dogs CAN think!

I tried some free shaping the other day. I've read about it on other blogs and wondered what Penny would do if I sat down with a clicker and a pile of treats and placed an empty cardboard box on the floor near her.

Well, it was fascinating to see!

She pawed me (she never paws, but she's been taught to touch me with her left and right paw as a preliminary to learning to march);
she backed away (ditto knows how to back on command);
she looked at the box;
she sat;
she dropped;
she touched the box with her nose - click! treat!
she touched the box a couple more times and was rewarded, but then I stopped rewarding.

So she put one foot into the box - click! treat!
A few more of the same.

Then I raised the bar again.
So she put two feet into the box - click! treat!

As far as I'm concerned, that's thinking.

I was glad to see a philosopher, Dr. Michael LaBossiere from Florida A&M University, writing a blog post about canine cognition. We 'dog people' recognise the obvious truth that dogs think - and feel, but that's another story - so it's good to see this truth acknowledged in the wider world.

He writes about Descartes, famous for saying 'I think, therefore I am'. It was Descartes who did animals a terrible disservice when he argued that animals do not have true minds because they do not use true language.

medications to change dog behaviours

As I was reading an article on "Pill-Popping Pets" in the New York Times, I could hear Penny making a quiet repetitive noise; she was licking her paw. The report I was reading was by James Vlahos and I'd found it by following a link from Bark Blog. I settled down to read the story and Penny settled down to turn her paws a reddish-brown colour.

The article discusses the modern trend towards medicating pets with pills originally designed to alter human emotional states.

For many years scientists have argued that animals do not have minds similar to our own. Charles Darwin believed animal minds differ from human ones in the degree of thought or emotion, not in whether they are capable of such characteristics, but his view has not been as influential as Descartes' teaching that animals are soulless machines. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy gives an overview of such views:

The early history of western philosophy reflects a tendency to see animals as lacking rationality. Aristotle defined “human” as “the rational animal”, thus rejecting the possibility that any other species is rational (Aristotle Metaphysics). Aquinas believed that animals are irrational because they are not free (Aquinas Summa Theologica). Centuries later Descartes defended a distinction between humans and animals based on the belief that language is a necessary condition for mind; on his view animals are soulless machines (Descartes Discourse on the Method). Locke agreed that animals cannot think, because words are necessary for comprehending universals (Locke Essay Concerning Human Understanding). Following in this tradition, Kant concludes that since they cannot think about themselves, animals are not rational agents and hence have only instrumental value (Kant Lectures on Ethics)

However, modern pharmaceutical companies have discovered a huge potential market for their products - pets and domesticated animals. Pragmatism may lead to a different popular belief system about animal cognition. This change runs alongside a scientific community that is more willing to investigate the possibility that we have misinterpreted or underestimated the possibilities inherent in the animals that co-exist with us on this planet. For instance, Vlahos interviewed a behavioural pharmacologist, Dr Nicholas Dodma, a pioneer in this field who founded the Tufts University Animal Behavior Clinic.Dodman gives the example of 'a pacing, hyperventilating dog.' Sceptics would question whether the animal was actually feeling anxious. Dodman said, “We’ll give him an antianxiety drug and see what happens.”

Trials of many drugs used on humans have in fact had a similar effect on dogs, the article says. Well, I can't say that surprises me, given that we usually try out our new drugs on laboratory animals. Why would we trial drugs on animals if we don't think they are like us?

It was when I got to page 5 and the discussion of dogs that are literally bored out of their brains by the life we expect them to live in our homes that I began to feel the stirrings of guilt. What was I doing sitting there reading while Penny lay in the kitchen licking her paws? I leapt up and grabbed a pair of rubber balls and ostentatiously rattled the back door. Sure enough, there she was, wet paws and all, standing by my side. Out we went and threw the ball around for ten minutes. But human frailty crept in - after all, it was only 5° outside (Celcius) and the sun was setting.

Inside again, I started to read. The discussion dealt with the question of whether pharmaceuticals have a part to play. In general, they probably do, in extreme cases; but they'll only have maximum effect if the humans are willing to put in the 'hard yards' at working with their pets to change behaviours.

Uh, oh... guilt struck again. Was Penny lying there bored? Hmmm...maybe for dinner tonight I'd give her a Kong stuffed with soft food instead of her normal hunk of rabbit or piece of meaty chicken carcass.

It took her nearly an hour to lick out the two Kongs of food. Good. But wait a minute...aren't I committed to a raw meaty diet?

It sure is a complicated life living with a dog. I think I'll stop worrying about all this and accept that Penny has a rich life. I don't think we'll be taking mood-altering drugs in the near future.

Well, she won't. Don't know about me.

For an informed evaluation of the article you might like to read the post on it by a US vet who blogs as Dolittler.

dogs have good memories

We're keeping Penny to short walks for a while, so she won't meet other dogs and maybe infect them with her (probably cured) kennel cough. And we couldn't go to training today, for the same reason. Not welcome...sigh...

So I thought we should do some 'kitchen training'. The first thing we did was play 'find the treat' around the house. Penny's brilliant at this. She does a 'stay' in the kitchen while I hide small treats way up the other end of the house, then at the signal dashes around following the trail of my footsteps. Great fun.

Then I thought of a game that we haven't played this year. We used to put out a selection of her toys and she would find the one called 'the red bone'. Well!! I put them all out and got prepared to re-teach the old game. As soon as I gave the instruction she raced over and grabbed the right toy and rushed back to me with it. Who says dogs can't remember things???

We took a video clip of her doing it a few more times. Here she is, showing how clever she is, lol.