wolves alive now are unreliable specimens, necessarily rough diamonds, who have been able to "survive the onslaught we have given them". And here is the rub: new research – including work with Indian village dogs – shows that dogs "do not set up wolf-type packs. They don't organise themselves in the way wolves do"
He writes about love (science plays safe and calls it "attachment") but in answer to the question: does your dog love you? replies: 'Of course!" The positive hormone, oxytocin, is triggered by love: "Dogs experience a surge of oxytocin during friendly interactions with people."I think I will have to buy this book and read it!
